[10] It is only since Kopitar's discovery of
some Glagolitic manuscripts _at least_ cotemporary with the most
ancient Cyrillic documents known, that this question has taken another
aspect. But whether there existed already a Slavic alphabet or not, it
is very doubtful whether Cyril knew it; since the Slavic tribes among
whom he and Methodius lived, were not acquainted with it; for all the
legends and early historical annals agree in calling Cyril the
inventor of the Slavic alphabet.
This alphabet, as arranged by Cyril, is founded on the Greek. In
adjusting it, Cyril employed all the Greek characters; although a few
of them have so much altered their shape in the course of time, as
hardly to be recognized in their present form, e.g. the _Z_ and the
_H_ of the Greeks. The first has the English, not the Greek
pronunciation of that letter; the latter in its altered shape is the
common _I_ of the Slavic language, and thus corresponds with the
pronunciation of the modern Greeks. The _H_ or _Eta_ in an unaltered
form, on the other hand, is the _N_ of the Slavic alphabet. The Greek
_B_, ss, went over into the still softer sound of _V_, _v_;[11] and
another sign was selected for Buki or _B_. This and all the characters
to denote Slavic sounds, which he did not find in the Greek alphabet,
Cyril took from other oriental languages, wherever he could find
similar sounds; and thus very judiciously avoided that accumulation of
letters to mark a single sound, which occur so often in all the
systems of writing derived from the Latin.
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