WI No Glagolitic/Cyrillic Alphabets?

Wolfpaw

Banned
So I've been wondering what sort of alphabet the Slavs would have developed without the heavy Christian influences they were exposed to that led to the (bizarre) Hebrew-Greek-Slavic nightmare symbols of the Glagolitic and the Cyrillic alphabets. I do, though, assume that the South Slavs will still have something akin to Glagolitic/Cyrillic develop; I was talking more about Eastern and Western Slavs.

Perhaps they would something akin to Sarmatian, though I'm not even sure if Sarmatian had an alphabet. Or maybe something more runic based on the Scandanavian influences in Eastern Europe?

Anyways, what do you all think would have developed?
 
My limited understanding of Russian linguistics suggests that the use of Glagolitic was actually rather limited within the Kieven 'Rus. I think that it would be highly possible for Greek to migrate its way north over a period of time, assuming that what is now Orthodox Christianity remains the dominant religion there. Should that be the case, we will end up with some sort of Greek-derived alphabet owing to the similarities between the faiths.

However, should Western Catholicism reach the east Slavs before that of Byzantium, which, should we get rid of Saint Cyril, is quite possible, then it could be Latin that the Russians begin to use. In such a case, I think that it would be a Roman inspired alphabet that would begin to develop.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
My limited understanding of Russian linguistics suggests that the use of Glagolitic was actually rather limited within the Kieven 'Rus. I think that it would be highly possible for Greek to migrate its way north over a period of time, assuming that what is now Orthodox Christianity remains the dominant religion there. Should that be the case, we will end up with some sort of Greek-derived alphabet owing to the similarities between the faiths.

However, should Western Catholicism reach the east Slavs before that of Byzantium, which, should we get rid of Saint Cyril, is quite possible, then it could be Latin that the Russians begin to use. In such a case, I think that it would be a Roman inspired alphabet that would begin to develop.
Makes sense, especially with regards which Christian sect becomes dominant in Kievan Rus'. But what if there was no Christian influence; i.e. no Greco-Latin missionaries to "civilize" the Slavs. Any ideas as to what sort of alphabet would've sprung up?

Again, I'm not all that well versed on Eastern and Western Slavic linguistics, so I could just be whistling in the dark here.
 
Well, it sort of depends on what religion they have. Generally, religion in Europe was the driving force of literacy; where there were churches there were priests who need to read. If, in some way, there is still an Eastern Church (which is a distinct possibility), then it depends on what kind of script they adopt. I think what happened in OTL in this case was the most probable, since Greek was the probable language of nay major eastern church, due to it's position on the straits and prestige. So maybe there might be another Greek derived script although that would be boring.

Some other possibilities I see are: borrowing a script from the earlier converted Caucus peoples (Georgia, Armenia) which might be interesting; having some bizarre occurrence make a Latin alphabet spread from Rome (maybe up the baltic by western European missionaries? No idea, seems unlikely); Maybe the Russians borrow Futhark (probably by way of Novgorod) that could be cool. If literacy is held off even later, then we might see some central asian script or Arabic, but that seems unlikely.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
I agree with Atom in that Farthuk or a similar Nordic writing system could take root should Glagolitic/Cyrillic and Latin be stillborn or not reach the steppe.

Although, I've done a bit of digging and have begun to see a great deal of potential in Moksha. Granted, it's an Ugric language, and it is logographic, but it's literally been in use since the stone age. Besides, logographic languages can easily be adapted by other languages. So, yeah, I could see Moksha spreading in the alphabetic vacuum that would be Eastern Europe given time.

Ideas? Comments? Critiques?
 
So I've been wondering what sort of alphabet the Slavs would have developed without the heavy Christian influences they were exposed to that led to the (bizarre) Hebrew-Greek-Slavic nightmare symbols of the Glagolitic and the Cyrillic alphabets. I do, though, assume that the South Slavs will still have something akin to Glagolitic/Cyrillic develop; I was talking more about Eastern and Western Slavs.

Perhaps they would something akin to Sarmatian, though I'm not even sure if Sarmatian had an alphabet. Or maybe something more runic based on the Scandanavian influences in Eastern Europe?

Anyways, what do you all think would have developed?

They could adapt a version of Hebrew script from the Khazars.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
They could adapt a version of Hebrew script from the Khazars.
Did the Khazars use Hebrew? I mean, I know that the court script was all Hebrew, but the Kievian letter seems to indicate that the old Khazar Turkic alphabet seems to have survived the conversion to Judaism to the degree that they suspect that a magistrate was the one to have written it. To me, this seems to indicate that there were two main languages in Khazaria; Khazar used by all, but the use of Hebrew being by and large limited to the aristocracy, sort of like the positions of Latin and Greek in Republican Rome.
 
Top