Old Permic

Old Permic is an alphabet used to write the Old Permic languages, which were spoken in parts of the medieval Komi-Permyak Okrug of Perm Krai in Russia. It is derived from the Cyrillic alphabet, and was used between the 14th and 17th centuries. Old Permic was created in the 14th century by the monk Maxim the Greek, who was from the Byzantine Empire. It is thought that he adapted the Glagolitic alphabet to the Old Permic languages. The Old Permic alphabet consists of 36 letters, and is written from left to right. The alphabet is used to write three languages: Komi-Zyrian, Komi-Permyak, and Udmurt. Komi-Zyrian is the largest of the three languages, and is spoken by about 500,000 people. It is written in a Cyrillic-based alphabet, and has been influenced by Russian. Komi-Permyak is spoken by about 200,000 people, and is written in the Old Permic alphabet. It is not as closely related to Russian as Komi-Zyrian is, and has been influenced by the Finno-Ugric languages. Udmurt is spoken by about 300,000 people, and is written in the Cyrillic alphabet. It is closely related to Russian, and has also been influenced by the Finno-Ugric languages.