What alphabet did Saints Cyril and Methodius create? Why do scientists believe that it was not Cyrillic? We continue to get acquainted with the chapters of the book « » .
The Russian alphabet that we use is sometimes called the Cyrillic alphabet - especially in those cases when they want to contrast it with alphabets created on the basis of Latin - English, German, Polish, Hungarian, etc.
Does this name - “Cyrillic” - mean that our alphabet was created by St. Cyril? Apparently, this is still not the case. Most scientists currently believe that the first Slavic alphabet, the inventor of which was Constantine the Philosopher (in monasticism - Cyril), is the Glagolitic alphabet. Remember that the Solun brothers did not create the language from scratch? But they still created a completely new alphabet.
The Glagolitic alphabet shows similarities with some writing systems (for example, with the Ethiopian letter), and individual Hebrew letters were borrowed into it - but at the same time it is not based on any specific alphabet. Glagolitic is the creation of Constantine the Philosopher.
But the origin of the Cyrillic alphabet is different. The fact is that the Glagolitic alphabet was originally used in Great Moravia (i.e., in the West Slavic lands), where the translation activities of the Thessaloniki brothers took place. Then, when the disciples of Cyril and Methodius ended up in Bulgaria, they brought this alphabet with them to the southern Slavs.
For centuries the Glagolitic alphabet was used by Catholic Croats; for some time it also held out in Western Bulgaria. However, in Eastern Bulgaria - and it was there that the capital of the ancient Bulgarian state was located in those days - the Glagolitic alphabet did not take root: Byzantium was too close, and it turned out to be easier to adapt the Greek alphabet for their needs (which, by the way, the Slavs tried to do before, even before the start of Cyril’s mission and Methodius).
As a matter of fact, the ancient Cyrillic alphabet was precisely the Greek alphabet, expanded by almost two dozen letters - both due to the inclusion of Glagolitic signs, and thanks to the alteration of some Greek letters (for example, from the Greek beta not only our letter B was obtained, but also the neighboring with her B).
IN Ancient Rus' If the Glagolitic alphabet was used, it was mainly as a cryptographic script. From the very beginning, church books, chronicles, and Novgorod birch bark letters were written in the second Slavic alphabet - Cyrillic.
The alphabet changed over time: on the one hand, all 24 Greek letters gradually became part of it; on the other hand, some letters disappeared almost without a trace (for example, the letter ѫ (big yus) to denote the nasal sound o). A number of letters have changed their style (this applies primarily to the letter s: now its first element looks like the current soft sign, but in fact, initially there was an er - a hard sign, and the stick of this letter is nothing more than the letter i).
Church Slavonic as a South Slavic language
As stated above, the Church Slavonic language was created on the basis of one of the South Slavic dialects. Modern South Slavic languages include Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian. The Russian language is part of the group of East Slavic languages, along with Ukrainian and Belarusian.
Between the three main groups of Slavic languages - Western, South and East Slavic - there are a number of differences that are regular.
Let's give one example. There is a word in Russian king. It is generally accepted that it was formed on behalf of Charlemagne, the Emperor of the Franks. This word is also found in other Slavic languages - there it sounds similar, but not exactly the same as in Russian. In the South Slavic languages, as well as in Czech and Slovak, in place of -oro-, which we see in the Russian word, we find -ra-: in Bulgarian it will be krail, in Serbian - krai. IN Polish language in the middle of the word there will be -ro- - król (pronounced “krul”, but the change of the vowel [o] to [u] is associated with the later history of the Polish language).
One example, of course, does not prove anything. But if we take other Russian words with -oro- at the root, we will almost always see -ra- in South Slavic languages, and -ro- in Polish.
Regular parallels between Russian and Church Slavonic
Russian completeness / Church Slavonic partiality. In the roots of many Russian words we see such combinations as -oro-, -ere- and -olo-. There are words similar in meaning and sound in the Church Slavonic language, but they look somewhat different.
Let's take words with -oro- at the root - for example, crow. In Church Slavonic there is also a word that
denotes this bird: vran. Eat Russian word the threshold is the Church Slavonic prag. In Russian we say watchman, and in Church Slavonic - guard. And many more such examples can be given (above we already talked about the word king and its equivalents in other Slavic languages).
The Russian combination -ere-, as it is probably not difficult to guess, corresponds to the Church Slavonic -re-. Let's give some examples: shore - shore, tree - tree, through - through, before - before.
With -olo- the situation is somewhat more complicated. This combination in Church Slavonic can correspond to either
-le-, or -la-. Without going into details, we will simply indicate some correspondences: milk - milk, well - storehouse, cold - cold, hunger - glad.
Letter e. In the Russian language, in many words, the stress after a soft consonant is followed by the sound [o], which alternates with [e] and is indicated in writing by the letter ё, for example: honey, ice, Peter, mother-in-law, cheerful, dark, pouring, everything, etc. In the Church Slavonic language, the sound [o] almost never occurs after a soft vowel - therefore the letter e is still absent in the Church Slavonic alphabet and in all cases the letter e is written (and the sound [e] is pronounced): honey, ice, petr, mother-in-law, cheerful, dark, flying, everything.
(In the Russian language, the letter е appeared late, at the end of the 18th century, but phonetic changes occurred significantly earlier.)
Consonants. You can indicate words where in Russian we see -k- or -g-, and in Church Slavonic, respectively, -ts- and -z-: mirror - mirror, renounce - oricatsya, move - move, etc.
In a number of cases, in place of Russian -ch- in Church Slavonic words we find -sch-, and in place -w- combination-zhd-: candle - light, night - night, hot - burning, want - I want; plant - plant, like - like.
These parallels are interesting in themselves - especially for philologists. But we brought them in the wrong
The last step is to show below how the Church Slavonic language influenced Russian.
Why is there no concept of “alphabetical truth” in any language, and only the Russian language has the concept of “elementary truth”? But because the alphabet is a completely unique phenomenon among all known methods of letter writing. The alphabet differs from other alphabets not only in its almost perfect embodiment of the principle of unambiguous graphic display: one sound - one letter. In the alphabet, and only in it, there is content.
The secret of the Slavic alphabet:
To begin with, let us remember the phrase “Every hunter wants to know where the pheasant sits.” It is known to everyone since childhood and serves to remember the sequence of colors of the rainbow. This is the so-called acrophonic method of memorization: each word of the phrase begins with the same letter as the name of the color: each = red, hunter = orange, etc.
Acrophony ensures the convenience of memorizing the alphabet and thereby disseminating it as quickly as possible. Among the main alphabets used in Europe, three are more or less acrophonic: Greek, Hebrew and Cyrillic (= Glagolitic). In the Latin alphabet this feature is completely absent, so the Latin alphabet could only appear on the basis of an already widespread writing system, when acrophony is unimportant.
In the Greek alphabet, remnants of acrophony can be traced in the names of 14 of the 27 letters: alpha, beta (more correctly, vita), gamma, etc. However, these words mean nothing in Greek and are slightly distorted derivatives of Hebrew words: “alef” - “bull”, “bet” - “house”, “gimel” - “camel”, etc. Comparison based on acrophonicity directly indicates a certain borrowing of Hebrew writing by the Greeks.
The Proto-Slavic alphabet also fully possesses the attribute of acrophonicity, but in one respect it differs significantly from Hebrew. In Hebrew, all letter names are nouns in the singular and nominative case, and among the names of 29 letters of the Slavic alphabet, at least seven words are verbs. Of these, four are in the imperative mood: two in the singular (rtsy, tsy) and two in the plural (think, live), one verb in the indefinite form (yat), one in the 3rd person singular (is) and one – in the past tense – “lead”. Moreover, among the names of letters there are pronouns (kako, shta), and adverbs (firmly, zelo), and plural nouns (people, beeches), as in ordinary speech.
In normal connected speech, one verb occurs on average in three other parts of speech. In the names of the letters of the Proto-Slavic alphabet, exactly this frequency of the verb is observed, which directly indicates the coherent nature of the alphabetic names.
Thus, the Proto-Slavic alphabet is a message - a set of coding phrases that allow each sound of the language system to be given an unambiguous graphic correspondence - that is, a letter. At the same time, letter writing systems for conveying the same sound system can be different, for example, Cyrillic = Glagolitic for the Proto-Slavic language, Cyrillic = Latin for the modern Serbo-Croatian language.
The Old Church Slavonic alphabet got its name from the combination of two letters “az” and “buki”, which designated the first letters of the alphabet A and B. The most interesting fact is that the ancient Slavic alphabet was graffiti, i.e. messages scrawled on the walls. The first Old Slavonic letters appeared on the walls of churches in Pereslavl around the 9th century. And by the 11th century, ancient graffiti appeared in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. It was on these walls that the letters of the alphabet were indicated in several styles, and below was the interpretation of the letter-word.
ABC structure
Studying the Old Church Slavonic alphabet, many scientists come to the conclusion that in fact the first “ABC” is a secret writing that has a deep religious and philosophical meaning, and most importantly, that it is constructed in such a way that it represents a complex logical-mathematical organism. In addition, by comparing many finds, the researchers came to the conclusion that the first Slavic alphabet was created as a complete invention, and not as a creation that was created in parts by adding new letter forms. It is also interesting that most of the letters are old Slavic alphabet represent letters and numbers. Moreover, if you look at the entire alphabet, you will see that it can be conditionally divided into two parts, which are fundamentally different from each other. In this case, we will conditionally call the first half of the alphabet the “higher” part, and the second “lower”. The highest part includes the letters from A to F, i.e. from “az” to “fert” and is a list of letter-words that carry a meaning understandable to a Slav. The lower part of the alphabet begins with the letter “sha” and ends with “izhitsa”. The letters of the lower part of the Old Church Slavonic alphabet do not have a numerical value, unlike the letters of the higher part, and carry a negative connotation.
In order to understand the secret writing of the Slavic alphabet, it is necessary not just to skim through it, but to read carefully into each letter-word. After all, each letter-word contains a semantic core that Konstantin put into it.
Literal truth, the highest part of the alphabet
Az is initial of the Slavic alphabet, which denotes the pronoun Ya. However, its root meaning is the word “initially”, “begin” or “beginning”, although in everyday life the Slavs most often used Az in the context of the pronoun. Nevertheless, in some Old Slavonic letters one can find Az, which meant “one”, for example, “I will go to Vladimir”. Or “starting from scratch” meant “starting from the beginning.” Thus, the Slavs denoted with the beginning of the alphabet the entire philosophical meaning of existence, where without beginning there is no end, without darkness there is no light, and without good there is no evil. At the same time, the main emphasis in this is placed on the duality of the structure of the world.
Actually, the alphabet itself is built on the principle of duality, where it is conventionally divided into two parts: higher and lower, positive and negative, the part located at the beginning and the part that is at the end. In addition, do not forget that Az has a numerical value, which is expressed by the number 1. Among the ancient Slavs, the number 1 was the beginning of everything beautiful. Today, studying Slavic numerology, we can say that the Slavs, like other peoples, divided all numbers into even and odd. Moreover, odd numbers were the embodiment of everything positive, good and bright. Even numbers, in turn, represented darkness and evil. Moreover, the unit was considered the beginning of all beginnings and was highly revered by the Slavic tribes. From the point of view of erotic numerology, it is believed that 1 represents the phallic symbol from which procreation begins. This number has several synonyms: 1 is one, 1 is one, 1 is times.
Buki (Buki) is the second letter-word in the alphabet. It has no numerical meaning, but has no less deep philosophical meaning than Az. Buki means “to be”, “will be” was most often used when using phrases in the future form. For example, “boudi” means “let it be,” and “boudous,” as you probably already guessed, means “future, upcoming.” In this word, our ancestors expressed the future as an inevitability, which could be either good and rosy or gloomy and terrible. It is still not known for certain why Constantine did not give a numerical value to Bukam, however, many scientists suggest that this is due to the duality of this letter. After all, by and large, it means the future, which every person imagines for himself in a rosy light, but on the other hand, this word also means the inevitability of punishment for committed low deeds.
Vedi is an interesting letter of the Old Church Slavonic alphabet, which has a numerical value of 2. This letter has several meanings: to know, to know and to own. When Constantine put this meaning into the Vedi, he meant secret knowledge, knowledge as the highest divine gift. If you put Az, Buki and Vedi into one phrase, you will get a phrase that means “I will know!” Thus, Constantine showed that a person who discovered the alphabet he created would subsequently possess some kind of knowledge. The numerical load of this letter is no less important. After all, 2 - deuce, two, pair were not just numbers among the Slavs, they took an active part in magical rituals and in general were symbols of the duality of everything earthly and heavenly.
The number 2 among the Slavs meant the unity of heaven and earth, the duality of human nature, good and evil, etc. In a word, the deuce was a symbol of the confrontation between two sides, heavenly and earthly balance. Moreover, it is worth noting that the Slavs considered two to be a devilish number and attributed a lot of negative properties to it, believing that it was the two that opened the numerical series of negative numbers that bring death to a person. That is why the birth of twins in Old Slavic families was considered a bad sign, which brought illness and misfortune to the family. In addition, the Slavs considered it a bad sign for two people to rock a cradle, for two people to dry themselves with the same towel, and generally to perform any action together. Despite such a negative attitude towards the number 2, the Slavs recognized its magical power. For example, many exorcism rituals were performed using two identical items or with the participation of twins.
A verb is a letter whose meaning is the performance of some action or the pronunciation of speech. Synonyms of the letter-word Verb are: verb, speak, conversation, speech, and in some contexts the word verb was used in the meaning of “write.” For example, the phrase “May the verb give us the word, the thought, and the action” means that “rational speech gives us words, thoughts, and actions.” The verb was always used only in a positive context, and its numerical value was the number 3 - three. Three or triad, as our ancestors often called it, was considered a divine number.
Firstly, the troika is a symbol of spirituality and the unity of the soul with the Holy Trinity.
Secondly, the three/triad was an expression of the unity of heaven, earth and the underworld.
Thirdly, the triad symbolizes the completion of a logical sequence: beginning – middle – end.
Finally, the triad symbolizes the past, present and future.
If you look at the majority Slavic rituals and magical actions, you will see that they all ended with a threefold repetition of some ritual. The simplest example is triple baptism after prayer.
Good is the fifth letter in the Slavic alphabet, which is a symbol of purity and goodness. The true meaning of this word is “good, virtue.” At the same time, Konstantin put into the letter Good not only purely human traits character, but also a virtue that all people who love the Heavenly Father must adhere to. By Good, scientists, first of all, see virtue from the point of view of a person’s maintenance of religious canons, which symbolize the Commandments of the Lord. For example, the Old Church Slavonic phrase: “Be diligent in virtue and in living truly” carries the meaning that a person should real life maintain virtue.
The numerical value of the letter Good is indicated by the number 4, i.e. four. What did the Slavs put into this number? First of all, the four symbolized the four elements: fire, water, earth and air, the four ends of the holy cross, the four cardinal directions and the four corners of the room. Thus, the four was a symbol of stability and even inviolability. Despite the fact that this is an even number, the Slavs did not treat it negatively, because it was it, together with the three, that gave the divine number 7.
One of the most multifaceted words of the Old Church Slavonic alphabet is Yes. This word is denoted by words such as “is”, “sufficiency”, “presence”, “essence”, “being”, “nature”, “nature” and other synonyms that express the meaning of these words. Surely, having heard this letter-word, many of us will immediately remember the phrase from the movie “Ivan Vasilyevich is changing his profession,” which has already become popular: “I am the king!” On this clear example It is easy to understand that the person who said this phrase positions himself as a king, that is, the king is his real essence. The number mystery of the letter Yes is hidden in the number five. Five is one of the most controversial numbers in Slavic numerology. After all, it is both positive and negative number, as, probably, a number that consists of the “divine” triad and the “satanic” two.
If we talk about positive aspects five, which is the numerical value of the letter Yes, then, first of all, it should be noted that this number carries great religious potential: in the Holy Scriptures, five is a symbol of grace and mercy. The oil for sacred anointing consisted of 5 parts, which included 5 ingredients, and when performing the “smudging” ritual, 5 different ingredients are also used, such as: incense, stakt, onykh, lebanon and halvan.
Other philosophical thinkers argue that the five is an identification with the five human senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. There are also negative qualities in the top five, which were found by some researchers of Old Church Slavonic culture. In their opinion, among the ancient Slavs, the number five was a symbol of risk and war. A clear indication of this is the conduct of battles by the Slavs mainly on Fridays. Friday among the Slavs was a symbol of the number five. However, there are some contradictions here, as other numerology researchers believe that the Slavs preferred to conduct battles and battles on Fridays solely because they considered five a lucky number and thanks to this they hoped to win the battle.
Live - a letter-word, which is designated today as the letter Z. The meaning of the meaning of these letters is quite simple and clear and is expressed by such words as “living”, “life” and “living”. In this letter, the wise Constantine put a word that everyone understood, which denoted the existence of all life on the planet, as well as the creation of new life. In many of his works, Constantine showed that life is a great gift that a person possesses, and this gift should be aimed at doing good deeds. If you combine the meaning of the letter Zhivete with the meaning of the previous letters, then you will get the phrase conveyed by Constantine to posterity: “I will know and say that goodness is inherent in all living things...” The letter Zhivete is not endowed with a numerical characteristic, and this remains another mystery that left behind the great scientist, philosopher, orator and linguist Constantine.
Zelo is a letter that is a combination of two sounds [d] and [z]. The main meaning of this letter for the Slavs was the words “strong” and “strong”. The letter-word Zelo itself was used in Old Church Slavonic writings as “zelo”, which meant strongly, firmly, very, very, and it could also often be found in sentences as “zelny”, i.e. strong, strong or abundant. If we consider this letter in the context of the word “very,” then we can cite as an example the lines of the great Russian poet Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, who wrote: “Now I must deeply apologize to you for the long silence.” In this expression, “apologize very much” can easily be rephrased into the phrase “apologize very much.” Although the expression “to change a lot” would also be appropriate here.
The numerical content of the letter Zelo is six, which among the Slavs was primarily associated with the machinations of the devil and something dangerous and evil. Judge for yourself:
* the sixth paragraph of the Lord's Prayer speaks of sin;
* the sixth commandment speaks about the most terrible sin of man - murder;
* Cain's line ended with the sixth generation;
* the notorious mythical snake had 6 names;
* the number of the devil is presented in all sources as three sixes “666”.
The list of unpleasant associations associated with the number 6 among the Slavs goes on. However, we can conclude that in some Old Slavonic sources, philosophers also noticed the mystical appeal of the six. So the love that arises between a man and a woman was also associated with the six, which is a combination of two triads.
Earth is the ninth letter of the Old Church Slavonic alphabet, the meaning of which is represented as “land” or “country”. Sometimes in sentences the letter-word Earth was used in meanings such as “edge”, “country”, “people”, “land” or under this word meant the human body. Why did Konstantin name the letter in this way? It’s all very simple! After all, we all live on earth, in our own country, and belong to some nationality. Therefore, the word-letter Earth is a concept behind which a community is hidden people. Moreover, everything starts small, and ends with something big and immense. That is, Constantine in this letter embodied the following phenomenon: every person is part of a family, every family belongs to a community, and every community together represents a people who lives on a certain territory called the native land. And these patches of land, which we call the native land, are united into a huge country where there is one God. However, in addition to the deeply philosophical meaning, the letter Earth hides a number that is directly related to the life of Constantine himself. This number 7 - seven, seven, week. What can modern youth know about the number 7? Only that seven brings good luck. However, for the ancient Slavs and in particular for Constantine, seven was a very significant number.
Firstly, Konstantin was the seventh child in the family.
Secondly, it was at the age of seven that Konstantin dreamed of the Beautiful Sofia. If you delve a little deeper into history, you would like to talk about this dream. Sophia the Wise in the beliefs of the Byzantines was a deity like Athena among the ancient Greeks. Sophia was considered a symbol of Divine Wisdom and was revered as the supreme deity. And then one day seven-year-old Konstantin had a dream in which the Lord turned to him and said: “Choose any girl to be your wife.” At the same time, Konstantin looked at all the girls in the city and saw Sofia, who in his dream appeared as a beautiful pink-cheeked girl. He approached her, took her by the hand and led her to the Lord. Having told his father this dream in the morning, he heard in response the following words: “Keep, son, the law of your father and do not reject punishment from the hand of your mother, then you will speak wise words...” This parting word was given to Constantine by his father, as young man who takes the righteous path. However, Constantine understood that in life there is not only a righteous or correct path, but also a path that awaits those who do not honor the Divine commandments.
The number seven for the Slavs and Constantine in particular meant the number of spiritual perfection, upon which God’s seal lay. Moreover, we can see the seven almost everywhere in everyday life: a week consists of seven days, a musical alphabet of seven notes, etc. Religious books and scriptures also cannot do without mentioning the number seven.
Izhe is a letter whose meaning can be expressed by the words “if”, “if” and “when”. The meaning of these words has not changed to this day, it’s just that in everyday life modern Slavs use synonyms Izhe: if and when. Konstantin was more fascinated not by the verbal decoding of this letter-word, but by the numerical one. After all, Izha corresponds to the number 10 - ten, ten, decade, as we call this number today. Among the Slavs, the number ten is considered the third number, which denotes divine perfection and orderly completeness. If you look at history and various sources, you will see that the ten has a deep religious and philosophical meaning:
* The 10 commandments are God’s completed code, which reveals to us the basic rules of virtue;
* 10 generations represent the complete cycle of a family or nation;
* in the prayer “Our Father!” contains 10 moments that represent a completed cycle of acceptance of God, reverence for the Almighty, a plea for deliverance, and the logical final moment is the recognition of His eternity.
And this is only an incomplete cycle of references to the number 10 in various sources.
Kako is a letter-word of the Slavic alphabet, which means “like” or “like.” A simple example of the use of this word “like him” today is simply “like him.” In this word, Constantine tried to express the similarity of man with God. After all, God created man in his own image and likeness. The numerical characteristic of this letter corresponds to twenty.
People are a letter of the Slavic alphabet, which speaks for itself about the meaning that is inherent in it. The true meaning of the letter People was used to designate people of any class, gender and gender. From this letter came such expressions as the human race, to live like humans. But perhaps the most famous phrase that we still use today is “to go out into the people,” which meant going out into the square for meetings and celebrations. Thus, our ancestors worked for a whole week, and on Sunday, which was the only day off, they dressed up and went out to the square to “look at others and show themselves off.” The letter-word People corresponds to the number 30 – thirty.
Myslete is a very important letter-word, the true meaning of which means “to think”, “thinking”, “to think”, “to reflect” or, as our ancestors said, “to think with the mind”. For the Slavs, the word “think” did not just mean sitting and thinking about eternity, this word included spiritual communication with God. Myslete is the letter that corresponds to the number 40 - forty. In Slavic thinking, the number 40 had a special meaning, because when the Slavs said “very many” they meant 40. Apparently, in ancient times this was the highest number. For example, remember the phrase “forty forty.” She says that the Slavs represented the number 40, as we do today, for example, the number 100 is one hundred. If we turn to the Sacred Writings, then it is worth noting that the Slavs considered 40 to be another divine number, which denotes a certain period of time that the human soul goes through from the moment of temptation to the moment of punishment. Hence the tradition of commemorating the deceased on the 40th day after death.
The letter-word Our also speaks for itself. Konstantin the Philosopher put into it two meanings: “our” and “brother”. That is, this word expresses kinship or closeness in spirit. Synonyms for the true meaning of the letter were words such as “our own”, “native”, “close” and “belonging to our family”. Thus, the ancient Slavs divided all people into two castes: “us” and “strangers”. The letter-word Our has its own numerical value, which, as you probably already guessed, is equal to 50 - fifty.
The next word in the alphabet is represented by the modern letter O, which in the Old Slavonic alphabet is designated by the word On. The true meaning of this letter is "face". In addition to the fact that He denoted a personal pronoun, it was used to designate a person, person, or person. The number that corresponds to this word is 70 - seventy.
Peace is the letter of the spirituality of the Slavic people. The true meaning of Peace is peace and quiet. Constantine the Philosopher invested special peace of mind or spiritual harmony in this letter. In various works, he often focused people’s attention on the fact that only by having grace in the soul can one find peace of mind. Agree, he's right! A person who does good deeds, has pure thoughts and honors the commandments lives in harmony with himself. He doesn't need to pretend to anyone because he is at peace with himself. The number corresponding to the letter Peace is 80 - eighty.
Rtsy is an ancient Slavic letter, which we know today as the letter R. Of course, if you ask a simple modern person whether he knows what this word means, you are unlikely to hear an answer. Nevertheless, the letter-word Rtsy was well known to those who held in their hands or saw the first Slavic alphabet on the walls of churches. The true meaning of Rtsa lies in words such as “you will utter”, “you will say”, “you will express” and other words that are close in meaning. For example, the expression “talks of wisdom” means “speak wise words.” This word was often used in ancient writings, but today its meaning has lost its significance for modern people. The numerical value of Rtsa is 100 – one hundred.
The word is a letter, about which we can say that it is the one that gives the name to all of our speech. Since man came up with the word, surrounding objects received their names, and people ceased to be a faceless mass and received names. In the Slavic alphabet, the Word has many synonyms: legend, speech, sermon. All these synonyms were often used when composing both official letters and and writing scientific treatises. IN colloquial speech this letter has also found wide application. The numerical analogue of the letter Word is 200 - two hundred.
The next letter of the alphabet is known to us today as the letter T, but the ancient Slavs knew it as the letter-word Tverdo. As you understand, the true meaning of this letter speaks for itself, and it means “solid” or “true.” It is from this letter that the famous expression “I stand firm on my word” comes from. This means that a person clearly understands what he is saying and asserts the correctness of his thoughts and words. Such firmness is the lot of either very wise people or complete fools. However, the letter Firmly indicated that the person who says something or does something feels right. If we talk about the numerical self-affirmation of the letter Firmly, then it is worth saying that it corresponds to the number 300 - three hundred.
Ouk is another letter in the alphabet, which today has been transformed into the letter U. It is, of course, difficult for an ignorant person to understand what this word means, but the Slavs knew it as “law.” Ouk was often used in the meaning of “decree”, “to fasten”, “lawyer”, “to indicate”, “to fasten”, etc. Most often, this letter was used to denote government decrees, laws adopted by officials and was rarely used in a spiritual context.
The galaxy of “higher” letters of the alphabet ends with Firth. This unusual letter-word means nothing more than glory, pinnacle, top. But this concept is not addressed to human glory, which denotes the fame of a person, but gives glory to eternity. Please note that Firth is the logical ending of the "higher" part of the alphabet and represents a conditional ending. But this end gives us food for thought that there is still eternity that we must glorify. The numerical value of Firth is 500 – five hundred.
Having examined the highest part of the alphabet, we can state the fact that it is Constantine’s secret message to his descendants. “Where is this visible?” – you ask. Now try to read all the letters, knowing their true meaning. If you take several subsequent letters, then edifying phrases are formed:
* Vedi + Verb means “know the teaching”;
* Rtsy + Word + Firmly can be understood as the phrase “speak the true word”;
* Firmly + Ouk can be interpreted as “strengthen the law.”
If you look closely at other letters, you can also find the secret writing that Constantine the Philosopher left behind.
Have you ever wondered why the letters in the alphabet are in this particular order and not in any other? The order of the “highest” part of the Cyrillic letters can be considered from two positions.
Firstly, the fact that each letter-word forms a meaningful phrase with the next one may mean a non-random pattern that was invented to quickly memorize the alphabet.
Secondly, the Old Church Slavonic alphabet can be considered from the point of view of numbering. That is, each letter also represents a number. Moreover, all letter-numbers are arranged in ascending order. So, the letter A - “az” corresponds to one, B - 2, D - 3, D - 4, E - 5, and so on up to ten. Tens begin with the letter K, which are listed here similarly to units: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 70, 80 and 100.
In addition, many scientists have noticed that the outlines of the letters of the “higher” part of the alphabet are graphically simple, beautiful and convenient. They were perfect for cursive writing, and a person did not experience any difficulties in depicting these letters. And many philosophers see in the numerical arrangement of the alphabet the principle of the triad and spiritual harmony that a person achieves, striving for good, light and truth.
Literal truth, the “lowest” part of the alphabet 
As an educated person who strives for truth, Constantine could not lose sight of the fact that good cannot exist without evil. Therefore, the “lowest” part of the Old Church Slavonic alphabet is the embodiment of everything base and evil that is in man. So, let's get acquainted with the letters of the “lower” part of the alphabet, which do not have a numerical value. By the way, pay attention, there are not many of them, not only 13!
The “lowest” part of the alphabet begins with the letter Sha. The true meaning of this letter can be expressed in words such as “trash”, “nonentity” or “liar”. Often in sentences they were used to indicate the entire baseness of a person who was called shabala, which means a liar and idle talker. Another word derived from the letter Sha is “shabendat,” which means fussing over trifles. And especially vile people were called the word “shaveren”, that is, trash or insignificant person.
A letter very similar to Sha is the next letter Shcha. What associations do you have when you hear this letter? But our ancestors used this letter when they talked about vanity or mercy, but only one word can be found as a root synonym for the letter Shcha: “mercilessly.” For example, a simple Old Church Slavonic phrase “betray without mercy.” Its modern meaning can be expressed in the phrase “mercilessly betrayed.”
Er. In ancient times, Erami were called thieves, swindlers and rogues. Today we know this letter as Ъ. Er is not endowed with any numerical value, like the other twelve letters of the lower part of the alphabet.
Ery is a letter that has survived to this day and appears in our alphabet, like Y. As you understand, it also has an unpleasant meaning and means a drunkard, because in ancient times revelers and drunkards who hung around idle were called erigs. In fact, there were people who did not work, but only walked and drank intoxicating drinks. They were in great disfavour among the entire community and were often persecuted with stones.
Er represents b in the modern alphabet, but the meaning of this letter is unknown to many contemporaries. Er had several meanings: “heresy”, “heretic”, “enemy”, “sorcerer” and “renegade”. If this letter meant “renegade,” then the person was called “erik.” In other definitions, a person was called a “heretic.”
This word was perhaps the most terrible of all Slavic insults. After all, we all know very well from history what happened to heretics...
Yat is the letter to which the synonym “accept” is most suitable. In Old Church Slavonic texts it was most often used as “imat” and “yatny”. Amazing words, especially for modern people. Although I think that some of the slang words used by our teenagers would not have been understood by the ancient Slavs. “Have” was used in the context of catching or taking. “Yatny” was used in Old Slavonic texts when they talked about something accessible or an easily achievable goal.
Yu [u] is the letter of grief and sadness. Its root meaning is a bitter lot and an unhappy fate. The Slavs called vale a bad fate. From the same letter comes the word holy fool, which means an ugly and insane person. Fools in Constantine's alphabet were designated exclusively from a negative point of view, but we should not forget who the holy fools were originally. After all, if you look at history, you will see that wandering monks and companions of Jesus who imitated the Son of God, accepting ridicule and mockery, were called holy fools.
[I]I am a letter that has no name, but it contains a deep and terrifying meaning. The true meaning of this letter is several concepts such as "exile", "outcast" or "torture". Both exile and outcast are synonyms for one concept that has deep ancient Russian roots. Behind this word was an unhappy person who had fallen out of the social environment and did not fit into the existing society. It is interesting that in the ancient Russian state there was such a thing as a “rogue prince.” Rogue princes are people who lost their inheritance due to the premature death of relatives who did not have time to transfer their possessions to them.
[I]E is another letter of the “lower” part of the alphabet, which does not have a name. The ancient Slavs had completely unpleasant associations with this letter, because it meant “torment” and “suffering.” Often this letter was used in the context of eternal torment experienced by sinners who do not recognize the laws of God and do not keep the 10 commandments.
Two more interesting letters of the Old Church Slavonic alphabet: Yus small and Yus large. They are very similar in form and meaning. Let's look at what their differences are.
Small Yus is shaped like tied hands. The most interesting thing is that the root meaning of this letter is “bonds”, “fetters”, “chains”, “knots” and words with similar meanings. Often Yus small was used in texts as a symbol of punishment and was denoted by the following words: bonds and knots.
Yus the Great was a symbol of a dungeon or prison, as a more severe punishment for atrocities committed by a person. It is interesting that the shape of this letter was similar to a dungeon. Most often in ancient Slavic texts you can find this letter in the form of the word uziliche, which meant a prison or prison. The derivatives of these two letters are the letters Iotov yus small and Iotov yus large. The graphic image of Iotov Yus small in Cyrillic is similar to the image of Yus small, however, in the Glagolitic alphabet these two letters have completely different shapes. The same can be said about Iotov Yus the Great and Yus the Great. What is the secret of such a striking difference?
After all, the semantic meaning that we know about today is very similar for these letters and represents a logical chain. Let's look at each graphic image of these four letters in the Glagolitic alphabet.
Yus small, denoting bonds or shackles, is depicted in the Glagolitic alphabet in the form of a human body, whose hands and feet seem to be wearing shackles. After Yus the small comes Iotov Yus the small, which means imprisonment, imprisonment of a person in a dungeon or prison. This letter in the Glagolitic alphabet is depicted as a certain substance similar to a cell. What happens next? And then comes Yus the Great, which is a symbol of the dungeon and is depicted in the Glagolitic alphabet as a crooked figure. Amazingly, after Yus the Great comes Iotov Yus the Great, which means execution, and its graphic image in the Glagolitic alphabet is nothing more than a gallows.
Now let's look separately at the semantic meanings of these four letters and their graphic analogies. Their meaning can be reflected in a simple phrase that indicates a logical sequence: first they put shackles on a person, then they imprison them in prison, and finally the logical conclusion of the punishment is execution. What comes out of this simple example? But it turns out that Constantine, when creating the “lower” part of the alphabet, also put into it a certain hidden meaning and ordered all the signs according to a certain logical criterion. If you look at all thirteen letters of the lower row of the alphabet, you will see that they are a conditional edification for the Slavic people. Combining all thirteen letters according to their meaning, we get the following phrase: “Insignificant liars, thieves, swindlers, drunkards and heretics will accept a bitter fate - they will be tortured as outcasts, shackled, thrown into prison and executed!” Thus, Constantine the Philosopher gives the Slavs the admonition that all sinners will be punished.
In addition, graphically all the letters of the “lower” part are much more difficult to reproduce than the letters of the first half of the alphabet, and what immediately catches the eye is that many of them do not have a name or numerical identification.
And finally, about the second half of the Old Church Slavonic alphabet, we can say that most of the letter-words do not have the positive beginning that is inherent in the letters of the “higher” part. Almost all of them are expressed in hissing syllables. The letters of this part of the alphabet are tongue-tied and lack melody, unlike those located at the beginning of the table.
Divine part of the alphabet 
Having studied the true meaning of the two parts of the Old Church Slavonic alphabet, we receive two pieces of advice from the sage. However, don’t think that the ABC secrets end there. After all, we have a few more letters that stand apart from all the others. These signs include the letters Her, Omega, Tsy and Worm.
The most interesting thing is that the letters X - Her and W - Omega are in the center of the alphabet and are enclosed in a circle, which, you see, expresses their superiority over the other letters of the alphabet. The main features of these two letters are that they migrated to the Old Church Slavonic alphabet from Greek alphabet and have a double meaning. Look at them carefully. The right side of these letters is a reflection of the left side, thus emphasizing their polarity. Perhaps Constantine, not by accident, but deliberately borrowed these letters from the Greeks? Indeed, in the Greek sense, the letter X means the Universe, and even its numerical value 600 - six hundred corresponds to the word “space”. Constantine put in the letter X the unity of God and man.
Considering the letter W, which corresponds to the number 800 - eight hundred, I would like to focus on the fact that it means the word “faith”. Thus, these two letters circled symbolize faith in God and are an image of the fact that somewhere in the Universe there is a cosmic sphere where the Lord lives, who determined the fate of man from beginning to end.
In addition, Konstantin put into the letter Her special meaning, which can be reflected by the word “cherub” or “ancestor”. Cherubim were considered the highest angels who were closest to God and surrounded the Throne of the Lord. Slavic words derived from the letter Her have only positive meanings: cherub, heroism, which means heroism, heraldry (respectively, heraldry), etc.
In turn, Omega, on the contrary, had the meaning of finality, end or death. This word has many derivatives, so “offensive” means eccentric, and disgusting means something very bad.
Thus, Her and Omega, enclosed in a circle, were the symbol of this circle. Look at their meanings: beginning and end. But a circle is a line that has neither beginning nor end. However, at the same time, it is both the beginning and the end.
There are two more letters in this “enchanted” circle, which we know in the Old Church Slavonic alphabet as Tsy and Worm. The most interesting thing is that these letters have a dual meaning in the Old Church Slavonic alphabet.
Thus, the positive meaning of Tsy can be expressed in the words church, kingdom, king, Caesar, cycle and in many other words that are synonymous with these meanings. Moreover, the letter Tsy implied both the kingdom of earth and the kingdom of heaven. At the same time, it was used with a negative connotation. For example, “tsits!” - shut up, stop talking; “tsiryukat” - shouting, shouting and “tsyba”, which meant an unstable, thin-legged person and was considered an insult.
The letter Worm also has both positive traits, and negative. From this letter came such words as monk, that is, monk; brow, cup, child, man, etc. All the negativity that could be thrown out with this letter can be expressed in words such as worm - a low-lying, reptile creature, womb - belly, devil - offspring and others.
Having studied the alphabet from the very beginning, we can come to the conclusion that Constantine left his descendants the main value - a creation that encourages us to strive for self-improvement, learning, wisdom and love, trampling the dark paths of anger, envy and enmity. 
The combination of the above phrases constitutes an elementary message: az beeches veda. The verb is good. Live well, earth, and, like people, think about our peace. Rtsy’s word is firm - uk fret dick. Tsy, worm, shta ra yus yati!
I know the letters. Writing is an asset. Work hard, earthlings, as reasonable people should - comprehend the universe! Carry your word with conviction. Knowledge is a gift from God! Dare, delve deeply in order to comprehend the Light of Being!
The Proto-Slavic alphabet is the first textbook in the history of modern civilization. A person who has read and understood an alphabetic message masters not only a universal method of storing information, but also acquires the ability to transfer accumulated knowledge, i.e. becomes a Teacher.
From the editor. To what has been said, it must be added that the basis of the Russian alphabet are two varieties of the Old Church Slavonic alphabet: the Glagolitic alphabet, or trade letter, and the holy Russian images, or small letter. Evidence from ancient tales and chronicles, notes from foreign travelers, and archeological data suggest that writing existed in Rus' long before the advent of Christianity. Cyril and Methodius apparently created their alphabet on the basis of ancient Slavic writing with the addition of Greek-Byzantine letters for the convenience of translating Christian texts.
References:
1. K. Titarenko “The Secret of the Slavic Alphabet”, 1995
2. A. Zinoviev “Cyrillic cryptography”, 1998
3. M. Krongauz “Where did Slavic writing come from”, journal “Russian Language” 1996, No. 3
4. E. Nemirovsky “In the footsteps of the first printer”, M.: Sovremennik, 1983.
http://www.habit.ru/13/276.html
http://www.redstar.ru/2007/02/14_02/5_08.html
From the comments:
Vyacheslav
September 21, 2010 at 12:02 pm
The second letter of the alphabet is not “beeches”, but Gods.”
It is impossible for a person to “invent” this alphabet, even for such supposed saints as Cyril and Methodius. Allegedly - because a holy person will never throw out the key word from the Divine alphabet given to man from above - the word “GOD” and will not replace it with the faceless “BUKI”.
I know the Gods. The verb is good...
AZ (man) KNOWS GOD, THE VERB OF GOOD, WHICH IS LIFE (EXISTENCE). Etc.
In addition, Cyril and Methodius threw out several initial letters from the alphabet, that is, they interfered with God’s creation.
That's why I call them "ostensibly saints."
The Old Church Slavonic alphabet is completely imbued with God.
The ABC of Cyril and Methodius is imbued with knowledge. But knowledge without God is dead. This is why the Orthodox Church has been stalled in Rus' for so many centuries - because its foundations are distorted.
source http://ifomin.ru/2010/02/azbukivedi/
Surely everyone has heard the expression “elementary truth,” which means that we are talking about something simple, elementary. The Slavic alphabet, however, was by no means simple, and it taught people from the very beginning how to live. We can say that the alphabet was a book that shapes a person’s life and worldview.
Instructions
In order to understand what the Slavic alphabet was, one question should be answered: why are the letters in modern alphabet arranged exactly in the order we know? In the Russian (Slavic) language there was no letter as such, there was an initial letter. And this initial letter could be just a letter, or a whole meaningful phrase. In essence, the Slavic alphabet was a law, a set of rules and a meaningful encyclopedia, after studying which a person became wiser.
People themselves initially understood the alphabet as simply an alphabet that was somehow adapted for study. Scientists find alphabets that were scratched on the walls; they date back to the 19th century. The oldest official alphabet is considered to be the one written on birch bark in the 11th century. Many years later, alphabets were drawn on wooden tablets.
The name “ABC” comes from the first two letters of the Slavic alphabet: az and buki. However, today scientists are confident that the ancient Slavic alphabet was secret writing, a scripture that had the deepest philosophical and religious meaning. The construction of the Slavic alphabet was such that one can talk about its complex mathematical structure. With the correct arrangement of letters, you can read the alphabet from left to right, top to bottom and diagonally, each time receiving certain wise advice.
The Slavic alphabet was created as a holistic creation, it was not a set of individual letters. This was a writing about life for descendants who had just begun to study the world. It is possible to understand the Slavic alphabet, but each time you can discover it anew, rereading it, reading the letters and their meaning.
If we read the alphabet, we will receive a direct and unambiguous message to the Slavs, the meaning of which is to honor knowledge, ancestors, honor God, and develop ourselves and our minds. This is exactly what the Slavic alphabet was - an instructive book, the foundation and core of life for the Slavs. It is categorically wrong to equate the alphabet with a primer or alphabet, but it just so happens that the ancient, sacred secrets of this teaching have been lost - but in the past, a literate person was considered to be one who understands the alphabet, that is, understands its meaning.
Attention, TODAY only!
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