bikermom says, "And then there is the Russian Alphabet---totally unique. "
Not entirely, you know. I learnt the cyrillic alphbet some years ago and was amazed, when I was in Islington, London to find myself reading, without much difficulty, the words embazoned on the side of a van parked there. It belonged to a Greek shop, of which, in that quarter of London, there are many.
It was the Greek Missionaries who introduced a written language to Russia, back in mediæval times, applying the Greek alphabet to the spoken Russian. They had to invent a few symbols for sounds used in Russia but not in Greece. The alphabet is named cyrillic after St Cyril (pronounced with a K-sound, not an S), although it was originaly called glagolytic (and I can't for the life of me think why - but someone out there will know!)
