AHC: Cyrillic alphabet more widespread than in OTL
- Thread starter El Berto
- Start date
Have greater Moravia survive. It was converted by Cyrill (the inventor of the cyricllic alphabet) and Methodus. It is important that at the time the catholic and orthodox churces had not yet split although the first frays had appeared. As Moravia had several conflicts with the east-francian (german) empire and as this was supported by the pope it started to increase its ties with the byzantine emperor.
IOTL it was weakend by a dispute between the sons of Sventopluk and was ultimatly destroyed by the hungarians, although the did score some victories.
If we postulate that there is no dynastic strife and the manage to defeat the hungarians and survive, they will continue to clash with the germans (supported by the papacy) which means that once the great schism happens they have good reasons to side with the orthodoxy, and as a consequence adopt the cyrillic alphabet.
With a strong orthodox power in central europe the poles will likely also convert to orthodoxy and subsquently take the cyrillic alphabet.
IOTL it was weakend by a dispute between the sons of Sventopluk and was ultimatly destroyed by the hungarians, although the did score some victories.
If we postulate that there is no dynastic strife and the manage to defeat the hungarians and survive, they will continue to clash with the germans (supported by the papacy) which means that once the great schism happens they have good reasons to side with the orthodoxy, and as a consequence adopt the cyrillic alphabet.
With a strong orthodox power in central europe the poles will likely also convert to orthodoxy and subsquently take the cyrillic alphabet.
Perhaps the Soviets exercise stronger control of East Turkestan, stopping it from rejoining China and having it as a puppet for a while.
Also, there has to be a way of having Finland and the Baltic states use Cyrillics
Also, there has to be a way of having Finland and the Baltic states use Cyrillics
MarshalBraginsky
Banned
Scandinavia could also use the Cyrillic alphabet, if they accepted Orthodoxy. Also, a lot of Turkic languages outside Turkey uses Cyrillic, mainly because of their Russian influence, as well as Mongolian.
Croatia used its own brand of Cyrillic letter independent of Orthodox christianity for centuries but it wasn't that in wide usage. Mainly by monastery communities. So it could be pretty easily you to have all of the South Slavs using it with a bit of luck.
The only problem is that the White Croats accepted Greek Rite Christianity as well, I just think it would be the would be the White Croats that would expand had Greek Rite Christianity were popular in Middle Europe and OTL Poland would be rather be a "Northern" version of Croatia rather than a Poland or the Polans would unite with Polabians rather.
Are you talking about Glagolithic? Because that's actually pretty different from Cyrillic in terms of aesthetics. It fills the same niche, though.
In fact they've used both Glagolitic (which was promptly attributed to Saint Jerome to counter attempts to ban it) and Cyrillic alphabets well into the XVII-XVIII century, with preference clearly given to the Glagolitic one. But each of them has evolved into a peculiar version, so that the Croatian Cyrillic script (a.k.a. Bosnian Cyrillic) had little in common with, say, the Russian one (not the post-Peter the Great 'civil script', but the 'true' Cyrillic one, such as is used in liturgical books).
I suppose that the Great Schism of 1054 postponed or completely butterflied away is the clue. Rome giving more wholehearted support to SS. Cyril and Methodius can also help, making Slavic Rite generally accepted throughout the Slavia Romana and maybe even in freshly-baptized Hungary. This makes the adoption of a Slavic alphabet easier, but it would rather be Glagolitic than Cyrillic one, so that instead of OTL Slavia Orthodoxa vs. Slavia Romana dychotomy we would have a Slavia Glagolitica (the Balkans without Bulgaria, OTL Czechia, Moravia, Slovakia) vs. Slavia Cyrillica (Bulgaria, Eastern Slavic lands and Poland - there were isolated cases of Cyrillic use in OTL Poland at the time of Boleslaw the Brave), with Hungary thrown into the first group and Moldavia-Valachia into the second.
As for Cyrillic use in Scandinavia, it's rather far-fetched. Russian lands wouldn't become centres of missionary activity for quite long so that English, Irish or German preachers could get to mainland Scandinavia well ahead of potential Novgorodian ones.
As for Cyrillic use in Scandinavia, it's rather far-fetched. Russian lands wouldn't become centres of missionary activity for quite long so that English, Irish or German preachers could get to mainland Scandinavia well ahead of potential Novgorodian ones.
Easy. Have earlier, more comprehensive Russification policies in the 19th century and no WWI to prompt the empire to disintegrate= Cyrillic in use by, say, the 1930s.
Wrong letter - that's the one for <ö> in many Central Asian Turkic languages. The one for <ü> generally has an uppercase form similar to Latin <Y> but a lowercase form that looks like a Greek gamma. Description here.