id: "Cyrl"
name: "Cyrillic"
family: "European"
summary: "Cyrillic is a bicameral alphabet originating in Europe, written left-to-right (250 million users). Used for various languages across Eurasia and is used as the national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, North Asia and East Asia, including Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Tajik, Kyrgyz, Bashkort, Chechen, Chuvash, Avar, Dargwa, Kabardian, Karakalpak, Kumyk, Lezgi, Ossetic, Pontic, Yakut, Buriat and many others. Created in the 9th century. Traditionally attributed to Saint Cyril, a monk from Thessaloniki working in Bulgaria, after earlier creation of the Glagolitic script. Sometimes attributed to Clement of Ohrid, a student of Saint Cyril’s. Initially used for Old Church Slavonic. Reformed in 1708 by Russian tsar Peter the Great. Extended by the Soviet Union in the 20th century to write over 50 languages throughout Eastern Europe and Asia (some of those languages switched to Latin after 1991)."