[FEEFHS Reference Library Index]
[Croatian Cross Index]
[Ethnic, Religious, National Index]
[Location (Address) Index]
[Master IndexPage]
[FEEFHS FrontPage]
[Website Index]
"Glagolitic Records
- Historical Background"
by Gordon McDaniel
© copyright 1996 by Gordon McDaniel and FEEFHS; all rights
reserved
First Posted: 26 November 1996
Glagolitic Records - Historical Background
by Gordon McDaniel
With the LDS microfilming underway in Croatia, there is
now
a good-sized collection of material written in the Glagolitic alphabet which will definitely
present problems for researchers. In case you're not up on it, Glagolitic was the alphabet
that Cyril and Methodius actually invented (they *didn't* invent Cyrillic).
Glagolitic was the original Slavic alphabet invented by Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius
about 860. The word "glagolitic" (glagoljica in Croatian) comes from the old Slavic
verb "glagoljati," which means "to speak."
It is generally believed that the word itself was formed from a nonsense syllable gol- which
was repeated, to imitate the sound of speaking, much as the word "barbarian" was invented
by the Greeks to describe languages unfamiliar to them (others sounded like
"bar-bar....").
After Methodius died in 885 (Cyril died in Rome in 863), his disciples were kicked out of
Moravia (which was centered on the Pannonian plain). Some went to Bulgaria, where
Cyrillic was actually devised. Others went to the Croatian coast, where they remained and
continued using Glagolitic.
During the middle ages, and up to the early 19th century on some islands, Croatian Catholic
priests who did not know Latin continued to write in Croatian using the Glagolitic alphabet.
They were called glagoljasi.
0 - 0 - 0
[FEEFHS Reference Library Index]
[Croatian Cross Index]
[Ethnic, Religious, National Index]
[Location (Address) Index]
[Master IndexPage]
[FEEFHS FrontPage]
[Website Index]