Bosnian Cyrillic

Bosnian Cyrillic
Croatian Cyrillic
Bosančica

A miniature from the Hval Manuscript
Type Alphabet Cyrillic script
Languages Bosnian
Time period 10th-18th century
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols.

Bosnian Cyrillic or Croatian Cyrillic, widely known as Bosančica, is an extinct Cyrillic alphabet, that originated in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was widely used in Bosnia and Croatia (Dalmatia and Dubrovnik regions). Its name in Bosnian and Croatian is bosančica or bosanica, which can literally be translated as Bosnian script. Croats also call it Croatian script, Croatian-Bosnian script, Bosnian-Croat Cyrillic, harvacko pismo, arvatica or Western Cyrillic.

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History and characteristic features

It is hard to ascertain when features of characteristically Bosnian type of Cyrillic script had begun to appear, but paleographers consider that the Humac tablet (Bosnian Cyrillic tablet) is the first document of this type of script and dates back supposedly to the 10th/11th century. Bosnian Cyrillic lasted continuously until the 18th century, with sporadic uses even in the 20th century. Today it is preserved in a Franciscan monastery of Humac near Ljubuški in Herzegovina.

Historically, a few areas of Bosnian Cyrillic had been prominent:

In conclusion, main traits of Bosnian Cyrillic include:

Controversies and polemic

The polemic about "ethnic affiliation" of Bosnian Cyrillic started in 1850s and is not settled yet. Without going into nuances and details, the polemic about attribution and affiliation of Bosnian Cyrillic texts seems to rest on further arguments:

The irony of the contemporary status of Bosnian Cyrillic is as follows: scholars are still trying to prove that Bosnian Cyrillic is ethnically their own, while simultaneously relegating the corpus of Bosnian Cyrillic written texts to the periphery of national culture. This extinct form of Cyrillic is peripheral to Croatian paleography which focuses on Glagolitic and Latin script corpora while Bosniaks, although acknowledging Bosnian Cyrillic heritage, have been focusing efforts on investigating Bosnian vernacular literature in a modified Arabic script. The heated dispute on the nature and status of Bosnian Cyrillic is probably destined to remain confined to specialist academic circles.

Other names for Bosnian Cyrillic

Other names (originally written): bosanica (Stjepan Zlatović), bosanska azbukva (Ivan Berčić), bosanska ćirilica (Franjo Rački), hrvatsko-bosanska ćirilica (Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski), bosansko-dalmatinska ćirilica (Vatroslav Jagić), bosanska brzopisna grafija (E. F. Karskij), zapadna varijanta ćirilskog brzopisa (Petar Đorđić), zapadna (bosanska) ćirilica (Stjepan Ivšić), harvacko pismo (Dmine Papalić), rvasko pismo, arvatica, arvacko pismo (Povaljska listina), poljičica, poljička azbukvica (among the people of Poljica - Frane Ivanišević), sarpski fra Antun Depope).

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Literature

See also

External links