Languages written in a Cyrillic alphabet

This is a list of languages that have been written in the Cyrillic script at one time or another. See also early Cyrillic alphabet.

Distribution of the Cyrillic script worldwide. The dark green shows the countries that use Cyrillic as the one main script; the lighter green those that use Cyrillic alongside another official script.

Indo-European languages

• Indo-Iranian languages
  • Indo-Aryan languages
    • Romani (in Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and former USSR)
  • Iranian languages
    • Kurdish (living in former USSR)
    • Ossetic (since 18th century, modern alphabet since 1938)
    • Shughni
    • Tajik
    • Tat (Judeo-Tat)
    • Yaghnobi

• Romance languages
  • Romanian (up to the 19th century, and a different form of Cyrillic in Moldova from 1940–89 exclusively; now Cyrillic is used in Transnistria officially and in the rest of the country in everyday communication by some groups of people; see Moldovan alphabet)
  • Ladino in occasional Bulgarian Sephardic publications.

• Slavic languages
  • Old Church Slavonic
  • Church Slavonic
  • Belarusian, now almost exclusively in Cyrillic, although there was a Roman version of the language in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Belarusian Roman script was called Łacinka
  • Bosnian, (Bosnian Cyrillic was used in the Bosnian language until the late 18th century.)
  • Bulgarian
  • Macedonian
  • Montenegrin
  • Russian
  • Rusyn
  • Serbian
  • Ukrainian

Languages of the Caucasus

(This group is not assumed to comprise genetically related subgroups.)

• Northeast Caucasian languages:
  • Avar
  • Chechen (since 1938, also with Roman 1991–2000)
  • Dargwa
  • Lak
  • Lezgian
  • Tabassaran
• Northwest Caucasian languages:
  • Abaza
  • Abkhaz
  • Adyghe
  • Kabardian

Sino-Tibetan languages

• Chinese languages
  • Dungan (since 1953)

Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages

• Chukchi (since 1936)
• Koryak (since 1936)
• Itelmen

Mongolian languages

• Buryat
• Kalmyk
• Mongolian

Tungusic languages

• Even
• Evenk (since 1937)
• Nanai
• Udihe (Udekhe) (writing recently is not used)

Turkic languages

• Altay
• Azerbaijani/Azeri (1939–91, exclusively in Cyrillic, since 1991 officially in Roman)
• Balkar
• Bashkir
• Chuvash
• Crimean Tatar (1938–91)
• Gagauz (1957-1990s, exclusively in Cyrillic, since 1990s officially in Roman, but in reality in everyday communication Cyrillic is used alongside with Roman script)
• Kazakh
• Karachay
• Karakalpak (1940s–1990s)
• Karaim language (20-th century)
• Khakas
• Kumyk
• Kyrgyz
• Nogai
• Tatar (since 1939)
• Turkmen (1940–94 exclusively in Cyrillic, since 1994 officially in Roman, but in reality in everyday communication Cyrillic is used alongside with Roman script)
• Tuvan
• Uyghur (Called Uyghur Siril Yëziqi. Used along with Uyghur Ereb Yëziqi, Uyghur Latin Yëziqi and Uyghur Pinyin Yëziqi)
• Uzbek (1941–98 exclusively in Cyrillic, since 1998 Cyrillic is used alongside with Roman script, which was prescribed as the future alphabet of Uzbek)
• Yakut

Uralic languages

• Samoyedic languages
  • Nenets (since 1937)
  • Selkup (since 1950s writing recently is not used)
• Uralic languages
  • Karelian (until 1921 and 1937–1940)
  • Khanty
  • Mansi (since 1937 writing has not received distribution)
  • Komi
    • Komi-Zyrian (since 17th century, modern alphabet since 1930s)
    • Komi-Permyak
  • Mari (since 19th century)
  • Mordvin languages
    • Erzya (since 18th century)
    • Moksha (since 18th century)
  • Sami (in Russia, since 1980s)
    • Kildin Sami
  • Udmurt

Eskimo-Aleut languages

• Aleut
• Alutiiq
• Central Siberian Yupik (Yuit)

Afro-Asiatic languages

• Assyrian Neo-Aramaic (Aisor)

Other languages

• Ket
• Padonkaffsky jargon
• Nivkh
• Tlingit
• Yukaghir
• Russian sign language (uses the Cyrillic script via the Russian Manual Alphabet)
• Constructed languages
  • International auxiliary languages
    • Lingua Franca Nova
    • Slovianski
  • Fictional languages
    • Brutopian (Donald Duck stories)
    • Syldavian (The Adventures of Tintin)

References

See also

• Cyrillic script
• Cyrillic alphabets
• List of Cyrillic letters
• Appendix:Cyrillic scripts
• Category:Cyrillic alphabets
• Cyrillization of Chinese (Palladiy system)
• Cyrillization of Japanese (Polivanov system)
• Cyrillization of Korean (Kontsevich system)