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The original Cyrillic alphabet was a writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire in the tenth century to write the Old Church Slavonic liturgical language.

With Christianity having been made the official state religion in 864, Knyaz (Prince) Boris I commissioned the creation of the alphabet. Clement of Ohrid developed the alphabet and named it after his teacher, St. Cyril, a missionary who, along with his brother, Methodius, is credited for inventing the Glagolitic alphabet, an earlier Slavic alphabet and an influence on this one. The alphabet also shows influence from the Greek, Latin, and even the Hebrew alphabet.

In the following centuries, the Cyrillic alphabet adapted to changes in spoken language, developed regional variations to suit the features of national languages, and was subjected to academic reforms and political decrees. Variations of the Cyrillic alphabet are used to write languages throughout Eastern Europe and Asia.

Image	Unicode	Name (Cyrillic)	Name (translit.)	Name (IPA)	Trans.	IPA	Origin	Notes
	А а	АЗЪ	azǔ	[aʒŭ]	a	[a]	Greek alpha Α, α
	Б б	БѸКЫ	bukū	[buky], [bukŭi]	b	[b]	Greek beta Β, β
	В в	ВѢДѢ	vědě	[vædæ]	v	[v]	Greek beta Β, β
	Г г	ГЛАГОЛИ	glagoli	[glagoli]	g	[g]	Greek gamma Γ, γ
	Д д	ДОБРО	dobro	[dobro]	d	[d]	Greek Delta Δ, δ
	Є є	ЄСТЬ	estǐ	[ɛstĭ]	e	[ɛ]	Greek epsilon Ε, ε
	Ж ж	ЖИВѢТЄ	živěte	[ʒivætɛ]	ž, zh	[ʒ]	Glagolitic zhivete Ⰶ ?
	Ѕ ѕ	ЅѢЛО	dzělo	[ʣælo]	dz	[dz]	Greek ligature stigma Ϛ, ϛ
	З з	ЗЄМЛIА	zemlja	[zemlja]	z	[z]	Greek zeta Ζ, ζ	See note 1
	И и	ИЖЄ	iže	[iʒɛ]	i	[i]	Greek eta Η, η
	І і / Ї ї	И	i	[i]	i, I	[i]	Greek iota Ι, ι
	К к	КАКО	kako	[kako]	k	[k]	Greek kappa Κ, κ
	Л л	ЛЮДИѤ	ljudije	[ljudijɛ]	l	[l]	Greek lambda Λ, λ
	М м	МЫСЛИТЄ	mūslite	[myslitɛ]/[mŭislitɛ]	m	[m]	Greek mu Μ, μ
	Н н	НАШЬ	našǐ	[naʃĭ]	n	[n]	Greek nu Ν, ν
	О о	ОНЪ	onǔ	[onŭ]	o	[o]	Greek omicron Ο, ο
	П п	ПОКОИ	pokoi	[pokoj]	p	[p]	Greek pi Π, π
	Р р	РЬЦИ	rǐci	[rĭʦi]	r	[r]	Greek rho Ρ, ρ
	С с	СЛОВО	slovo	[slovo]	s	[s]	Greek lunate sigma Ϲ, ϲ
	Т т	ТВРЬДО	tvr̥do	[tvr̥do]	t	[t]	Greek tau Τ, τ
	Ѹ ѹ	ѸКЪ	ukǔ	[ukŭ]	u	[u]	Greek omicron-upsilon ΟΥ, ου	See note 2
	Ф ф	ФРЬТЪ	fr̤̥tǔ	[fr̤̥tŭ]	f	[f]	Greek phi Φ, φ
	Х х	ХѢРЪ	xěrǔ	[xærŭ]	x	[x]	Greek chi Χ, χ
	Ѡ ѡ	ОТЪ	otǔ	[otŭ]	ō, w	[oː]	Greek omega Ω, ω
	Ц ц	ЦИ	ci	[ʦi]	c	[ʦ]	Glagolitic tsi Ⱌ ?, from Hebrew final tsadi ץ‎
	Ч ч	ЧРЬВЬ	čr̤̥vǐ	[ʧr̤̥vĭ]	č, ch	[ʧ]
	Ш ш	ША	ša	[ʃa]	š, sh	[ʃ]	Glagolitic sha Ⱎ, from Hebrew shin ש (possibly through Coptic shai Ϣ)
	Щ щ	ШТА	šta	[ʃta]	št, sht	[ʃt]	Ш-Т or Ш-Ч ligature, after Glagolitic shta Ⱋ
	Ъ ъ	ѤРЪ	jerǔ	[jɛrŭ]	ǔ, u:	[ŭ]	after old Bulgar letter
	Ы ы	ѤРЫ	jerū	[jɛry]	ū	[y], or possibly [ŭi]	ЪI or ЪИ ligature
	Ь ь	ѤРЬ	jerǐ	[jɛrĭ]	ǐ, i:	[ĭ]	after old Bulgar letter
	Ѣ ѣ	ЯТЬ	jatǐ	[jatĭ]	ě	[æ]	after Bulgar letter
	Ю ю	Ю	ju	[ju]	ju	[iu]	I-ОУ ligature, dropping У
	Я я	(И)Я	ja	[ja]	ja	[ia]	I-А ligature
	Ѧ ѧ	ѦСЪ	ęsǔ	[ɛ̃sŭ]	ę, ẽ	[ɛ̃]	after Bulgar letter	See note 3
	Ѩ ѩ	ѨСЪ	jęsǔ	[jɛ̃sŭ]	ję, jẽ	[jɛ̃]	I-Ѧ ligature	See note 4
	Ѫ ѫ	ѪСЪ	ǫsǔ	[ɔ̃sŭ]	ǫ, õ	[ɔ̃]	after Bulgar letter	See note 5
	Ѭ ѭ	ѬСЪ	jǫsǔ	[jɔ̃sŭ]	jǫ, jõ	[jɔ̃]	I-Ѫ ligature	See note 6
	Ѯ ѯ	КСИ	ksi	[ksi]	ks	[ks]	Greek xi Ξ, ξ
	Ѱ ѱ	ПСИ	psi	[psi]	ps	[ps]	Greek psi Ψ, ψ
	Ѳ ѳ	ФИТА	fita	[fita]	θ, th, T, F	[t]/[θ]/[f]	Greek theta Θ, θ
	Ѵ ѵ	ИЖИЦА	ižica	[iʒiʦa]	ü	[ɪ], [y]	Greek upsilon Υ, υ
	Ѥ ѥ	(И)Ѥ	jeː	[jɛ]	je	[iɛ]	І-Є ligature
	Ћ ћ	ГѤРВ	gerv, gjerv	[ʤɛrv], [djɛrv]	đ, dj	[ʤ], [dj]	Serbian tshe Ћ, ћ	See note 7
	Ѿ ѿ	ОТЪ	otǔ	[otŭ]	ōt, wt	[otŭ]	Ѡ-Т ligature
								See note 8

Each letter also had a numeric value, inherited from the corresponding Greek letter. A titlo over a sequence of letters indicated their use as a number. See Cyrillic numerals, Titlo.

Several diacritics, adopted from Polytonic Greek orthography, were also used (these may not appear correctly in all web browsers; they are supposed to be directly above the letter, not off to its upper right):

• а´  oksia, indicating a stressed syllable (Unicode U+1FFD), similar to an acute accent
• а`  varia, indicating stress on the last syllable (U+1FEF), similar to a grave accent
• а҄  kamora, indicating palatalization (U+0484), similar to an inverted breve
• а҅  dasy pneuma, rough breathing mark (U+0485)
• а҆  zvatel'tse, or psilon pneuma, soft breathing mark (U+0486)
• а҃  titlo, indicating abbreviations, or letters used as numerals (U+0483)
• ӓ  trema, diaeresis (U+0308)
• а҆´  Combined zvatel'tse and oksia is called iso.
• а҆`  Combined zvatel'tse and varia is called apostrof.

Punctuation marks:

• ·  ano teleia (U+0387), a middle dot used as a word separator
• ,  comma (U+002C)
• .  full stop (U+002E)
• ։  Armenian full stop (U+0589), resembling a colon
• ჻  Georgian paragraph separator (U+10FB)
• ⁖  triangular colon (U+2056, added in Unicode 4.1)
• ⁘  diamond colon (U+2058, added in Unicode 4.1)
• ⁙  quintuple colon (U+2059, added in Unicode 4.1)
• ;  Greek question mark (U+037E), similar to a semicolon
• !  exclamation mark (U+0021)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

early Cyrillic alphabet

• Bosnian Cyrillic
• Reforms of Russian orthography

• A Berdnikov and O Lapko, "Old Slavonic and Church Slavonic in TEX and Unicode", EuroTEX ’99 Proceedings, September 1999 (PDF)
• DJ Birnbaum, "Unicode for Slavic Medievalists", September 28, 2002 (PDF)
• M Everson and R Cleminson, "Final proposal for encoding the Glagolitic script in the UCS", Expert Contribution to the ISO N2610R, September 4, 2003 (PDF)
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