Slavic languages were written in Cyrillic, but after a while, they started to use the Latin script, and the languages were completely split into separate languages using different scripts, now being known as Eastern and Western Slavic. However, looking at Asian and Middle-Eastern languages, we see that they are not splitting into different languages using different scripts like Slavic languages. Why did that not happen to them?
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>Slavic languages were written in Cyrillic, but after a while, they started to use the Latin script
Incorrect. Czech and Polish have never been written in the Cyrillic alphabet.
> the languages were completely split into separate languages using different scripts, now being known as Eastern and Western Slavic
Also incorrect. The Western, Eastern, and Southern Slavic branches split hundreds of years before those languages adopted the Latin or Cyrillic alphabets. It’s a normal part of the evolution of language.
The real reason those languages use different alphabets is because of religion. Latin was the language of the Catholic church, so Catholic countries adopted the Latin script for their own languages. Greek was the language of the Orthodox church, so Orthodox countries adopted the Greek-derived Cyrillic alphabet. Another counter-example: Romania used the Cyrillic script until the 18th or 19th century, even though it’s a Latin language.
>However, looking at Asian and Middle-Eastern languages, we see that they are not splitting into different languages using different scripts like Slavic languages
Not true. Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Mongolian, and most languages of Central Asia (Kazakh, Uzbek, etc.) are all Asian languages that are now written in the Latin or Cyrillic alphabets.
This never happened in the first place.
First, the split of Slavic languages occurred before the Cyrillic script was invented, and the adoption of Cyrillic or Latin scripts mostly depended on whether the state religion was Catholic or Orthodox Christianity. (With some exceptions.) The split of Slavic languages itself was largely a factor of geography and politics – different nations spoke different dialects that eventually became different languages altogether.
Second, “Asian and Middle-Eastern languages” is a very broad category encompassing many language families. Some of them *have* split, or started using different scripts. Others haven’t. Again, it often depends on geography and politics.
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