Why Glagolitic alphabet was not adopted as the official script of Croatian language?

The Glagolitic alphabet was one of the scripts invented by Saints Cyril and Methodius (the other was the Cyrillic alphabet) as part of their mission of Christianization of the Slavic people.

Glagolitic was extensively used in what is now Croatia, particularly in the liturgical writings like prayer books and the Bible; in fact, it was used as the liturgical script among the Roman Catholics in Dalmatia; then spread across the Croatian lands. The use of Glagolitic script lasted from 12th to 19th century, replaced by the Latin alphabet.

I wonder why the 19th century Croatian nationalists never considered the modernization of the Glagolitic alphabet and its adaption to the modern Croatian language, just like what Vuk Karadžić has done to the Cyrillic script and its adaptation to the Serbian vernacular, or in short, the creation of Serbian Cyrillic alphabet.
 
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IIRC Glagolitic was almost completely displaced by Latin in Croatia by the beginning of the 18th century. After that, it can be brought back only through some kind of a massive nationalist revival project, not a mere "natural" modernization.
 

JJohnson

Banned
It would definitely be interesting to see Croatia using the Glagolitic alphabet, that's for sure. I would most likely expect them to use 'Arabic' numerals though, for the sake of compatibility with other nations, like Russia did.
 
I wonder why the 19th century Croatian nationalists never considered the modernization of the Glagolitic alphabet and its adaption to the modern Croatian language, just like what Vuk Karadžić has done to the Cyrillic script and its adaptation to the Serbian vernacular, or in short, the creation of Serbian Cyrillic alphabet.

Because the Glagolithic script had been largely replaced by the Latin alphabet in Croatian lands since the days of the Croatian Kingdom, i.e. the High Middle Ages. In the 19th century no-one really even thought about putting it back, since the political and cultural elite in Croatia always considered Croatia as a Central European state, and as such Croatia would use the Latin script like all the other "civilised states" in Western-Central Europe. Putting the Glagolithic script back instead of the Latinic would automatically put the Croatian lands apart from the civilised world and place it next to all those other "Eastern" states which used "hieroglyphic nonsense" as their scripts instead of the "glorious" Latinic alphabet.

Actually getting the Glagolithic script back would have been relatively easy since by the mid-19th century only about 13% of Croats were literate, but you'd need an independent Croatian state in the 19th century with an ultranationalistic government that was dead-set on reviving Glagolithic script for it to happen. But you'd still run into the same problem of actually finding a group that was willing to make such a massive break from the cultural West-Central Europe, and one which would countermand almost a thousand years of Latinic useage. I woul dare to say that no such group really existed at the time.
 
Actually getting the Glagolithic script back would have been relatively easy since by the mid-19th century only about 13% of Croats were literate, but you'd need an independent Croatian state in the 19th century with an ultranationalistic government that was dead-set on reviving Glagolithic script for it to happen. But you'd still run into the same problem of actually finding a group that was willing to make such a massive break from the cultural West-Central Europe, and one which would countermand almost a thousand years of Latinic useage. I woul dare to say that no such group really existed at the time.
IMO, I'm thinking of a scenario where Croatia would replicate what the neighboring Serbians had done to their language: Having two co-official scripts for the same language, in Croatia's case, Glagolitic and Latin. I, nevertheless, agree that reviving and modernizing Glagolitic would be very difficult, from the motivation of its proponents to actual use.
 
IMO, I'm thinking of a scenario where Croatia would replicate what the neighboring Serbians had done to their language: Having two co-official scripts for the same language, in Croatia's case, Glagolitic and Latin. I, nevertheless, agree that reviving and modernizing Glagolitic would be very difficult, from the motivation of its proponents to actual use.

The widespread usage of two scripts for the Serbian language was a product of the second Yugoslavia. Before that, Serbs pretty much used only Cyrillic, and there was just one official script in Serbia and Montenegro.

Replicating those circumstances would mean having some large Glagolitic-writing minority survive up to the 19th-20th century, and then the (Latin) Croats create an independent state where they feel the need to co-opt the Glagolitic script.
 
The widespread usage of two scripts for the Serbian language was a product of the second Yugoslavia. Before that, Serbs pretty much used only Cyrillic, and there was just one official script in Serbia and Montenegro.
Thanks for the clarification,
 
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