Vero - Wikipedia - User contributions [en]

Soft sign

2025-10-25T10:47:09Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{Short description|Letter of the Cyrillic script}}
{{About|the Cyrillic character|the psychopathology-related neurological symptom|neurological soft signs}}
{{Distinguish|b{{!}}the lowercase letter b|Ƅ|I with bowl}}
{{More citations needed|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox grapheme
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = Soft sign
| image = Cyrillic letter Yeri - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = {{IPAblink|◌ʲ}}
| number =
| fam1 = [[Ⱐ|Ⱐ ⱐ]]
| letter = Ь ь
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]], [[East Slavic languages]]
| children =
| associates = [[Modifier letter double apostrophe|ꚝ]]
| unicode = U+042C, U+044C
}}

[[File:Azbuka Benois - Ь.jpg|thumb|Soft sign, from [[Alexandre Benois]]' 1904 [[alphabet book]]. It shows ''prorub′'' (ice-hole), ''v′yuga'' ([[snowstorm]]) and ''puzyr′'' ([[soap bubble|bubble]]).]]

The '''soft sign''' (Ь ь; italics: ''Ь ь'' or Ь ь; italics: ''Ь ь'') is a letter in the Cyrillic script that is used in various Slavic languages.<ref>{{Cite Efron|Ь}}</ref> In [[Old Church Slavonic]], it represented a short or reduced front vowel. However, over time, the specific vowel sound it denoted was largely eliminated and merged with other vowel sounds.

In most contemporary Slavic Cyrillic writing systems, such as those used in [[East Slavic languages]] (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian) and Church Slavic, the soft sign does not represent a distinct sound on its own. Instead, it serves as an indicator of [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalization]] of the preceding consonant. In the Bulgarian language, it is only used to mark the palatalization of the preceding consonant when in front of the letter o, causing the combination ьо (/ʲo/). An example of this is the word {{lang|bg|гьол}} (/gʲol/).

Palatalization is a linguistic process in which the middle of the tongue moves closer to the hard palate while pronouncing a consonant. It affects the pronunciation of the preceding consonant by giving it a palatal quality or causing it to become a palatal consonant. The soft sign acts as a visual marker to show that the consonant before it is palatalized.

For example, in Russian, the soft sign is often used after consonants to indicate palatalization. It affects the pronunciation of the preceding consonant and can change the sound of words. The specific effect varies depending on the consonant it follows. In other Slavic languages where the soft sign is used, a similar palatalization function is observed.

It may also be used as a superscript (ꚝ) in Lithuanian dialectology.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Girdenis |first=A. |title=Kalbotyros darbai =: Studies in linguistics |date=2000 |publisher=Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas |isbn=978-5-420-01475-2 |location=Vilnius}}</ref>

== Uses and meanings ==
=== Palatalization sign ===
{{main|Palatalization (phonetics)}}
The soft sign is normally written after a [[consonant]] and indicates its ''softening'' (palatalization) (for example [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] бат'''ь'''ко 'father'). Less commonly, the soft sign just has a grammatically determined usage with no phonetic meaning (like {{langx|ru|туш}} 'fanfare' and туш'''ь''' 'India ink', both pronounced {{IPA|/tuʂ/}} but different in [[grammatical gender]] and [[declension]]). In East Slavic languages and some other Slavic languages (such as Bulgarian), there are some consonants that do not have phonetically different palatalized forms but corresponding letters still admit the affixing soft sign.

The [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet]] has had no soft sign as a distinct letter since the mid-19th century: palatalization is represented by special consonant letters instead of the sign (some of these letters, such as {{angbr|[[lje|Љ]]}} or {{angbr|[[nje|Њ]]}}, were designed as ligatures with the [[grapheme]] of the soft sign). The modern [[Macedonian alphabet]], based on the Serbian Cyrillic variant, has had no soft sign since its creation, in 1944.

=== Before a vowel in East Slavic languages ===
Between a consonant and a vowel, the soft sign bears also a function of "[[iotation]] sign": in Russian, vowels after the soft sign are iotated (compare Russian льют {{IPA|/lʲjut/}} '(they) pour/cast' and лют {{IPA|/lʲut/}} '(he is) fierce'). The feature, quite consistent with [[Russian orthography]], promulgated a confusion between palatalization and iotation, especially because {{angbr|ь}} usually precedes so-called ''soft vowels''. Combinations {{angbr|ья}} (ya), {{angbr|ье}} (ye), {{angbr|ьё}} (yo) and {{angbr|ью}} (yu) give iotated vowels, like corresponding vowel letters in isolation (and word-initially), and unlike its use immediately after a consonant letter in which palatalization can occur but not iotation.  In those cases, {{angbr|ь}} may be considered as a sign indicating that a vowel after it is pronounced separately from the previous consonant, but that is the case neither for {{angbr|ьи}} (yi) nor for {{angbr|ьо}} (yo), because these vowels are not iotated in isolation. The latter case, though, is rarely used in Russian (only in loanwords such as {{angbr|бульон}}) and can be seen as a replacement of phonetically identical {{angbr|ьё}}, which gets rid of an "inconvenient" letter {{angbr|[[ё]]}}. In Ukrainian and Bulgarian, the spelling {{angbr|ьо}} indicates palatalization, not iotation.

Known as the ''[[hard sign]]'' ({{langx|ru|твёрдый знак|tvjordyj znak}}, {{IPA|ru|ˈtvʲɵrdɨj ˈznak|pron}}), {{angbr|ъ}}, an "unpalatalization sign", also denotes iotation, as in the case of {{angbr|ъя}}, {{angbr|ъе}}, {{angbr|ъё}} and {{angbr|ъю}} in Russian. It differs from the soft sign in that it does not necessarily soften the preceding consonant like the soft sign does (although consonants preceding the hard sign are still sometimes softened).

Similarly, the soft sign may denote iotation in [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] and [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], but it is not used so extensively as in Russian. [[Ukrainian orthography|Ukrainian]] uses a quite different repertoire of vowel letters from those of Russian and Belarusian, and iotation is usually expressed by an [[apostrophe]] in Ukrainian. Still the soft sign is used in Ukrainian if the sound preceded by an iotated vowel is palatalized.

=== In Bulgarian ===
Among Slavic languages using the Cyrillic script, the soft sign has the most limited use in [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]: while phonemic palatalization does occur, it is very limited, even more than in other hard languages like Serbian (compare Bulgarian {{lang|bg|кон}} to Russian ''конь'' or Serbian ''коњ''). The only possible position is one between consonants and {{angbr|о}} (such as in names {{lang|bg|Жельо, Кръстьо}}, and {{lang|bg|Гьончо}}, or the word {{lang|bg|синьо}}). Rather, the letter is mostly used in foreign words of French or German origin, such as {{lang|bg|шофьор}} (driver, chauffeur).  There are almost no native Bulgarian words with the soft sign. The letter is sometimes used to represent some dialect pronunciations („{{lang|bg|твърдо нье}}“).{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

=== As a vowel in Slavic studies ===
{{See also|Proto-Slavic language#Notation|Proto-Balto-Slavic language#Notation|Yer}}
In Slavistic transcription, which is a system used to represent Proto-Slavic language, the Cyrillic letters Ь and Ъ are employed to denote extra-short vowel sounds known as yers. Ь represents the extra-short /ĭ/ sound, while Ъ represents the extra-short /ŭ/ sound.

Proto-Slavic refers to the common ancestor of the Slavic languages, which was spoken around the 5th to 9th centuries AD. During this period, the Slavic languages were still in the process of diverging from a shared linguistic ancestor. Slavistic transcription aims to reconstruct the phonological features of Proto-Slavic based on historical and comparative linguistics.

In Old Slavonic orthography, which is closely related to Proto-Slavic, the soft sign (Ь) and the hard sign (Ъ) were originally used to represent the extra-short vowel sounds. These extra-short vowels were distinct from regular short vowels in terms of their duration or length.

The extra-short /ĭ/ sound represented by Ь was a front vowel, similar to the sound of "i" in the English word "bit." On the other hand, the extra-short /ŭ/ sound represented by Ъ was a back vowel, similar to the sound of "u" in the English word "put."

By utilizing Ь and Ъ in Slavistic transcription, linguists and researchers can indicate the presence of these extra-short vowel sounds in reconstructed Proto-Slavic words. This transcription system allows for a more accurate representation of the phonetic and phonological characteristics of the ancestral Slavic language.

===Digraphs===

In certain non-Slavic Cyrillic-based alphabets, such as [[Chechen language|Chechen]], [[Ingush language|Ingush]], and various [[Dagestanian languages|Dagestanian]] languages like [[Tabasaran language|Tabasaran]], the digraph ⟨аь⟩ is introduced to represent the sounds /æ/ or /a/. This combination of the letter "а" and the soft sign "ь" denotes a specific vowel sound. Similarly, the digraph ⟨оь⟩ is used for /œ/ or /ø/, and ⟨уь⟩ for /y/. Additional iotated forms like ⟨юь⟩ and ⟨яь⟩ are used as needed. This usage of the soft sign is similar to the trailing "e" in German when umlauts are unavailable.

This approach allows for the representation of specific vowel sounds in these non-Slavic languages using the available Cyrillic characters. The soft sign ⟨ь⟩, combined with other letters, creates digraphs to represent distinct phonemes that cannot be expressed by the bare letters alone.

There have also been proposals to use the ⟨аь⟩ digraph in Turkic languages as a replacement for Cyrillic schwa ([[Schwa (Cyrillic)|Ә]]), which represents the sound /ə/ or /æ/. Only [[Nogai language]] as a Turkic language uses this digraph. Unlike schwa, which may not be present in all Cyrillic character repertoires, both ⟨а⟩ and ⟨ь⟩ are commonly available letters in the basic modern Russian alphabet.

In addition to its use with vowels, the soft sign, like the hard sign and the palochka, is employed in many languages as digraphs to represent consonant sounds that are phonetically similar but distinct from the bare letter. For example, while the letter "г" represents the sound /g/, the combination "гь" represents /ɣ/ in Crimean Tatar, /ɦ/ in Archi, and /h/ in Avar and Tabasaran.

== Representations ==
Under normal orthographic rules, it has no uppercase form, as no word begins with the letter. However, Cyrillic type fonts normally provide an uppercase form for setting type in [[all caps]] or for using it as an element of various serial numbers (like series of Soviet banknotes) and indices (for example, there was once a model of old Russian [[steam locomotive]]s [https://web.archive.org/web/20111005173005/http://www.railroads.narod.ru/photo/165.jpg marked "Ь"] – [[:ru:Паровоз Ь]]).

In the [[romanization of Cyrillic]], the soft sign is typically transliterated with {{unichar|02B9|[[MODIFIER LETTER PRIME]]}}. Sometimes {{unichar|02BC|[[MODIFIER LETTER APOSTROPHE]]}} is used, or the soft sign may be ignored if it is in a position that it does not denote iotation, for example: Тверь=[[Tver]], Обь=[[Ob River|Ob]]. It can also be transcribed "y" or "i" if preceding a vowel.

In Belarusian it is romanized as a combining acute, e.g., зь {{angbr|ź}}, ць {{angbr|ć}}, нь {{angbr|ń}}, ль {{angbr|ĺ}}.

== Name of letter ==
* {{langx|be|мяккі знак|miakki znak|lit=soft sign}}, {{IPA|be|ˈmʲakʲːi ˈznak|IPA}}
* {{langx|bg|ер малък|er malǎk|lit=small yer}}, {{IPA|bg|ɛr ˈmalɐk|IPA}}; the hard sign {{angbr|ъ}} being named {{langx|bg|ер голям|er golyam|lit=big yer|label=none}}
* {{langx|bxr|зөөлэн тэмдэг|translit=zöölen temdeg}}, {{IPA|bxr|zœːˈlɛn ˈtɛmdək|}}
* {{langx|cu|єрь|translit=yerʹ}}
** {{langx|cu|ѥрь|translit=yerĭ|label=[[Old Church Slavonic]]}}, with unknown meaning
* {{langx|xal|җөөлн темдг|translit=cööln temdg}}, {{IPA|xal|d͡ʒœːˈlən tɛmˈdək|}}
* {{langx|kk|жіңішкелік белгісі|jıñışkelık belgısı|sign of softness}}, {{IPA|kk|ʑɪŋɪɕkjɪlɪk bjɪlɡɪsɪ|IPA}}
* {{langx|ky|ичкертүү белгиси|içkertüü belgisi}}
* {{langx|mn|зөөлний тэмдэг|translit=zöölnii temdeg}}, {{IPA|mn|ˈt͡soːɮniː ˈtʰemteɡ|IPA}}
* {{langx|ro|семнул моале|semnul moale|lit=soft sign}}, {{IPA|ro|ˈsemnul ˈmo̯a.le|IPA}}
* {{langx|ru|мягкий знак|myagkiy znak|lit=soft sign}}, {{IPA|ru|ˈmʲæxʲkʲɪj ˈznak|IPA}}; or (archaic, mostly pre-1917 name) {{langx|ru|ерь|yer'|label=none}}, {{IPA|ru|jerʲ|IPA}}
* {{langx|sr|танко јер|tanko jer|lit=thin yer}}; or simply {{langx|sr|јер|jer|lit=yer|label=none}}; the hard sign {{angbr|ъ}} being named {{langx|sr|дебело јер|debelo jer|lit=thick yer|label=none}}, or {{langx|sr|јор|jor|lit=yor|label=none}}
* {{langx|uk|м’який знак|translit=miakyi znak|translit-std=ungegn|lit=soft sign}}, {{IPA|uk|mjɐˈkɪj ˈznɑk|IPA}}
* {{langx|uz|юмшатиш белгиси|yumshatish belgisi}}, {{IPA|uz|jumʃætiʃ belɡisi|IPA}}

==Related letters and other similar characters==
* [[B|Latin letter B]], which lowercase letter is nearly identical
*Ъ ъ : [[Ъ|Cyrillic letter Hard sign]]
*Ҍ ҍ : [[Ҍ|Cyrillic letter Semisoft sign]]
*Ѣ ѣ : [[Ѣ|Cyrillic letter Yat]]
*Ы ы : [[Ы|Cyrillic letter Yery]]
*Љ љ : [[Љ|Cyrillic letter Lje]]
*Њ њ : [[Њ|Cyrillic letter Nje]]
*Ᲊ ᲊ : [[Tje|Cyrillic letter Tje]]
*[[File:Latin capital letter I with bowl.svg|x14px]], [[File:Latin small letter I with bowl.svg|x12px]] : [[I with bowl]]

== Computing codes ==

{{charmap
|042C|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Soft Sign
|044C|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Soft Sign
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=F8 |map1char2=D8
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=EE |map2char2=ED
|map3=[[Code page 866]] |map3char1=9C |map3char2=EC
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=DC |map4char2=FC
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=CC |map5char2=EC
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=9C |map6char2=FC
}}

==See also==
{{Wiktionary|soft sign|Ь|ь}}
* [[Ğ]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]

Yu (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:43:50Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{Short description|Cyrillic letter}}
{{distinguish|text=the Korean [[hangul]] syllable {{lang|ko|어}} (eo) or the Cyrillic letter [[yus]]}}
{{more citations needed|date=February 2007}}
{{Infobox grapheme
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = Yu
| image = Cyrillic letter Yu - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|j}}{{IPA link|u}}]
| number =
| fam1 =
| letter = Ю ю
| variations = Ꙕ ꙕ
| alphanumber =
| unicode = U+042E, U+044E, U+A654, U+A655
| equivalents = Yu yu, Ju ju, I͡U i͡u
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]]
}}

[[File:Азбука_красноармейца._Ю.jpg|thumb|''Yu'', from the ''Alphabet Book оf the Red Army Soldier'' (1921)]]
'''Yu''' or '''Ju''' (Ю ю; italics: ''Ю ю'' or Ю ю; italics: ''Ю ю'') is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]] used in [[East Slavic languages|East Slavic]] and [[Bulgarian alphabet|Bulgarian]] alphabets.

In English, Yu is commonly [[Romanization of Russian|romanized]] as {{angle bracket|yu}} or {{angle bracket|ju}}. In turn, {{angle bracket|ю}} is used, where available, in [[orthographic transcription|transcriptions]] of English letter {{angle bracket|[[u]]}} (in [[open syllable]]s), and also of the {{angle bracket|[[ew (digraph)|ew]]}} digraph. The sound {{IPAblink|y}}, like {{angle bracket|u}} in French and {{angle bracket|[[ü]]}} in German, may also be approximated by the letter {{angle bracket|ю}}.

==Pronunciation==
Sometimes, it is referred to as "Iotated U" because it is a so-called [[Iotation|iotated]] vowel, pronounced in isolation as {{IPA|/ju/}}, like the pronunciation of {{angle bracket|u}} in "h'''u'''man". After a [[consonant]], no distinct {{IPA|[j]}} sound is pronounced, but the consonant is [[Palatalization (phonetics)|softened]]. The exact pronunciation of the vowel sound of {{angle bracket|ю}} in Slavic languages depends also on the succeeding sound. Before a soft consonant, it is {{IPA|[ʉ]}}, the [[close central rounded vowel]], as in 'r'''u'''de'. Before a hard consonant or at the end of a word, the result is a back vowel {{IPAblink|u}}, as in "p'''oo'''l".

==History==
Apart from the form ''I-O'', in early [[Old Church Slavonic|Slavonic]] manuscripts the letter appears also in a mirrored form ''O-I'' ({{Slavonic|Ꙕ, ꙕ}}).<ref>{{cite book
|author = Yefim Karskiy
|author-link = Yefim Karskiy
|trans-title=The Slavic Cyrillic paleography
|script-title=ru:Славянская кирилловская палеография
|language= Russian
|edition = 2nd, facsimile
|publisher = [[Nauka (publisher)|Nauka]]
|year = 1979
|orig-year = First published 1928
|pages = 205–206
}}</ref> It is the latter form that is probably the original,{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} precisely displaying the Greek combination [[omicron]]-[[iota]] (οι). At the time that the [[Greek alphabet]] was adapted to the Slavonic language giving rise to the Cyrillic alphabet, it denoted the [[close front rounded vowel]] {{IPA|/y/}} in educated Greek speech. The close [[front vowel|''front'']] rounded vowel does not appear in East Slavic. See [[#Pronunciation|above]].

There was another way for it to lead to the modern form. By the analogy to several 'iotated' letters [[Iotated E (Cyrillic)|Ѥ]], [[Ya (Cyrillic)#History|Ꙗ]], [[Yus|Ѩ]] and [[Yus|Ѭ]], the ancient ligature (or letter) [[Uk (Cyrillic)|Uk]] {{angle bracket|оѵ}}/{{angle bracket|оу}} possibly had its iotated form {{angle bracket|іоѵ}}/{{angle bracket|іоу}}.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

The iotated [[big Yus]] {{angle bracket|Ѭ}} merged itself to {{angle bracket|ю}} in East Slavic languages.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

{{angbr|Ю}} is the [[Voice Quality Symbol]] for [[Esophageal speech#Tracheoesophageal puncture|tracheo-œsophageal speech]] (the symbol attempts to capture iconically the dual nature of the airstream).

==Related letters and other similar characters==
*У у : [[U (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter U]]
*Ү ү : [[Ue (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter Ue]]
*Û û : [[Û|Latin letter U with circumflex]]
*Ū ū : [[Ū|Latin letter U with macron]]
*Ǔ ǔ : [[Ǔ|Latin letter U with caron]]

==Computing codes==

{{charmap
|042E|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Yu
|044E|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Yu
|A654|name3=Cyrillic Capital Letter Reversed Yu
|A655|name4=Cyrillic Small Letter Reversed Yu
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=E0 |map1char2=C0
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=9D |map2char2=9C
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=DE |map4char2=FE
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=CE |map5char2=EE
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=9E |map6char2=FE
}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Ю}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|ю}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Vowel letters]]
[[Category:Cyrillic ligatures]]

E (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:42:55Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{Short description|Letter of the Cyrillic script}}
{{Hatnote group|
{{About-confuse|the Cyrillic Э|З}}
{{For|the letter Ye (Е е) of the Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, and Ukrainian alphabets|Ye (Cyrillic)}}
}}
{{Infobox grapheme
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = E
| image = Cyrillic letter E - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = {{IPAblink|e}}, {{IPAblink|ɛ}}
| number =
| fam1 =
| letter = Э э
| equivalents = E e
| unicode = U+042D, U+044D
}}

[[File:Азбука_красноармейца._Э.jpg|thumb|''E'', from the ''Alphabet Book оf the Red Army Soldier'' (1921)]]
'''E''' (Э э; italics: ''Э э'' or Э э; italics: ''Э э''); also known as '''backwards ye''', from [[Russian language|Russian]] {{lang|ru|е оборо́тное}}, ''ye oborótnoye'', {{IPA|ru|ˈjɛ ɐbɐˈrotnəjə|}}) is a letter found in three [[Slavic languages]]: [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], and [[West Polesian]]. It represents the [[vowel]]s {{IPAblink|e}} and {{IPAblink|ɛ}}, as the e in the word "'''e'''ditor". In other Slavic languages that use the [[Cyrillic script]], the sounds are represented by [[Ye (Cyrillic)|Ye]] (Е е), which in Russian and Belarusian represents {{IPA|ru|je|}} in initial and postvocalic position or {{IPA|ru|e|}} with [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalization]] of the preceding [[consonant]]. This letter closely resembles and should not be confused with the older Cyrillic letter [[Ukrainian Ye]] (Є є), of which Э is a reversed version.

In [[Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet|Cyrillic Moldovan]], which was used in the [[Moldovan SSR]] during the [[Soviet Union]] and is still used in [[Transnistria]], the letter corresponds to [[ă]] in the Latin [[Romanian alphabet]], and the phoneme [ə]. It is also used in the Cyrillic alphabets used by [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]] and many [[Uralic languages|Uralic]], [[Caucasian languages|Caucasian]] and [[Turkic languages]] of the former Soviet Union.

==Origin==
The letter {{angle bracket|{{Slavonic|э}}}} originated in the thirteenth century as a variant of {{angle bracket|{{Slavonic|[[є]]}}}}, at first, according to Đorđić<ref>Петар Ђорђић, ''Историја српске ћирилице'', Београд, 2-a изд., 1987, p.87</ref> in superscripted line-final position, but by the end of the century elsewhere as well.<ref>Cf ''Банишко евангелие: среднобългарски паметник от XIII век'', подгот. за печат с увод и коментар Е. Дограмаджиева и Б. Райков, София, 1981, pp.13, 341</ref> In the following centuries it continued to appear sporadically as an uncommon variant of {{angle bracket|є}}, but not later than in the fifteenth century amongst the Eastern Slavs it began to be used to indicate initial (un[[iotated]]) {{IPAblink|e}}. According to [[Yefim Karskiy]], "Western Russian [[uncial script|ustav]] knows {{angle bracket|{{Slavonic|э}}}}, e.g. in Miscellany of the 15th c. from the Public Library (manuscr. #391) ({{Slavonic|экъсеквїє}} etc.), chronicles of 15th-16th cc., Miscellany of [[Poznań]] (16th c.),<ref>Published in the vol. 17 of the [[Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles]].</ref> [[Statutes of Lithuania|Statut of 1588]]... It is difficult to say whether it has been developed here independently or it came from South Slavic manuscripts, where {{angle bracket|{{Slavonic|э}}}} occurs as early as in 13-14th cc."<ref>"Западнорусский устав знает ''э'', напр. в Сб. XV в. Публ. б. № 391 ({{Slavonic|экъсеквїє}} и др.), летописях XV—XVI вв., Позн. Сб. XVI в., Статуте 1588... Трудно сказать, развилось ли оно здесь самостоятельно или же зашло из югославянских рукописей, где ''э'' встречается уже в XIII—XIV вв." (Е. Ф. Карский, ''Белорусы: Язык белорусского народа'', вып. 1, М., 1955, р. 69). See also pp. 165-166 for more details and examples.</ref> Although the revision of [[Meletius Smotrytsky]]’s grammar published in Moscow in 1648 does not include {{angle bracket|{{Slavonic|э}}}} in its alphabet, it does consistently write {{Slavonic|Этѷмолѻ́гїа}} (''Etymologia''), in contrast to {{Slavonic|Єтѷмоло́ґїѧ}} in the first edition of 1619. It was by no means confined to this function in the period, however, as the prevalent spellings {{Slavonic|реэстръ, маэоръ}} (beside {{Slavonic|маеоръ, маіоръ}}) for modern Russian {{lang|ru|реестр}}, {{lang|ru|майор}} demonstrate.

== Usage ==

=== In modern Russian ===
[[File:Russian alphabet (marks by Peter I), page 4.gif|thumb|right|Specimens of the [[civil script]] with annotations by Peter I.]]
In the specimens of the [[civil script]] presented to [[Peter I of Russia|Peter I]] in 1708, forms of {{angle bracket|э}} were included among forms of {{angle bracket|{{Slavonic|є}}}}, but the latter was deleted by Peter. The former was used in some early 18th-century Russian texts, but some authorities of the period considered it superfluous, like [[Mikhail Lomonosov]], on the grounds that "the letter Е, having several different pronunciations, could serve in the pronoun {{lang|ru|етотъ}} and the interjection {{lang|ru|ей}}"<ref>''Россійская Грамматика'' Михайла Ломоносова, печатана в Санктпетербургѣ, при Императорской Академїи Наук, 1755 года, p.43</ref> and that it was inappropriate to introduce letters solely for use in loanwords. However, the inclusion of {{angle bracket|Э}} in its modern function, in the Russian Academy's Dictionary of 1789–94, marks the point from which it can be considered as an established part of the Russian orthographical standard.

There were still some objections to the letter even as late as 1817, when [http://www.rulex.ru/01110753.htm M. T. Kačenovskij] was questioning whether "yet another hard э" was necessary when the language already had "a soft ѣ and a hard е".<ref>[М. Т.] Каченовский, “Исторический взгляд на Грамматику Славянских наречий”, ''Труды О-ва любителей Российской словесности при имп. Московском университете'', ч.IX (1817), pp.17-46. He was referring specifically to the spelling {{Slavonic|Этѷмоло́ґїѧ}} in the 1648 grammar mentioned above: {{lang|ru|“Каким образом появляется здесь обратное Э, которое в азбуке Мелетием обойдено? Разве нужно, при мягком Ѣ, при твердом Е, еще одно твердое Э?”}} so how far his remarks extend to the Russian of his own day is debatable. The reference to "a soft ѣ and a hard е" was referring to the pronunciation of Church Slavonic current in his day (which is still maintained by the [[Old Believers]]). That may have still been regarded as the literary ideal: see Б. А. Успенский, ''Архаическая система церковнославянского произношения'', Москва, 1968, especially pp.29-35.</ref>

In contemporary Russian, {{angle bracket|э}} is used to represent {{IPA|ru|e|}}, {{IPA|ru|ɛ|}} in initial position ({{lang|ru|'''э'''лектричество}} 'electricity') and postvocalic position ({{lang|ru|ду'''э'''ль}} 'duel'). Among such words are only a few native Russian roots: {{lang|ru|эт-}} (это 'this is', этот/эта/это 'this (m./f./n.)', эти 'these', поэтому 'thus' etc.), {{lang|ru|эк-}} (экий 'what a'), {{lang|ru|эдак-}}/{{lang|ru|этак-}} (эдак/этак 'that way', эдакий/этакий 'sort of') and a few interjections like {{lang|ru|эй}} 'hey', {{lang|ru|э}} 'uh, oh', {{lang|ru|э-э-э}} 'uh'.

Even though Russian contains a significant number of loanwords in which {{IPA|ru|e|}} occurs after a hard (unpalatalised) consonant, it is still the practice to use the letter {{angle bracket|е}} for {{IPA|ru|e|}}, {{IPA|ru|ɛ|}}: {{lang|ru|теннис, сепсис}} ([[tennis]], [[sepsis]]). There are few traditional exceptions to that practice among [[proper noun|common noun]] loanwords:
* the original list (the first half of the 20th century) contained just three words:
** {{lang|ru|мэр}} 'mayor', from French {{lang|fr|'maire'}}
** {{lang|ru|пэр}} 'peer (a noble)', from French {{lang|fr|'pair'}}
** {{lang|ru|сэр}} 'sir', from English or from Old French {{lang|fr|'sieur'}}
* two later additions (1950s-1960s):
** {{lang|ru|мэтр}} 'master, skilled artist', from French {{lang|fr|'maître'}}
** {{lang|ru|пленэр}}, from French {{lang|fr|'[[en plein air|(en) plein air]]'}}
* new additions (1980s and later) are more numerous:
** {{lang|ru|рэкет}} 'racket, racketeering', from English
** {{lang|ru|рэп}} 'rap (music)', from English
** {{lang|ru|фэнтези}} 'fantasy (literature)', from English
** and several others; spelling of new words sometimes varies and dictionaries often give variants or contradict one another (like {{lang|ru|хетчбэк}} 'hatchback (car)' in spelling dictionary vs {{lang|ru|хетчбек}}/{{lang|ru|хэтчбек}} in explanatory dictionary [http://www.gramota.ru/slovari/dic/?lop=x&bts=x&zar=x&ag=x&ab=x&sin=x&lv=x&az=x&pe=x&word=%F5%3F%F2%F7*]).

In [[proper noun]]s, however, {{angle bracket|э}} may occur after consonants: {{lang|ru|Улан-Удэ}} '[[Ulan-Ude]]' and {{lang|ru|Блэр}} 'Blair'. However, many such loanwords are spelled with {{angle bracket|е}}: {{lang|ru|Блерио}} 'Blériot' (a French aviator). That is the case especially for names that entered the language centuries ago like: {{lang|ru|Берлин}}, 'Berlin'. The use of {{angle bracket|э}} is much more frequent for names from non-[[European languages]]: {{lang|ru|Мао Цзэдун}} 'Mao Zedong'.

The letter {{angle bracket|э}} is also used in Russian to render initial [[Open-mid front rounded vowel|œ]] in foreign words: thus {{lang|fr|Eure}} (the river in [[France]]) is written {{lang|ru|Эр}}. After consonants this is transcribed as {{angle bracket|[[ё]]}}. In the 19th century, some writers used {{angle bracket|ӭ}} for that sound in both positions,<ref>Я. К. Грот, ''Русское правописание,'' 19-ое изд., Санктпетербург, 1910, p.78</ref> but that was never accepted as standard orthography. (The letter {{angle bracket|[[ӭ]]}} was re-invented in the 20th century for [[Kildin Sami]].) It is also used to represent a stressed {{IPAc-en|æ}} in languages such as English, which can cause a problem of conflating {{IPAc-en|æ}} with English {{IPAc-en|ɛ}} (for example, "Addison" and "Edison" would be spelled the same). However, in other positions, Russian also uses {{angle bracket|а}} for {{IPAc-en|æ}} and {{angle bracket|е}} for {{IPAc-en|ɛ}}.

=== In modern Belarusian ===
Unlike Russian, Belarusian has many native words in which it occurs after a hard consonant. Moreover, its orthography [[Belarusian orthography reform of 1933|was standardized]] later than that of Russian (which reached its present form at the beginning of the 20th century), on the basis of the spoken language rather than historical tradition. Consequently, {{angle bracket|э}} and {{angle bracket|е}} are written in accordance with pronunciation: {{angle bracket|э}} for initial {{IPA|be|e|}} and after hard consonants, {{angle bracket|е}} for initial and postvocalic {{IPA|be|je|}} and after soft consonants. That also means that {{angle bracket|э}} is much more frequent in Belarusian than in Russian.

=== In other languages ===
In [[Tuvan language|Tuvan]] the Cyrillic letter can be written as a [[Digraph (orthography)#Homogeneous digraph|double vowel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tuvan.php|title=Tuvan language, alphabet and pronunciation|work=omniglot.com|access-date=14 June 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jWwqAAAAQBAJ|title=Compendium of the World's Languages|first1=George L.|last1=Campbell|first2=Gareth|last2=King|date=24 July 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136258459|access-date=14 June 2016|via=Google Books}}</ref>

In the [[Tajik language]], the letters е and э have the same function, except that э is used at the beginning of a word (ex. Эрон, "[[Iran]]").<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/tajik-ii-tajiki-persian|title=Encyclopedia Irancia, TAJIK PERSIAN|access-date=19 December 2017}}</ref>

In [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]], э is the standard letter to represent the /ɛ/ phoneme. When doubled, it represents the /eː/ phoneme. Е, however, is only used in the few Mongolian words containing it, Russian loanwords and Russian-style transcriptions of foreign names.

==Related letters and other similar characters==
* Е е : [[Е|Cyrillic letter Ye]]
* Є є : [[Є|Cyrillic letter Ukrainian Ye]]
* Ε ε : [[Ε|Greek letter Epsilon]]
* E e : [[E|Latin letter E]]
* É é : [[É|Latin letter E with acute]]
* Ė ė : [[Ė|Latin letter E with overdot]] - a Lithuanian letter
* ℈ : Scruple ([[Apothecaries' system]])
*€ : [[Euro Sign]]
{{anchor|Code positions}}

==Computing codes==

{{charmap
|042D|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter E
|044D|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter E
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=FC |map1char2=DC
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=F8 |map2char2=F7
|map3=[[Code page 866]] |map3char1=9D |map3char2=ED
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=DD |map4char2=FD
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=CD |map5char2=ED
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=9D |map6char2=FD
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Э}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|э}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]
[[Category:Vowel letters]]

Shcha

2025-10-25T10:40:56Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{short description|Cyrillic letter}}
{{For|the latin-script tetragraph|Shch}}
{{distinguish|Schwa{{!}}schwa (ə)}}
{{Infobox grapheme
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = Shcha
| image = Cyrillic letter Shcha - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|ɕ}}], [{{IPA link|ʃ}}{{IPA link|tʃ}}], [{{IPA link|ʃ}}{{IPA link|t}}]
| number =
| fam1 = Ⱋ ⱋ
| equivalents = Shch shch, Šč šč, Ŝ ŝ
| letter = Щ щ
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]]
| unicode = U+0429, U+0449
}}
[[File:Азбука_красноармейца._Щ.jpg|thumb|''Shcha'', from the ''Alphabet Book оf the Red Army Soldier'' (1921). The illustration depicts {{lang|ru|щук}} (''shchuk''), "[[pike (fish)|pike]]" ([[accusative case|acc.]] [[plural|pl.]]).]]
'''Shcha''' (Щ щ; italics: ''Щ щ'' or Щ щ; italics: ''Щ щ''), '''Shta''', or '''Scha''' is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cyrillic script |url=https://omniglot.com/writing/cyrillic.htm |access-date=2022-06-21 |website=omniglot.com}}</ref> In [[Russian language|Russian]], it represents the [[Length (phonetics)|long]] (sometimes short) [[voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative]] {{IPA|/ɕː/}}, similar to the pronunciation of sh in 'sheep'. In [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] and [[Rusyn language|Rusyn]], it represents the consonant cluster {{IPA|/ʃt͡ʃ/}}. In [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]], it represents the consonant cluster {{IPA|/ʃt/}}, like the pronunciation of “scht” in [[Borscht]]. Most other non-Slavic languages written in Cyrillic use this letter to spell the few loanwords that use it or foreign names; it is usually pronounced {{IPA|/ʃ/}}, an approximation of the Russian pronunciation of the letter, and is often omitted when teaching those languages.

In English, Russian Shcha is [[Romanization of Russian|romanized]] as {{angbr|shch}}, {{angbr|ŝ}}, {{angbr|šč}} or occasionally as {{angbr|sch|}}, all reflecting the historical Russian pronunciation of the letter (as a combined ''Ш'' and ''Ч'').<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Maier |first=Ingrid |date=2021 |title=Russian Pronunciation Rules in the Alphabetum Russarum (Stockholm, Peter van Selow) |url=http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-462754 |journal=Slovo: Journal of Slavic Languages, Literatures and Cultures |volume=62 |pages=39–60}}</ref> English-speaking learners of Russian are often instructed to pronounce it in this way although it is no longer the standard pronunciation in Russian (it still is in Ukrainian and Rusyn, as above). The letter Щ in Russian and Ukrainian corresponds to ШЧ in related words in Belarusian.

==History==
Cyrillic Щ (Early Cyrillic form: [[File:Early Cyrillic letter Shta.svg|20px]]) is derived from the [[Glagolitic alphabet|Glagolitic]] letter ''shta'' {{script|Glag|Ⱋ}},<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Zhang |first1=Xiangning |last2=Zhang |first2=Ruolin |title=Proceedings of the 2018 4th International Conference on Economics, Social Science, Arts, Education and Management Engineering (ESSAEME 2018) |chapter=Evolution of Ancient Alphabet to Modern Greek, Latin and Cyrillic Alphabets and Transcription between Them |date=July 2018 |chapter-url=https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/essaeme-18/25900400 |language=en |publisher=Atlantis Press |pages=156–162 |doi=10.2991/essaeme-18.2018.30 |isbn=978-94-6252-549-8|doi-access=free }}</ref> which was a ligature of ''sha'' {{script|Glag|Ⱎ}} (= Cyrillic Ш, pronounced {{IPAblink|ʃ}}), and ''tverdo'' {{script|Glag|Ⱅ}} (= Cyrillic Т, pronounced {{IPAblink|t}}).<ref>{{cite book |last=Schenker |first=Alexander M. |author-link=Alexander M. Schenker |title=The Dawn of Slavic: An Introduction to Slavic Philology |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven| pages=179|year=1995 |isbn=0-300-05846-2}}</ref> The original pronunciation, {{IPA|[ʃt]}}, is maintained in [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]].

This letter was also used in the [[Komi language]] as {{IPA|/t͡ʃ/}}, but it has fallen out of use in favour of [[Digraph (orthography)|digraph]] {{angle bracket|тш}}.

==Form==
The form of the letter shcha is considered to have originated as a [[Ligature (writing)|ligature]] of the letters Ш and Т.<ref>{{Cite book |first1=Alexandre |last1=Chodzko |first2=Aleksander Borejko |last2=Chodźko |url=https://archive.org/details/grammairepalosl00chodgoog |title=Grammaire paléoslave, suivie de textes paléoslaves |date=1869 |publisher=[s. n.] |via=Oxford University collection|language=French}}</ref> However in later orthographies it began to be depicted as the letter [[Sha (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic Sha (Ш ш)]] with a [[descender]]. The descender (also used in [[Tse (Cyrillic)|Ц]]) has been reinterpreted as a [[diacritic]] and used in several letters for non-Slavic languages, such as [[Ң]] and [[Қ]].

==Related letters and other similar characters==
*Ш ш : [[Ш|Cyrillic letter Sha]]
*С́ с́ : Montenegrin [[Sje]]
*Ŝ ŝ : Latin letter [[Ŝ]]
*Ś ś : Latin letter [[Ś]]

{{anchor|Encodings}}

==Computing codes==

{{charmap
|0429|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Shcha
|0449|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Shcha
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=FD |map1char2=DD
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=FA |map2char2=F9
|map3=[[Code page 866]] |map3char1=99 |map3char2=E9
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=D9 |map4char2=F9
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=C9 |map5char2=E9
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=99 |map6char2=F9
}}

==See also==
* [[Mama ŠČ!]]
* [[romanization of Russian#Transliteration table|Transliteration table for romanization of Russian]], provides versions {{angbr|ŝ|}} (note [[circumflex]] vs. caron/háček in {{angbr|šč|}}), {{angbr|shh|}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Щ}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|щ}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]

Dzhe

2025-10-25T10:37:07Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{Short description|Letter of the Cyrillic script}}
{{distinguish | text= the letters [[Ц|Ц (tse)]] or [[Dje|Ђ (dje)]]　or the Latin letter [[U]]}}
{{Redirect|Dzh|the Serbian political party|Democratic Union of Croats{{!}}DZH|the airport with the IATA code DZH|Dazhou Jinya Airport}}
{{Infobox grapheme
|script = [[Cyrillic]]
|type = [[Alphabet]]
|typedesc = ic
|name = Dzhe
|image = Cyrillic letter Dzhe - uppercase and lowercase.svg
|imagesize = 120px
|imagealt =
|phonemes = [{{IPA link|dʒ}}], [{{IPA link|ɖʐ}}]
|number =
|fam1 =
}}

[[File:Cyrill small and capital letter dzhe.jpg|thumb|Various forms of the letter ''dzhe'', including the word ''dzhelat'' ([[executioner]]).]]
'''Dzhe''' (Џ џ; italics: ''Џ џ'' or Џ џ; italics: ''Џ џ''), also spelled '''dže''', is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]] used in [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]] and [[Variety (linguistics)|varieties]] of [[Serbo-Croatian]] ([[Montenegrin language|Montenegrin]] and [[Serbian language|Serbian]]) to represent the [[voiced postalveolar affricate]] {{IPA|/d͡ʒ/}}, like the pronunciation of j in “'''j'''ump”.

Dzhe corresponds in other Cyrillic alphabets to the [[digraph (orthography)|digraphs]] дж or чж, or to the letters [[Che with descender]] (Ҷ ҷ), [[Che with vertical stroke]] (Ҹ ҹ), [[Khakassian Che]] (Ӌ ӌ), [[Zhe with breve]] (Ӂ ӂ), [[Zhe with diaeresis]] (Ӝ ӝ), or [[Zhje]] (Җ җ).

In the Latin version of [[Gaj's Latin alphabet|Serbo-Croatian]], it corresponds with the digraph {{angbr|[[dž]]}} which, like the digraphs {{angbr|[[Lj (digraph)|lj]]}} and {{angbr|[[Nj (digraph)|nj]]}}, is treated as a single letter, including in crossword puzzles and for purposes of [[collation]].

[[Abkhaz language|Abkhaz]] uses it to represent the [[voiced retroflex affricate]] {{IPA|/ɖʐ/}}. The digraph џь is used to represent the {{IPA|/dʒ/}} sound.

==History==
The letter Dzhe was first used in the 15th-century [[Romanian Cyrillic alphabet]], as a modified form of the letter ч.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Maretić |first=T. (Tomislav) |url=https://archive.org/details/gramatikaistili00maregoog/page/n6/mode/1up |title=Gramatika i stilistika hrvatskoga ili srpskogo književnog jezika |date=1899 |publisher=Zagreb : Štampa i naklada knjižare L. Hartmana |others=University of California}}</ref> Serbian scribes began using it in the 17th century.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Đorđić |first=Petar |title=Istorija Srpske Ćirilice {{!}} PDF |url=https://www.scribd.com/document/329929820/Petar-%C4%90or%C4%91i%C4%87-Istorija-srpske-%C4%87irilice |access-date=2025-03-01 |website=Scribd |language=Bosnian}}</ref> [[Vuk Karadžić]] included it in his [[Cyrillic script]] reform, when the letter entered widespread use.<ref name=":0" />

==Related letters and other similar characters==
*Dž : [[Dž|Digraph Dž]]
*J j : [[J|Latin letter J]]
*G g : [[Hard and soft G|Latin letter soft G]], the romanization and Latin equivalent of {{angbr|џ}} in the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet
*Ӂ ӂ : [[Zhe with breve|Cyrillic letter Ӂ]]
*Ӝ ӝ : [[Zhe with diaeresis|Cyrillic letter Ӝ]]
*Җ җ : [[Zhje|Cyrillic letter Җ]]
*Ц ц : [[Tse (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter Ц]]
*Ч ч : [[Che (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter Ч]]
*Ҷ ҷ : [[Che with descender|Cyrillic letter Ҷ]]
*Ӌ ӌ : [[Khakassian Che|Cyrillic letter Ӌ]]
*Ҹ ҹ : [[Che with vertical stroke|Cyrillic letter Ҹ]]

{{charmap
|040F|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Dzhe
|045F|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Dzhe
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=9B |map2char2=9A
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=8F |map4char2=9F
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=AF |map5char2=FF
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=DA |map6char2=DB
}}

== References ==
<references/>

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Џ}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|џ}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]

{{Cyrillic-alphabet-stub}}

Kha (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:36:29Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{Short description|Letter in the Cyrillic script}}
{{Distinguish|text= Latin letter [[X]] or the Greek letter [[Chi (letter)|Χ (chi)]]}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2024}}
{{infobox grapheme
| letter = Х х
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = Kha ({{Script|Cyrs|хѣръ}})
| image = Cyrillic letter Kha - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagesize =
| imagealt =
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|x}}], [{{IPA link|χ}}], [{{IPA link|h}}]
| number = 600 ([[Cyrillic numerals]])
| fam1 = [[Chi (letter)|Χ χ]]
| unicode = U+0425, U+0445
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]]
| equivalents = Kh kh, X x, H h
}}

[[File:Elizaveta Bem's Azbuka - Х text.jpg|thumb|''Kha'', from [[Elisabeth Boehm]]'s [[alphabet book]]]]

'''Kha''', '''Khe''', '''Xe''' or '''Ha''' (Х х; italics: ''Х х'' or Х х; italics: ''Х х'') is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]]. It [[Homoglyph|looks the same as]] the [[X|Latin letter X]] (X x ''X x''), in both uppercase and lowercase, both roman and italic forms, and was derived from the [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] letter [[Chi (letter)|Chi]], which also bears a resemblance to both the Latin X and Kha.<ref>{{cite book |title=Aleksandr Chayanov and Russian Berlin | isbn=978-1-000-94657-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RxrBEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Kha%22+Cyrillic+-wikipedia&pg=PA52 | last1=Bourgholtzer | first1=Frank | date=31 May 2023 | publisher=Taylor & Francis }}</ref>

It commonly represents the [[voiceless velar fricative]] {{IPA|/x/}}, similar to how some [[Scottish English|Scottish]] speakers pronounce the {{angbr|ch}} in “lo'''ch'''”, but has different pronunciations in different languages.

Kha is [[romanised]] as {{angbr|kh}} for Russian, Ukrainian, Mongolian, and Tajik, and as {{angbr|ch}} for Belarusian and Polish, while being romanised as {{angbr|h}} for Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Kazakh.
It is also romanised as {{angbr|j}} for [[Spanish language|Spanish]].

==History==
The Cyrillic letter Kha was derived from the [[Chi (letter)|Greek letter Chi]] (Χ χ).

The name of Kha in the [[Early Cyrillic alphabet]] was {{Script|Cyrs|хѣръ}} (''xěrŭ'').

In the [[Cyrillic numerals|Cyrillic numeral system]], Kha has a value of 600.

==Usage==
===Russian===
Kha is the twenty-third letter of the [[Russian alphabet]]. It represents the [[voiceless velar fricative]] {{IPA|/x/}} unless it is before a [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalizing]] vowel, when it represents {{IPA|/xʲ/}}.

===Ossetian===
Kha represents the [[voiceless uvular fricative]] {{IPA|/χ/}} in [[Ossetian language|Ossetian]]. The digraph ⟨хъ⟩ represents the [[Voiceless uvular stop|voiceless uvular plosive]] {{IPA|/q/}}.

===Belarusian===
Kha is also an alternative transliteration of the letter {{lang|fa|خ}} Ḫāʼ in the [[Arabic alphabet]]. This was used in [[Belarusian Arabic alphabet|Belarusian Arabic script]], corresponding to the above Cyrillic letter.

===Ukrainian===
Kha is the twenty-sixth letter of the [[Ukrainian alphabet]]. It represents the [[Voiceless velar fricative|voiceless velar fricative /x/]].

===Aleut===
In [[Aleut language|Aleut]], kha represents {{IPA|/x/}}. [[Kha with inverted breve]] (Х̑ х̑) represents the [[voiceless uvular fricative]] ({{IPA|/χ/}}).

==Figurative meanings of "хѣръ"==
* Because of the shape of the letter X, its name kher was often used to refer to something cross-shaped: Dahl mentions "the game of kheriki-oniki" ([[noughts and crosses]]) and the expression "legs like kher" to refer to the [[genu valgum]] deformity (knock knee).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://slovardalja.net/word.php?wordid=42337 |title= "Хер" |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170213000623/http://slovardalja.net/word.php?wordid=42337 |language=ru |access-date=10 July 2024|archive-date= 2017-02-13 }}</ref> From this also comes the word pokherovat (originally, to cross out crosswise; cf. in N. S. Leskov: [[Vladika]] crossed out the consistory's decision on the appointment of the investigation with a kher.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ushakovdictionary.ru/word.php?wordid=83464 |title= "Хер" |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210509193831/https://ushakovdictionary.ru/word.php?wordid=83464 |language=ru |access-date=10 July 2024|archive-date= 2021-05-09 }}</ref>
* Being the first letter of the vulgar and obscene word for the male genital organ, the word kher has been actively used as its euphemism since the 19th century.<ref>[[Левин, Юрий Иосифович|Левин Ю. И.]] Об обсценных выражениях русского языка // Левин Ю. И. Избранные труды. Поэтика. Семиотика. — М., 1998. — С. 809—819</ref> As a result, by the 1990s in the USSR, the word "kher" and its derivatives (e.g., "pokherit") were perceived as taboo by many people, as the original names of Cyrillic letters had been forgotten by the majority of the population. This fact has also affected the use of the word "kher" in the post-Soviet era, despite the change of attitude towards obscene vocabulary.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.philology.ru/linguistics2/mokiyenko-94.htm |website= philology.ru |title=Русская бранная лексика: цензурное и нецензурное |language=ru |access-date=12 July 2024}}</ref> Nevertheless, the portal Gramota.ru notes that "the word kher and all derivatives of it do not belong to obscene words".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://gramota.ru/poisk?query=%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%20%D1%85%D0%B5%D1%80%20%D0%B8%20%D0%B2%D1%81%D0%B5%20%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B5%20%D0%BE%D1%82%20%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B3%D0%BE%20%D0%BD%D0%B5%20%D0%BE%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%8F%D1%82%D1%81%D1%8F%20%D0%BA%20%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%BC%20%D1%81%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BC&mode=spravka |website= Gramota.ru |title= "Хер" |language=ru |access-date=12 July 2024}}</ref>

==Related letters and other similar characters==
*Χ χ : [[Χ|Greek letter Chi]]
*H h : [[H|Latin letter H]]
*J j : [[J|Latin letter J]]
*X x : [[X|Latin letter X]]
*{{lang|fa|ﺥ}} : [[ﺥ|Arabic or Persian letter Ḫāʾ]]
*Һ һ : [[Һ|Cyrillic letter Ha]]
*Ѯ ѯ : [[Ѯ|Cyrillic letter Ksi]]
*ख़ : [[ख|Devanagari letter Ḵẖa]]
*ਖ਼ : [[ਖ਼|Gurumukhi letter Ḵẖa]]

==Computing codes==

{{charmap
|0425|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Ha
|0445|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Ha
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=E8 |map1char2=C8
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=B6 |map2char2=B5
|map3=[[Code page 866]] |map3char1=95 |map3char2=E5
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=D5 |map4char2=F5
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=C5 |map5char2=E5
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=95 |map6char2=F5
}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Х}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|х}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]

Ef (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:35:17Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{Short description|Letter of the Cyrillic alphabet}}
{{hatnote group|
{{for|similar symbols|Ø}}
{{Distinguish|text= Greek letter [[Phi|Φ (phi)]] or the IPA symbol [[Voiceless bilabial fricative|ɸ]]}}
}}
{{infobox grapheme
| letter = Ф ф
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = Ef ({{Script|Cyrs|фрьтъ}})
| image = Cyrillic letter Ef - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = {{IPA|[f]}}
| number = 500 ([[Cyrillic numerals]])
| fam1 = [[Phi (letter)|Φ φ]]
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]]
| unicode = U+0424, U+0444
| equivalents = F f
}}

'''Ef''' or '''Fe''' (Ф ф; italics: ''Ф ф'' or Ф ф; italics: ''Ф ф'') is a [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]] letter, commonly representing the [[voiceless labiodental fricative]] {{IPA|/f/}}, like the pronunciation of {{angbr|f}} in '''''f'''ill'', '''''f'''lee'' or '''''f'''all''. The Cyrillic letter Ef is romanized as {{angbr|f}}.

==History==
[[File:Karion Istomin's alphabet F.jpg|thumb|left|''Ef'', from [[Karion Istomin]]'s 1694 [[alphabet book]]]]
The Cyrillic letter Ef was derived from the [[Phi (letter)|Greek letter Phi]] (Φ φ). It merged with and eliminated the letter [[Fita]] (Ѳ) in the [[Russian alphabet]] in 1918.

The name of Ef in the [[Early Cyrillic alphabet]] is {{lang|cu|{{Script|Cyrs|фрьтъ}}}} ({{translit|cu|fr̥tŭ}} or {{translit|cu|frĭtŭ}}), in later Church Slavonic and Russian form it became {{lang|ru|фертъ}} ({{translit|ru|fert}}).<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Corbett |first1=Professor Greville |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=euI4CQAAQBAJ |title=The Slavonic Languages |last2=Comrie |first2=Professor Bernard |date=September 2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-86137-6 |language=en}}</ref>

In the [[Cyrillic numerals|Cyrillic numeral system]], Ef has a value of 500.

==Appearance and usage in Slavic languages==
The Slavic languages have almost no native words containing {{IPA|/f/}}. This sound did not exist in [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] (PIE). It arose in [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Latin]] from PIE {{lang|ine-x-proto|bʰ}} (which yielded Slavic {{IPA|/b/}}). In some instances in Latin, it represented historical [[th-fronting]] and derived from Proto-Indo-European {{lang|ine-x-proto|dʰ}}. In the [[Germanic languages]], the f sound arose from PIE {{lang|ine-x-proto|p}} via [[Grimm's law]], which remained unchanged in Slavic. The letter ф is thus almost exclusively found in words of foreign origin, especially Greek (from ''φ'' and sometimes from ''θ''), [[Latin]], [[French language|French]], [[German language|German]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[English language|English]], and [[Turkic languages]]

Example borrowings in Russian:
* from Greek: {{lang|ru|катастрофа}}, "catastrophe" (from ''φ''); {{lang|ru|Фёдор}}, "Theodore" (from ''θ''; cf. Bulgarian {{lang|bg|Тодор}})
* from Latin: {{lang|ru|федерация}}, "federation"; {{lang|ru|эффект}}, "effect"
* from German: {{lang|ru|картофель}}, "potato" (from ''Kartoffel''); {{lang|ru|фунт}}, "pound" (from ''Pfund'')
* from Dutch: {{lang|ru|флаг}}, "flag"
* from English: {{lang|ru|офис}}, "office"
* from French: {{lang|ru|Франция}}, "France"

The few native Slavic words with this letter (in different languages) are examples of [[onomatopoeia]] (like Russian verbs {{lang|ru|фукать}}, {{lang|ru|фыркать}} etc.) or reflect sporadic pronunciation shifts:
* from ''пв'' {{IPA|/pv/}}: Serbian {{lang|sr|уфати}} 'to hope' (cf. [[Church Slavonic language|Church Slavonic]] {{lang|cu|уповати}} 'to hope')
* from ''хв'' {{IPA|/xv/}}: Macedonian {{lang|ml|сфати}} '(he) understands' (cf. [[Church Slavonic language|Church Slavonic]] {{lang|cu|схватити}} 'to take, to catch'), Russian {{lang|ru|дрофа}} 'bustard' (cf. Ukrainian {{lang|uk|дрохва}} 'bustard')
* from ''кв'' {{IPA|/kv/}}: Russian {{lang|ru|филин}} 'eagle-owl' (cf. Ukrainian {{lang|uk|квилити}} 'to cry')
* from ''х'' {{IPA|/x/}}: Russian [[toponym]] {{lang|ru|Фили}} '[[Fili (Moscow)|Fili]]' (from {{lang|ru|хилый}} 'sickly')

===Slavic languages===
Ef is the 21st letter of the [[Bulgarian alphabet]]; the 22nd letter of the [[Russian alphabet]]; the 23rd letter of the [[Belarusian alphabet]]; the 25th letter of the [[Serbian alphabet|Serbian]] and [[Ukrainian alphabet]]; and the 26th letter of the Macedonian alphabet. It represents the consonant {{IPA|/f/}} unless it is before a [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalizing]] vowel, when it represents {{IPA|/fʲ/}}.

==Related letters and other similar characters==
*{{not a typo|Φ φ/ϕ}} : [[Φ|Greek letter Phi]]
*Ѳ ѳ : [[Ѳ|Cyrillic letter Fita]]
*F f : [[F|Latin letter F]]
*Փ փ : [[Piwr (letter)|Armenian letter Piwr]]
*Q q [[Q|Latin letter Q]]
*Ჶ ჶ [[Fi (letter)]]

==Computing codes==

{{charmap
|0424|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Ef
|0444|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Ef
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=E6 |map1char2=C6
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=AB |map2char2=AA
|map3=[[Code page 866]] |map3char1=94 |map3char2=E4
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=D4 |map4char2=F4
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=C4 |map5char2=E4
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=94 |map6char2=F4
}}

==Cultural references==
The [[phraseologism]] "{{lang|ru|стоять фертом}}", "to stand as {{translit|ru|fert}}" means "to stand with arms [[wikt:akimbo|akimbo]]".

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Ф}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|ф}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]

U (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:33:59Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{short description|Cyrillic letter}}
{{distinguish|text=the Latin letters [[U]] or [[Y]], the Greek letters [[Upsilon|Υ (upsilon)]] or [[Gamma|γ (gamma)]], or the Cyrillic letter [[Ү|Ү (ue)]]}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2007}}
{{infobox grapheme
| letter = У у
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = U
| image = Cyrillic letter U - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|u}}], [{{IPA|ʊw}}]
| number = 400 ([[Cyrillic numerals]])
| fam1 = [[Upsilon (letter)|Υ υ]] and [[omicron|Ο ο]]
| fam2 = [[Uk (Cyrillic)|Ѹ ѹ]]
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]]
| unicode = U+0423, U+0443
| equivalents = U u
}}

'''U''' (У у; italics: ''У у'' or У у; italics: ''У у'') is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]]. It commonly represents the [[close back rounded vowel]] {{IPA|/u/}}, somewhat like the pronunciation of {{angle bracket|oo}} in "b'''oo'''t" or "r'''u'''le". The forms of the Cyrillic letter U are [[Homoglyph|similar]] to the lowercase of the Latin letter [[Y]] (Y y; ''Y y''), with the lowercase Cyrillic letter U's form being identical to that of small Latin letter Y.

== History ==
[[File:Azbuka Benois - У.jpg|thumb|left|170px|''U'', from [[Alexandre Benois]]' 1904 [[alphabet book]]. It shows ''Ulitsa'' (street) and ''uraganʺ'' ([[hurricane]]).]]
[[File:Russische Schmetterlingsmine PFM-1.jpg|thumb|left|170px|A [[PFM-1]] training mine, distinguishable from the live version by the presence of the letter У (short for учебный, ''uchebnyy'', "for training").]]
Historically, Cyrillic U evolved as a specifically [[Old East Slavic language|East Slavic]] short form of the digraph {{angle bracket|[[Uk (Cyrillic)|оу]]}} used in ancient [[Old Church Slavonic|Slavic]] texts to represent {{IPA|/u/}}. The digraph was itself a direct loan from the [[Greek alphabet]], where the combination {{angle bracket|[[Greek alphabet#Digraphs and diphthongs|ου]]}} ([[omicron]]-[[upsilon]]) was also used to represent {{IPA|/u/}}. Later, the o was removed, leaving the modern upsilon-only form.

Consequently, the form of the letter is derived from Greek [[upsilon]] {{angle bracket|Υ υ}}, which was parallelly also taken over into the Cyrillic alphabet in another form, as [[Izhitsa]] {{angle bracket|Ѵ}}. (The letter Izhitsa was removed from the [[Russian alphabet]] in the [[Russian alphabet#Letters eliminated in 1918|orthography reform of 1917/19]].)

It is normally romanised as "u", but in [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]], it is romanised as "w".

In the [[Cyrillic numeral system]], the Cyrillic letter U had a value of 400.

==In other languages==
In [[Tuvan language|Tuvan]] the Cyrillic letter can be written as a [[Digraph (orthography)#Homogeneous_digraph|double vowel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tuvan.php|title=Tuvan language, alphabet and pronunciation|work=omniglot.com|access-date=14 June 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jWwqAAAAQBAJ|title=Compendium of the World's Languages|first1=George L.|last1=Campbell|first2=Gareth|last2=King|date=24 July 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136258459|access-date=14 June 2016|via=Google Books}}</ref>

In certain languages, U is used to mark [[labialization]].

==Related letters and other similar characters==
[[File:Similarity of Y and Cyrillic U.svg|thumb|left|170px|Similarity with [[Y]] (uppercase): The grapheme on the left is clearly a Cyrillic U, the one in the middle may represent both letters, the one on the right is clearly a Greek or Latin Y.]]
*Υ υ : [[Υ|Greek letter Upsilon]]
*U u : [[U|Latin letter U]]
*Ú ú : [[Ú|Latin letter Ú]]
*Y y : [[Y|Latin letter Y]]
*Ў ў : [[Ў|Cyrillic letter Short U]], used in [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], [[Dungan language|Dungan]],<ref>However, many Dungan books are set using Ӯ, with macron, instead of [[short U|Ў]], with breve, like the Dungan-Russian dictionary (1968). There is no ambiguity since it is the only У-with-a-diacritic in Dungan. It is used in Dungan syllables for which [[pinyin]] would use ''-u'' except in those with labial consonants (in ''du'', ' ''nu'', ''lu'', ''gu'', ''hu'', ''zu'', ''ru'', etc. but not ''bu'' or ''mu'')</ref> [[Yuit|Siberian Eskimo (Yuit)]], [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]]
*Ӯ ӯ : [[Ӯ|Cyrillic letter U with macron]], used in [[Tajik language|Tajik]] and [[Carpatho-Rusyn]]
*Ӱ ӱ : [[Ӱ|Cyrillic letter U with diaeresis]], used in [[Altai language|Altai (Oyrot)]], [[Khakas language|Khakas]], [[Gagauz language|Gagauz]], [[Khanty language|Khanty]], [[Mari language|Mari]]
*Ӳ ӳ : [[Ӳ|Cyrillic letter U with double acute]], used in [[Chuvash language|Chuvash]]
*Ү ү : [[Ү|Cyrillic letter straight U]], used in [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]], [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]], [[Tatar language|Tatar]], [[Bashkir language|Bashkir]], [[Dungan language|Dungan]] and other languages
*Ұ ұ : [[Ұ|Cyrillic letter Straight U with stroke]], used in [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]]
*Ꭹ Ꮍ : The syllables ''gi'' and ''mu'' of the [[Cherokee syllabary]]; Ꭹ (''gi'') notably appearing in the Cherokee self-designation ᏣᎳᎩ (''Tsalagi'')
*ע: The Hebrew letter Ayin
*У̊: [[U with ring above (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter U with ring]], used in [[Shughni language|Shugnhi orthography.]]
{{clear|left}}

==Computing codes==

{{charmap
|0423|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter U
|0443|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter U
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=F5 |map1char2=D5
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=E8 |map2char2=E7
|map3=[[Code page 866]] |map3char1=93 |map3char2=E3
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=D3 |map4char2=F3
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=C3 |map5char2=E3
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=93 |map6char2=F3
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|У}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|у}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]
[[Category:Vowel letters]]

Te (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:32:00Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{short description|Cyrillic letter}}
{{distinguish|text=the Latin letter [[T]], the lowercase variant of [[M]], or the Greek letter [[Tau|Τ]]}}
{{infobox grapheme
| letter = Т т
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = Te ({{Script|Cyrs|тврьдо}})
| image = Cyrillic letter Te - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|t̪}}], [{{IPA link|tʲ}}] (when followed by ь)
| number = 300 ([[Cyrillic numerals]])
| fam1 = [[Tau (letter)|Τ τ]]
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]]
| unicode = U+0422, U+0442, U+1C84, U+1C85
| variations = ᲄ, ᲅ
| equivalents = T t
}}

[[File:Karion Istomin's alphabet T.jpg|thumb|''Te'', from [[Karion Istomin]]'s 1694 [[alphabet book]]]]
'''Te''' (Т т; italics: ''Т т'' or Т т; italics: ''Т т'') is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]]. It commonly represents the [[voiceless dental stop]] {{IPA|/t̪/}}, like the pronunciation of {{angbr|t}} in "'''t'''ool". In most cursive writing, lowercase Te looks like the Latin lowercase m.

==History==
The Cyrillic letter Te was derived from the [[Tau (letter)|Greek letter Tau]] (Τ τ).

The name of Te in the [[Early Cyrillic alphabet]] was {{Script|Cyrs|тврьдо}} (''tvrdo''), meaning "hard" or "surly".

In the [[Cyrillic numerals|Cyrillic numeral system]], Te has a value of 300.

==Form==
[[Image:Cyrillic T.png|x50px|thumb|left|Normal and italic forms]]
[[File:20-Russian alphabet-Т т.svg|x50px|thumb|left|The cursive form in Russian]]
[[File:Macedonian and Serbian cursive "Тт".svg|x50px|thumb|left|The cursive form in Serbian and Macedonian]]
The capital Cyrillic letter Te (Т т) [[Homoglyph|looks the same as]] the capital [[T|Latin letter T]] (T t) but, as with most Cyrillic letters, the lowercase form is simply a smaller version of the uppercase letter, same as [[М]].

In [[italic type]] and [[cursive]], the lowercase form {{angbr|1=''т''}} looks like the italic form of the lowercase Latin M {{angbr|1=''m''}}, except in [[Serbian language#Alphabets|Serbian]] and [[Macedonian language#Alphabet|Macedonian]] usage where it looks like an inverted lowercase Latin M, with a [[Macron (diacritic)#Other uses|stroke above]] to distinguish it from the otherwise identical italic lowercase letter [[Sha (Cyrillic)|Sha]] {{angbr|1=''ш''}}, which is sometimes written with a stroke below. Compare the 5th letter pair in the 4th row with the last letter pair of the chart.

The cursive form of the capital letter Te can also be seen in the chart following the lower case letter.

In some old materials, the lowercase form {{angbr|т}} has two variants: on the ''Trebnik'' of Metropolitan Peter and the ''Ostrog Bible'' this letter has a taller variant looks like number [[7 (number)|7]] ({{Slavonic|ᲄ}}); on some vernacular Russian publications up to the mid-19th century, this letter have been found as a variant resembling a turned Sha ({{Slavonic|ᲅ}}).<ref name=UTN_41>{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/notes/tn41/tn41-1.pdf |title=Church Slavonic Typography in Unicode |work=Aleksandr Andreev, Yuri Shardt, Nikita Simmons |year=2015 |pages=14–15 |access-date=2016-07-15}}</ref> Both of them were encoded in the Unicode Standard in June 2016 with the release of version 9.0.<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1C80.pdf
|title=Cyrillic Extended-C: Range: 1C80–1C8F
|work=The Unicode Standard, Version 9.0
|year=2016
|access-date=2016-07-15}}</ref>
{{clear left}}

==Usage==
As used in the alphabets of various languages, Te represents the following sounds:
*[[voiceless alveolar plosive]] {{IPA|/t/}}, like the pronunciation of {{angbr|t}} in "'''t'''ick"
*[[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]] voiceless alveolar plosive {{IPA|/tʲ/}}

The pronunciations shown in the table are the primary ones for each language; for details consult the articles on the languages.
{|class="wikitable"
! Language !! Position in alphabet !! Pronunciation
|-
| [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] || align=center | 20th || {{IPA|/t/}}
|-
| [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] || align=center | 19th || {{IPA|/t/}}, {{IPA|/tʲ/}}
|-
| [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]] || align=center | 23rd || {{IPA|/t/}}
|-
| [[Russian language|Russian]]|| align=center | 20th || {{IPA|/t/}}, {{IPA|/tʲ/}}
|-
| [[Serbian language|Serbian]] || align=center | 22nd || {{IPA|/t/}}
|-
| [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] || align=center | 23rd || {{IPA|/t/}}, {{IPA|/tʲ/}}
|-
|}

==Related letters and other similar characters==
*Τ τ : [[Tau|Greek letter Tau]]
*T t : [[T|Latin letter T]]
*Ҭ ҭ : [[Te with descender|Cyrillic letter Ҭ]]
*Ԏ ԏ : [[Komi Tje|Cyrillic letter Komi Tje]]
*Ћ ћ : [[Tshe|Cyrillic Tshe]]

==Computing codes==
{{charmap
|0422|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Te
|0442|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Te
|1C84|name3=Cyrillic Small Letter Tall Te
|1C85|name4=Cyrillic Small Letter Three-Legged Te
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=F4 |map1char2=D4
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=E6 |map2char2=E5
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=D2 |map4char2=F2
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=C2 |map5char2=E2
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=92 |map6char2=F2
}}

==See also==
*[[Macedonian cursive alphabet]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Т}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|т}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]
[[Category:Cross symbols]]

Dze

2025-10-25T10:31:08Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{short description|Cyrillic letter}}
{{About||the Pashto letter|Źim{{!}}Dze (Pashto)|the Georgian surname suffix ''-dze''|Georgian surname}}
{{distinguish|text=the Latin letter [[S]] or the Georgian Asomtavruli letter [[Ch'ari|Ⴝ]]}}
{{more citations needed|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox grapheme
| letter = Ѕ ѕ
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = Dze, {{Script|Cyrs|ѕѣло}} ([[Early Cyrillic alphabet]])
| image = Cyrillic letter Dze - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|d͡z}}], [{{IPA link|z}}]
| number = 6 ([[Cyrillic numerals]])
| fam1 = [[Stigma (ligature)|Ϛ ϛ]] or [[Digamma|Ϝ ϝ]]{{citation needed|date=October 2023}}
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]], [[Macedonian language]]
| usageperiod = {{circa|893}}–19th century, 1944–present
| variations = Ꙃ ꙃ, Ꙅ ꙅ
| equivalents = Ẑ ẑ
}}

'''Dze''' (Ѕ ѕ; italics: ''Ѕ ѕ'' or Ѕ ѕ; italics: ''Ѕ ѕ'') is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]], used in the [[Macedonian alphabet]] to represent the [[voiced alveolar affricate]] {{IPA|/d͡z/}}, similar to the pronunciation of {{angbr|ds}} in "nee'''ds'''" or "ki'''ds'''" in English. It is derived from the letter ''dzelo'' or ''zelo'' of the [[Early Cyrillic alphabet]], and it was used historically in all Slavic languages that use Cyrillic.

Although fully obsolete everywhere in the Cyrillic world by the 19th century, the letter ''zelo'' was revived in 1944 by the designers of the alphabet of the then-codified [[Macedonian language]]. The phoneme is also present in [[Greek language|Greek]] ('''''ΤΖ''''' '''''{{lang|el|τζ}}''''') and [[Albanian language|Albanian]] ('''X''' '''x'''), both non-Slavic neighbours to the Macedonian language; all are a part of the [[Balkan linguistic area]].<ref>{{citation
|publisher=BRILL |year=2013
|isbn=978-9004250765
|first1=Roumen |last1=Dontchev Daskalov|first2=Tchavdar |last2=Marinov
|title=Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies
|series=Balkan Studies Library
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=FGmJqMflYgoC&pg=PA453
|pages=454}}</ref> In the early 21st century, the same letter also appeared in [[Vojislav Nikčević]]'s proposal for the new alphabet for the modern [[Montenegrin language]].

The most common early letterform ({{Slavonic|Ѕ ѕ}}) resembles the [[Latin script|Latin]] letter [[S]] (S s), but it is also seen reversed ({{Slavonic|Ꙅ ꙅ}}) like the Latin letter [[Ƨ|Reversed S]] (Ƨ ƨ), or Z with a tail and a tick ({{Slavonic|Ꙃ ꙃ}}).

[[Abkhaz language|Abkhaz]] has [[Abkhazian Dze]] (Ӡ ӡ), with an identical function and name but a different shape.

==Church Slavonic==
[[File:7wordsCommencingWithTheLetterDzelo.tiff|thumb|left|400px|The seven root words commencing with the letter dze (aka, dzelo).]]
The letter is descended from ѕѣло (pronounced ''dzělo''; [[Image:Early Cyrillic letter Dzelo.png|40px|Dzělo]]) in the [[Early Cyrillic alphabet]], where it had the numerical value 6. The letter Dzělo was itself based on the letter Dzelo in the [[Glagolitic script|Glagolitic alphabet]]. In the Glagolitic alphabet, it was written {{angbr|Ⰷ}}, and had the numerical value of 8. In [[Old Church Slavonic]] it was called ѕѣло (pronounced ''dzeló''), and in [[Church Slavonic language|Church Slavonic]] it is called ѕѣлѡ (pronounced ''zeló'').

The origin of [[Glagolitic script|Glagolitic]] letter Dzelo is unclear, but the Cyrillic Ѕ may have been influenced by the [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] [[stigma (letter)|stigma]] {{angbr|Ϛ}}, the medieval form of the archaic letter [[digamma]], which had the same form and numerical value (6). Thus the visual similarity of the Cyrillic {{angbr|Ѕ}} and Latin {{angbr|[[S]]}} is largely coincidental.

The initial sound of {{angbr|Ѕ}} in [[Old Church Slavonic]] was a soft {{IPA|/d͡z/}} or {{IPA|/z/}}, which usually came from a historically palatalised *g (ноѕѣ, ѕвѣзда, etc.). In almost all Slavic dialects this sound was pronounced as a simple /z/; however, as the Old Church Slavonic language was based on the Bulgaro-Macedonian dialects, the sound remained distinct.

In the Old Slavic period the difference between {{angbr|Ѕ}} and {{angbr|[[Ze (Cyrillic)|З]]}} had already begun to be blurred, and in the written [[Church Slavonic|Church Slavonic language]] from the middle of the 17th century {{angbr|Ѕ}} was used only formally. The letter's distinguishing features from {{angbr|[[Ze (Cyrillic)|З]]}} are:<ref name="GCSL">{{Citation |last=Gamanovich |first=Alypy |title=Грамматика Церковно-Славянскаго Языка (Grammar of the Church Slavonic Language) |publication-date=1984 |year=1964 |place=[[Jordanville, New York]] |publisher=[[Holy Trinity Monastery (Jordanville, New York)|Printing shop of St. Job of Pochaev, Holy Trinity Monastery]] |isbn=978-0-88465-064-5}}</ref>
* {{angbr|Ѕ}} is used in root derived from these seven words beginning with {{angbr|Ѕ}}: ѕвѣзда, ѕвѣрь, ѕеліе, ѕлакъ, ѕлый, ѕмій, ѕѣлѡ ("star, beast, vegetable, herb, angry, dragon, very");
* {{angbr|[[Ze (Cyrillic)|З]]}} is used in all remaining cases.
* {{angbr|Ѕ}} has the numerical value of 6, whereas {{angbr|[[Ze (Cyrillic)|З]]}} has the numerical value of 7;

==East Slavic Languages==
:''See also [[Reforms of Russian orthography]]''.

In [[Russian language|Russian]] it was known as зѣло or ''zelo'' {{IPA|ru|zʲɪˈɫo|}} and had the phonetic value of {{IPA|/z/}} or {{IPA|/zʲ/}}. In the initial version of Russian civil script of [[Peter I of Russia|Tsar Peter I]] (1708), the {{angbr|Ѕ}} was assigned the sound {{IPA|/z/}}, and the letter {{angbr|[[Ze (Cyrillic)|З]]}} was removed. However, in the second version of the civil script (1710), {{angbr|[[Ze (Cyrillic)|З]]}} was restored, and {{angbr|Ѕ}} was abolished. Both versions of the alphabet were used until 1735, which is considered the date of the final elimination of {{angbr|Ѕ}} in Russian.

In [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]], the sound {{IPA|/d͡z/}} is integrated as part of the language's phonology, but it mainly occurs in loanwords rather than in words of native Ukrainian origin. As such, the [[Digraph (orthography)|digraph]] {{angbr|дз}} is used to represent both the phoneme {{IPA|/d͡z/}} and the separately occurring consonant cluster {{IPA|/d.z/}} which [[Ukrainian phonology|Ukrainian phonotactics]] assimilate as {{IPA|/d͡z.z/}}.

[[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] commonly features {{Angbr|дз}}, but it usually comes from *d from a similar development to [[Polish language|Polish]]. As such, {{Angbr|ѕ}} had never been used for it.

==South Slavic Languages==
[[File:Dze reflexes in Eastern South Slavic.png|thumb|left|Reflexes of Old Church Slavonic ''ѕ'' across Eastern South Slavic.]]
{{angbr|ѕ}} is now only used in the [[Macedonian alphabet]]. A commission formed to standardise the [[Macedonian language]] and [[orthography]] decided to adopt the letter on December 4, 1944, after a vote of 10-1. Despite the letter originally being found between {{Angbr|ж}} and {{Angbr|з}}, in the new alphabet it was placed after {{Angbr|з}} instead. The letter represents {{IPA|/dz/}} (examples including: ѕид/''dzid'', 'wall' and ѕвезда/''dzvezda'', 'star'). The corresponding sound is used in all dialects of [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]].

{{angbr|ѕ}} was also used until the middle of the 19th century in the [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet|Serbian]] civil script, whose orthography was closer to [[Early Cyrillic alphabet|Church Slavonic]] (compared to the [[Russian alphabet|Russian]]). [[Vuk Stefanović Karadžić|Vuk Karadžić]]'s [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet]] (1868) did not include {{angbr|ѕ}}, instead favouring a simple [[Digraph (orthography)|digraph]] {{angbr|дз}} to represent the sound, as it was non-native. {{angbr|Ѕ}} is also included in Microsoft's Serbian Cyrillic keyboard layout, although it is not used in the [[Serbian Cyrillic Alphabet]]. The Serbian keyboard in Ubuntu replaces Ѕ with a second Ж.

The [[Bulgarian language|Modern Bulgarian]], apart from when explicitly written with the Church Slavonic alphabet, has never used {{Angbr|ѕ}}. Although most dialects feature it, it is found in neither the Tărnovo dialect, the [[prestige dialect]] of the time of codification, nor in the [[Church Slavonic|Church Slavonic language]] (despite being written independently there). A few eastern dialects, including the Tărnovo dialect, have, however, independently developed both /dz/ and /dʒ/ phonemes not found in the standard language due to [[Affricate|affrication]]. [[Marin Drinov]], one of the most important players in the establishment of Standard Bulgarian, floated the idea of using {{Angbr|ѕ}} as it was found in most dialects, however chose not to as he considered the letter all but forgotten.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Drinov |first=Marin |date=1870 |title=За новобългарското азбуке |url=http://digilib.nalis.bg/xmlui/handle/nls/29501 |journal=Периодично списание |issue=2 |pages=21–23 |via=NALIS Repository}}</ref>

The [[Banat Bulgarian dialect]], being based on the [[Paulician dialect]], retains {{Angbr|ѕ}}. However, as it is written with the [[Latin script]], the sound is instead notated as {{Angbr|dz}}.

== Romanian ==
{{angbr|ѕ}} was used in the [[Romanian Cyrillic alphabet]] (where it represented {{IPA|/d͡z/}}) until the alphabet was abolished in favour of a [[Latin alphabet|Latin]]-based [[Romanian alphabet|alphabet]] in 1860-62.

==Related letters and other similar characters==
*Ϝ ϝ : [[Ϝ|Greek letter Digamma]]
*Ϛ ϛ : [[Ϛ|Greek letter Stigma]]
*З з : [[З|Cyrillic letter Ze]]
*S s : [[S|Latin letter S]]
*Ƨ ƨ : [[Ƨ|Latin letter Reversed S]]
*X x : [[X|Latin letter X]], an [[Albanian alphabet]] letter
*Ꚃ ꚃ : [[Ꚃ|Cyrillic letter Dzwe]]
*Ḑ ḑ : [[Ḑ|Latin letter Ḑ]], a [[Livonian alphabet]] letter
*D̦ d̦ : [[D̦|Latin letter D̦]], an obsolete [[Romanian alphabet|Romanian]] letter
*Dz : [[Dz (digraph)|Digraph Dz]]
*Ż ż : [[Ż|Latin letter Z with dot above]]

==Computing codes==

{{charmap
|0405|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Dze
|0455|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Dze
|a644|name3=Cyrillic Capital Letter Reversed Dze
|a645|name4=Cyrillic Small Letter Reversed Dze
|map1=Code page 855 |map1char1=89 |map1char2=88
|map2=[[Windows-1251]] |map2char1=BD |map2char2=BE
|map3=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map3char1=A5 |map3char2=F5
|map4=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map4char1=C1 |map4char2=CF
|6=a643|a642|name5=Cyrillic Capital Letter Dzelo|name6=Cyrillic Small Letter Dzelo}}

==See also==
*[[Glagolitic alphabet]]
*[[Early Cyrillic alphabet]]
*[[Cyrillic script]]
*[[Russian alphabet]]
*[[Reforms of Russian orthography]]
*[[Romanian Cyrillic alphabet]]
*[[Macedonian alphabet]]
*[[IDN homograph attack]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Ѕ}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|ѕ}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080308180930/http://www.uni-giessen.de/partosch/eurotex99/berdnikov2.pdf A Berdnikov and O Lapko, "Old Slavonic and Church Slavonic in TEX and Unicode", EuroTEX ’99 Proceedings], September 1999 ([[Portable Document Format|PDF]])

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]

Es (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:29:58Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{short description|Cyrillic letter}}
{{distinguish|text=the Latin letter [[C]] or Greek [[Ϲ|Ϲ (lunate sigma)]]}}
{{redirect|S (Cyrillic)|the Cyrillic character Ѕ|Dze}}
{{infobox grapheme
| letter = С с
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = Es ({{Script|Cyrs|слово}})
| image = Cyrillic letter Es - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|s}}], [{{IPA link|sʲ}}] (if followed by е, ё, or ь)
| number = 200 ([[Cyrillic numerals]])
| fam1 = [[lunate sigma|Ϲ ϲ]]
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]]
| unicode = U+0421, U+0441
| equivalents = S s
}}
[[File:Azbuka Benois - С.jpg|thumb|''Es'', from [[Alexandre Benois]]' 1904 [[alphabet book]], with an illustration of [[sweetness]] (''Slasti'')]]
'''Es''' (С с; italics: ''С с'' or С с; italics: ''С с'') is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]]. It commonly represents the [[voiceless alveolar fricative]] {{IPA|/s/}}, like the pronunciation of {{angbr|s}} in "'''s'''and".

[[Image:StMarkcoptic.jpg|280px|thumb|left|Coptic icon of [[Mark the Evangelist|St. Mark]], clearly showing examples of lunate sigma from which the Cyrillic Es was derived]]

==History==
The Cyrillic letter Es is derived from a variant of the [[sigma (letter)|Greek letter Sigma]] known as ''[[lunate sigma]]'' (Ϲ ϲ), in use in the Greek-speaking world in early medieval times. “Es” (Cyrillic: С) is related to the Latin letter “C” (C c), [[Orthography|visuo]]-[[Phonology|phono]]-[[Semantics|semantically]] due to being a [[homoglyph]] and having similar roots, which C is a descendant of the Greek letter Gamma (Γ γ), and therefore С is related to the Latin C and Latin G. While the Cyrillic “С” represents the /s/ sound, many languages apply the value of {{IPA|/s/}} to the Latin letter “C,” especially before front vowels like ‘‘e’’ and ‘‘i’’ (examples include English, French, Portuguese, and [[Latin American Spanish]]). This distinction between “hard” and “soft” C reflects historical phonetic shifts. As its name suggests, “Es” is also related to the Latin letter “S.”

The name of Es in the [[Early Cyrillic alphabet]] was {{Script|Cyrs|слово}} (''slovo''), meaning "word" or "speech".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Corbett |first1=Professor Greville |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=euI4CQAAQBAJ |title=The Slavonic Languages |last2=Comrie |first2=Professor Bernard |date=September 2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-86137-6 |language=en}}</ref>

In the [[Cyrillic numerals|Cyrillic numeral system]], Es had a value of 200.

==Form==
In the modern Latinized Cyrillic fonts in use today, the Cyrillic letter Es [[Homoglyph|looks exactly like]] the [[C|Latin letter C]], being one of six letters in the Cyrillic alphabet that share appearances with Latin alphabet letters but are pronounced differently (or at least differently from the most common pronunciation). This fact has been frequently abused by [[Content similarity detection|plagiarism detector]] circumventors.

{{clear left}}

==Usage==
As used in the alphabets of various languages, Es represents the following sounds:
*[[voiceless alveolar fricative]] {{IPA|/s/}}, like the pronunciation of {{angbr|s}} in "'''s'''and"
*[[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]] voiceless alveolar fricative {{IPA|/sʲ/}}

The pronunciations shown in the table are the primary ones for each language; for details, consult the articles on the languages.
{|class="wikitable"
! Language !! Position in alphabet !! Pronunciation
|-
| [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] || align=center | 19th || {{IPA|/s/}}, {{IPA|/sʲ/}}
|-
| [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] || align=center | 18th || {{IPA|/s/}}, {{IPA|/sʲ/}}
|-
| [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]] || align=center | 22nd || {{IPA|/s/}}
|-
| [[Russian language|Russian]] || align=center | 19th || {{IPA|/s/}}, {{IPA|/sʲ/}}
|-
| [[Serbian language|Serbian]] || align=center | 21st || {{IPA|/s/}}
|-
| [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] || align=center | 22nd || {{IPA|/s/}}, {{IPA|/sʲ/}}
|-
| [[Ossetian language|Ossetic]] (Iron) || align=center | 23rd || {{IPA|/ʃ~s̠/}}
|-
|}

==Computing codes==

{{charmap
|0421|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Es
|0441|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Es
|1C83|name3=Cyrillic Small Letter Wide Es
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=F3 |map1char2=D3
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=E4 |map2char2=E3
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=D1 |map4char2=F1
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=C1 |map5char2=E1
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=91 |map6char2=F1
}}

==Related letters and other similar characters==
*Σ σ/ς : [[Sigma|Greek letter Sigma]]
*S s : [[S|Latin letter S]]
*Ѕ ѕ : [[Ѕ|Cyrillic letter Ѕ]]
*C c : [[C|Latin letter C]]

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|С}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|с}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]

Er (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:28:51Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{Short description|Cyrillic letter}}
{{Hatnote group|
{{Redirect-distinguish-text|Russian R|the Latin letter [[P]] or the Greek letter [[Rho|Ρ (rho)]]}}
{{For-multi|the Russian letter Я|Ya (Cyrillic)|the letters called "big er" and "small er" in Bulgarian|Ъ|and|Ь}}
}}
{{infobox grapheme
| letter = Р р
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = Er ({{Script|Cyrs|рьци}})
| image = Cyrillic letter Er - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|r}}], [{{IPA link|ɾ}}]
| number = 100 ([[Cyrillic numerals]])
| fam1 = [[Rho (letter)|Ρ ρ]]
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]]
| unicode = U+0420, U+0440
| equivalents = R r
}}
[[File:Azbuka Benois - Р.jpg|thumb|''Er'', from [[Alexandre Benois]]' 1904 [[alphabet book]]]]
'''Er''' (Р р; italics: ''Р р'' or Р р; italics: ''Р р'') is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]].

It commonly represents the [[alveolar trill]] {{IPA|/r/}}, like the "rolled" sound in the Scottish pronunciation of {{angbr|r}} in "cu'''r'''d".

==History==
The Cyrillic letter Er was derived from the [[Rho (letter)|Greek letter Rho]] (Ρ ρ). It has no connection to the [[P|Latin letter P]] (P p), which evolved from the [[Pi (letter)|Greek letter Pi]] (Π π), despite both having the same form.

The name of Er in the [[Early Cyrillic alphabet]] was {{Script|Cyrs|рьци}} (''rĭci''), meaning "speak".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Corbett |first1=Professor Greville |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=euI4CQAAQBAJ |title=The Slavonic Languages |last2=Comrie |first2=Professor Bernard |date=September 2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-86137-6 |language=en}}</ref>

In the [[Cyrillic numerals|Cyrillic numeral system]], er had a value of 100.

==Form==
The Cyrillic letter Er (Р р) [[Homoglyph|looks similar]] to the Greek letter Rho (Ρ ρ), and the same as the [[P|Latin letter P]] (P p; [[Pe (Cyrillic)|П]] in Cyrillic).

==Usage==
As used in the alphabets of various languages, р represents the following sounds:
* [[alveolar trill]] {{IPA|/r/}}, like the "rolled" sound in the Scottish pronunciation of {{angbr|r}} in "cu'''r'''d"
* palatalized [[alveolar trill]] {{IPA|/rʲ/}}

The pronunciations shown in the table are the primary ones for each language; for details consult the articles on the languages.
{|class="wikitable"
! Language !! Position in alphabet !! Pronunciation
|-
| [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] || align=center | 18th || {{IPA|/r/}}
|-
| [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] || align=center | 17th || {{IPA|/r/}}, {{IPA|/rʲ/}}
|-
| [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]] || align=center | 21st || {{IPA|/r/}}
|-
| [[Russian language|Russian]] || align=center | 18th || {{IPA|/r/}}, {{IPA|/rʲ/}}
|-
| [[Serbian language|Serbian]] || align=center | 20th || {{IPA|/r/}}
|-
| [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] || align=center | 21st || {{IPA|/r/}}, {{IPA|/rʲ/}}
|-
|}

==Related letters and other similar characters==
*Ρ ρ/{{not a typo|ϱ}} : [[Ρ|Greek letter rho]]
*R r : [[R|Latin letter R]]
*P p : [[P|Latin letter P]]
*₽ : [[₽|Russian ruble sign]]
*П п : [[П|Cyrillic letter П]]
*Я я : [[Я|Cyrillic letter Я]]

==Computing codes==

{{charmap
|0420|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Er
|0440|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Er
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=F2 |map1char2=D2
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=E2 |map2char2=E1
|map3=[[Code page 866]] |map3char1=90 |map3char2=E0
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=D0 |map4char2=F0
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=C0 |map5char2=E0
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=90 |map6char2=F0
}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Р}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|р}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]

En (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:26:34Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{Short description|Consonant in the Cyrillic alphabet, written as Н}}
{{distinguish|text=the [[H|Latin letter H]], the [[Η|Greek letter Η (eta)]], the [[И|Cyrillic letter И]] or [[Voiceless epiglottal trill]] (/ʜ/)}}
{{one source|date=January 2024}}
{{infobox grapheme
| letter = Н н
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = En ({{Script|Cyrs|нашь}})
| image = Cyrillic letter En - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = {{IPA|[n], [nʲ]}}
| number = 50 ([[Cyrillic numerals]])
| fam1 = [[Nu (letter)|Ν ν]]
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]]
| unicode = U+041D, U+043D
| equivalents = N n
}}

'''En''' (Н н; italics: ''Н н'' or Н н; italics: ''Н н'') is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]].

It commonly represents the [[dental nasal]] consonant {{IPA|/n/}}, like the pronunciation of {{angbr|n}} in "'''n'''eat".
And it can be palatalized {{IPA|/nʲ/}} like in the pair of hard and soft consonants for the word: {{lang|ru|жена́}} {{Audio-IPA|Ru-жена.ogg|[ʐɨˈ'''n'''a]}} 'wife' and {{lang|ru|же́нин}} {{Audio-IPA|Ru-женин.ogg|[ˈʐe'''nʲ'''ɪn]}} 'wife's'.

==Glyph==
The capital Cyrillic letter En [[Homoglyph|looks the same as]] the capitals [[Eta (letter)|Greek letter Eta]] (Η η) and [[H|Latin letter H]].
As with most Cyrillic letters, the lowercase form is simply a smaller version of the uppercase.
However, in modern Church Slavonic publications, the old N-shaped form is still often used.

It should not be confused with the letter [[I (Cyrillic)|И]] (similar to a mirrored shape of the [[N|Latin letter N]]):
* The cursive of the capital letter is similar to the English model [[Copperplate script]], with a modification: the line between the two columns is a rising diagonal, exactly as in letter И. And the minuscule, use quite the same ductus (without the loops), leading generally to a rising diagonal too.
* In some handwritten and typographic fonts, these two Cyrillic letters may be difficult to distinguish because they are both drawn with two wide columns (unlike modern Greek and Latin which use wide columns only on the letter H and thin columns on the letter N) and with an almost illegible line between these two columns (the letters use a different angle, but sometimes it's too close to the horizontal and the line can be so thin that the angle is almost invisible).
* In some context (advertising, packaging), it is frequent to see on the same page the modern shape and the previous forms (considered as "Slavic" or "Church" with the "illegible" line).
<gallery caption="" widths="250px" heights="100px" perrow="2">
File:Russian Cursive Cyrillic.svg|Modern Russian Cyrillic cursive alphabet used in school education (Н is 15th letter, last letter of the KLMN suite)
File:Csl-luke20.png|Example of Russian Church Slavonic computer typography
</gallery>

==History==
In the [[Early Cyrillic]] alphabet, the letter was created according to the model of the [[Nu (letter)|Greek letter Nu]]. The modifications of the glyph N over the centuries have led to the adoption of the current form of [[Eta (letter)|Greek letter Eta]] (H), a shape that has been formerly used as a model for the letter [[I (Cyrillic)|И]].

===Theories===
The theory that "the reason En has a horizontal bar, like H, instead of a diagonal line, is to avoid confusion with the letter И" has no grounding:
* The original shapes of the letters Н and И were N and H respectively, and were perfectly legible for centuries. The Greek and Latin glyphs N and H are both still the same today.
* It is difficult to say whether the mirrored shapes N and И would be confusing in the same alphabet as the Latin alphabet has many mirrored letters such as b and d or p and q, and very similar letters such as O and Q or C and G. Even the Cyrillic alphabet has preserved the very similar letters Б and В (В could have turned into a Latin V) or has created a confusion between letters Л and П (formerly Л had a shape of Lambda Λ).

It seems more probable that the change of shapes in Cyrillic resulted from a cascade of consequences, apparently around the letter [[I (Cyrillic)|И]], and maybe also letter [[Dotted I (Cyrillic)|І]] and the letter [[Pe (Cyrillic)|П]] (see these letters for details of their history).

===Initial shape===
From c. 893 in Bulgaria, the [[Early Cyrillic alphabet]] was made of [[uncial]] Greek letters and [[glagolitic]] letters. This Cyrillic [[uncial script|uncial]], called "{{ill|Ustav (script)|ru|Устав (шрифт)}}" in Russian, is a style developed on the model of the [[Uncial#Greekuncial|Greek uncial]].

The name of En was {{Script|Cyrs|нашь}} (''našĭ''), meaning "ours".
The letter was created according to the model of the [[Nu (letter)|Greek letter Nu]] (Ν ν) as they share the same sound /n/. Therefore, the letter had a descending diagonal "\" between the two vertical lines.

At the same time, the letter [[I (Cyrillic)|И]] was created according to the model of the [[Eta (letter)|Greek letter Eta]] (Η η) for the same reason (sound /i/). Therefore, the letter had a horizontal line "-" between the two vertical lines.

In Cyrillic uncial style (as in Greek), for the two letters Н and И (shapes N and H), the vertical columns are drawn wide and the line between is thin.

These shapes are mainly used up to the 13th century, and since the 19th century, in academic publishing to reproduce old Slavonic texts (when ustav-style Cyrillic fonts are used).
See for example:
<gallery caption="" widths="200px" heights="250px" perrow="3">
File:Codex_Suprasliensis.jpg|[[Codex Suprasliensis]], an [[Old Church Slavonic]] canon manuscript, Medieval [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgaria]], 10th century
File:Новгородская грамота 109 от Жизномира к Микуле 12 век.jpg|Birch-bark letter no. 109, c. 12th century, [[Veliky Novgorod]]
File:Karion Istomin's alphabet N.jpg|''En'', from [[Karion Istomin]]'s 1694 [[alphabet book]]
</gallery>

The letter И like an H can still be seen in a book "Arithmetic" from Leonty Magnitsky published in Moscow in 1703 (see the book ШИЦГАЛ А.Г., РУССКИЙ ТИПОГРАФСКИЙ ШРИФТ, page 24), or in a book printed by order of the Tsar in 1706 (see Font of I.Kopievich in the Russian version of the article ''{{ill|Civil script|ru|Гражданский_шрифт}}'').

===First modification===
In the Cyrillic letter Н with the Greek shape N, the descending diagonal "\" will progressively become shorter:
* the diagonal starts either at the top of the first vertical line, or lower with a very small angle (10 to 20 degrees).
* the diagonal ends in the middle of the second vertical line;

See for example:
<gallery caption="" widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="3">
File:OstromirGospel.jpg|The [[Ostromir Gospels]], the oldest dated book of Kievan Rus', created in 1056
File:Miroslav's_Gospel_001.jpg|The 1186 [[Miroslav Gospels]], [[Serbian Cyrillic]] (UNESCO's Memory of the World Register)
File:Ivan_ALexander_and_his_family_Tetraevangelia.jpg|The [[Gospels of Tsar Ivan Alexander]] written and illustrated in 1355
File:Andronikovo_Gospel_158rev.jpg|The Andronikov Gospels (gospel of apraxos). Moscow, 1st quarter of the 15th century
File:Lectionary_5_(GA)%2C_f.115r.jpg|The [[Lectionary 5]], Greek manuscript of the New Testament, 10th century
File:Lectionary_183_folio_2.JPG|The [[Lectionary 183]], Greek manuscript of the New Testament, written in uncial letters, 10th century
</gallery>

One of the explanations may be the management of the virtual line horizontally dividing the letters as А,Б,В,Є,Ж,З,Н,К,Х,Ч,Э,Ю. And this was also applied to the glyph N for some unknown reason (maybe a need for simplification, or to create a styling effect). For example, the scribe draws the horizontal in the glyph H higher than the middle, then the other similar letters will be drawn with a virtual line higher. Therefore, in the glyph N, the scribe must shorten the diagonal and make it end at the level of the virtual line. Then, other scribes repeat the same modifications but sometimes without respecting the same virtual line for all the letters, thus making the root cause disappear.

In uncial Greek, the shape of the letter H sometimes sees the horizontal line rise upwards, and the shape of the letter N either does not change, or moves accordingly, and sometimes we can see both versions in the same text (see [[Lectionary 5]] and [[Lectionary 183]]).

===Second modification===
From the 15th century, the ''{{ill|poluustav|ru|Полуустав (шрифт)}}'' ({{lang|ru|en}} in Russian) a [[semi-uncial]] style developed, and is notably still used today by the [[Church Slavonic language|Church Slavonic]] publishing.
This style turns into a more fluid writing: there is a slope, letters descending below the line, capital letters, transitional cursive.

In parallel, the first printing fonts are being developed. In 1517, a work of simplification and "romanization" of the Cyrillic alphabet by the first Belarusian printer [[Francysk Skaryna]] (Prague and Vilnius editions) will give a writing of capitals close to modern. This font was further improved thanks to the Belarusian printer Ilya Kopievich, who from 1700 to 1706, by order of Peter I, published about 25 books in Amsterdam and Danzig. The font of his publications was extremely close to the civil font adopted by the Russian emperor in 1708.

In the Cyrillic И with the Greek shape H, the horizontal line "-" has become an ascending diagonal:
* the diagonal starts at the bottom of the first vertical line, in the middle or at three-quarter;
* the diagonal ends either at the top of the second vertical line, or lower with a very small angle (10 or 20 degrees).

See for examples:
<gallery caption="" widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="3">
File:LavrentyevskayaLetopis.jpg|The Laurentian Codex in semioncial from 1377
File:Пересопницкое евангелие.gif|"Peresopnitsky Gospel", XVI century
File:Alphabets skorina amsterdam.jpg|Fonts of the editions F.Skaryna (1517) and I.Kopievich (1700)
</gallery>

Therefore, the H-shape for the letter И became less frequent and eventually became available for another letter as... Н. Then the official Civil Script made it mandatory to use the H-shape for the letter Н (in use at that time, see Karion Istomin's alphabet book from 1694) at the detriment of the original N-shape. No specific explanation is available for this choice and if there was a problem with readability, it could have been decided to return to the original shape as in the Greek or Latin alphabet. We can only note that the Church prefers to continue using the old shape, thus refusing to reverse two glyphs in the Cyrillic alphabet created specifically to translate the Bible, and thus avoiding repeating the instability of this H-shape (cf. cursive).

==Utilization==
* During the transition from Cyrillic to Latin alphabet, the [[Romanian transitional alphabet]] used the Latin glyphs N and n (or ɴ), instead of the Cyrillic glyphs Н and н starting 1846.
* In the [[Agatha Christie]] novel ''[[Murder on the Orient Express]]'', there is a monogrammed handkerchief, and the "Н" is actually a Cyrillic letter, saying that the bearer's forename is Natalia.
* The Cyrillic letter "Н" is one of the symbols of the movement of supporters of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sibreal.org/a/mayor-udod-nashel-ekstremizm-v-bukve-n/31478158.html |website= Sibreal |title= Дальше – арест за запятую?!" Майор Удод нашел экстремизм в букве Н |date= 27 September 2021 |language=ru |access-date=10 July 2024}}</ref>

==Related letters and other similar characters==
*Ν ν : [[Ν|Greek letter Nu]]
*N n : [[N|Latin letter N]]
*И и : [[И|Cyrillic letter I]]
*Њ њ : [[Њ|Cyrillic letter Nje]]
*Ӊ ӊ : [[En with tail|Cyrillic letter En with tail]]
*Η η : [[Η|Greek letter Eta]]
*H h : [[H|Latin letter H]]
*ʜ : [[ʜ|Latin letter small capital H]]

==Computing codes==

{{charmap
|041D|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter En
|043D|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter En
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=EE |map1char2=CE
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=D5 |map2char2=D4
|map3=[[Code page 866]] |map3char1=8D |map3char2=AD
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=CD |map4char2=ED
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=BD |map5char2=DD
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=8D |map6char2=ED
}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Н}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|н}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]

Em (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:25:12Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{Short description|Cyrillic letter}}
{{distinguish|text=the [[M|Latin letter M]] or the [[Mu (letter)|Greek letter Μ]]}}
{{infobox grapheme
| letter = М м
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = Em
| image = Cyrillic letter Em - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|m}}], [{{IPA link|mʲ}}]
| number = 40 ([[Cyrillic numerals]])
| fam1 = [[Mu (letter)|Μ μ]]
| unicode = U+041C, U+043C
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]]
| equivalents = M m
}}
[[File:Azbuka Benois - М.jpg|thumb|''Em'', from [[Alexandre Benois]]' 1904 [[alphabet book]]]]
'''Em''' (М м; italics: ''М м'' or М м; italics: ''М м'') is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]]. <ref name="Nakanishi1990"/>

Em commonly represents the [[bilabial nasal]] consonant {{IPA|/m/}}, like the pronunciation of {{angbr|m}} in "hi'''m'''". Common [[Glagolitic script]] is "Ⰿ and Ⱞ"

It is derived from the [[mu (letter)|Greek letter Mu]] (Μ μ).

==Form==
The capital Cyrillic letter Em (М м) looks the same as the capital [[M|Latin letter M]] (M m) but, as with most Cyrillic letters, the lowercase form is simply a smaller version of the uppercase letter.

==Usage==
As used in the alphabets of various languages, Em represents the following sounds:
* [[bilabial nasal]] consonant {{IPA|/m/}}, like the pronunciation of {{angbr|m}} in "hi'''m'''" or '''m'''eet
* palatalized [[bilabial nasal]] consonant {{IPA|/mʲ/}}

The pronunciations shown in the table are the primary ones for each language; for details consult the articles on the languages.
{|class="wikitable"
! Language !! Position in alphabet !! Pronunciation
|-
| [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] || align=center | 14th|| {{IPA|/m/}}, {{IPA|/mʲ/}}
|-
| [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] || align=center | 13th|| {{IPA|/m/}}, {{IPA|/mʲ/}}
|-
| [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]] || align=center | 16th || {{IPA|/m/}}
|-
| [[Russian language|Russian]] || align=center | 14th|| {{IPA|/m/}}, {{IPA|/mʲ/}}
|-
| [[Serbo-Croatian]] || align=center | 15th || {{IPA|/m/}}
|-
| [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] || align=center | 17th || {{IPA|/m/}}
|-
|}

==Related letters and other similar characters==
*Μ μ: [[Μ|Greek letter Mu]]
*M m: [[M|Latin letter M]]
*Ӎ ӎ: [[Ӎ|Cyrillic letter Em with tail]]

{{anchor|Code positions}}

==Computing codes==

{{charmap
|041C|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Em
|043C|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Em
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=ED |map1char2=CD
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=D3 |map2char2=D2
|map3=[[Code page 866]] |map3char1=8C |map3char2=AC
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=CC |map4char2=EC
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=BC |map5char2=DC
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=8C |map6char2=EC
}}

==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="Nakanishi1990">{{Citation
| last1 = Nakanishi
| first1 = Akira
| title = Writing Systems of the World
| publisher = Tuttle Publishing
| page = 20
| year = 1990
| isbn = 0804816549
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XVCo7lwPZB0C&pg=PA20
| postscript= .
}}</ref>

}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|М}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|м}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]

El (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:23:50Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{short description|Cyrillic letter}}
{{Distinguish|text = Greek letters [[Pi (letter)|π]], [[Lambda|Λ]], or Hebrew letter [[Taw|ת]]}}
{{Infobox grapheme
| letter = Л л
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = El ({{Script|Cyrs|людиѥ}})
| image = Cyrillic letter El - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|l}}], [{{IPA link|lʲ}}], [{{IPA link|w}}], [{{IPA link|ɫ}}], [{{IPA link|ɮ}}], [{{IPA link|ɮʲ}}]
| number = 30 ([[Cyrillic numerals]])
| fam1 = [[Lambda|Λ λ]]
| equivalents = L l
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]]
| unicode = U+041B, U+043B
}}

[[File:Azbuka Benois - Л.jpg|thumb|''El'', from [[Alexandre Benois]]' 1904 [[alphabet book]]]]
'''El''' (Л л/Ʌ ʌ; italics: ''Л л''/''Ʌ ʌ'' or Л л/Ʌ ʌ; italics: ''Л л''/''Ʌ ʌ'') is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]].

El commonly represents the [[alveolar lateral approximant]] {{IPA|/l/}}. In [[Slavic languages]] it may be either [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]] or slightly [[velarization|velarized]]; see [[#Pronunciation|below]].

==History==
The Cyrillic letter El was derived from the [[Lambda|Greek letter lambda]] (Λ λ).

In the [[Early Cyrillic alphabet]] its name was {{Script|Cyrs|людиѥ}} (''ljudije''), meaning "people".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Corbett |first1=Professor Greville |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=euI4CQAAQBAJ |title=The Slavonic Languages |last2=Comrie |first2=Professor Bernard |date=September 2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-86137-6 |language=en}}</ref>

In the [[Cyrillic numerals|Cyrillic numeral system]], Л had a value of 30.

==Forms==
El has two forms: one form resembles Greek capital Lambda (Ʌ ʌ), and the other form resembles the Hebrew letter [[Taw|ת]] (Л л).

In some [[typeface]]s the Cyrillic letter El has a grapheme which may be confused with the [[Pe (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter Pe]] (П п). Note that Pe has a straight left leg, without the hook. An alternative form of El (Ʌ ʌ) is more common in Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Serbian.

==Usage==
As used in the alphabets of various languages, El represents the following sounds:
* [[alveolar lateral approximant]] {{IPA|/l/}}, like the pronunciation of {{angbr|l}} in "'''l'''ip"
* palatalized [[alveolar lateral approximant]] {{IPA|/lʲ/}}
* [[velarized alveolar lateral approximant]] {{IPA|/ɫ/}}, like the pronunciation of {{angbr|l}} in "be'''ll'''" and "mi'''l'''k"
* [[Labiovelar approximant]] {{IPA|/w/}}, like the {{angbr|w}} in "'''w'''ater"
* [[voiced alveolar lateral fricative]] {{IPA|/ɮ/}} and its palatalized equivalent {{IPA|/ɮʲ/}}

The {{IPA|/l/}} phoneme in Slavic languages has two realizations: hard ({{IPA|[l]}}, {{IPAblink|ɫ}}, or {{IPA|[lˠ]}}, exact pronunciation varies) and soft (pronounced as {{IPA|[lʲ]}}){{snd}}see [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalization]] for details. Serbian and Macedonian orthographies use a separate letter [[Љ]] for the soft {{IPA|/l/}}{{snd}}it looks as a [[Typographic ligature|ligature]] of El with the [[soft sign]] (Ь). In these languages, {{angbr|Л}} denotes only hard {{IPA|/l/}}. Pronunciation of hard {{IPA|/l/}} is sometimes given as {{IPA|[l]}}, but it is always more velar than {{IPA|[l]}} in [[French phonology|French]] or [[German phonology|German]].

Slavic languages except Serbian and Macedonian use another orthographic convention to distinguish between hard and soft {{IPA|/l/}}, so {{angbr|Л}} can denote either variant depending on the subsequent letter.

The pronunciations shown in the table are the primary ones for each language.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Svantesson |first=Jan-Olof |title=The phonology of Mongolian |last2=Tsendina |first2=Anna |last3=Karlsson |first3=Anastasia |last4=Franzén |first4=Vivan |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University press |isbn=978-0-19-926017-1 |series=The phonology of the world's languages |location=Oxford (GB) |pages=35}}</ref>
{|class="wikitable"
! Language !! Position in alphabet !! Pronunciation
|-
| [[Belarusian alphabet|Belarusian]] || align=center | 13th || {{IPA|/ɫ/, /lʲ/}}
|-
| [[Bulgarian alphabet|Bulgarian]] || align=center | 12th || {{IPA|/w~ɫ/, /l/}}
|-
| [[Kazakh alphabets#Cyrillic script|Kazakh]] || align=center | 16th || {{IPA|/ɫ~l/}}
|-
| [[Macedonian alphabet|Macedonian]] || align=center | 14th || {{IPA|/l/}}
|-
| [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]] || align=center | 13th || {{IPA|/ɮ/, /ɮʲ/}}
|-
| [[Ossetian language|Ossetian]] || align=center | 16th || {{IPA|/ɫ~l/}}
|-
| [[Russian alphabet|Russian]] || align="center" | 13th || {{IPA|/ɫ/, /lʲ/}}
|-
| [[Serbian Cyrillic alphabet|Serbian]] || align=center | 13th || {{IPA|/l/}}
|-
| [[Ukrainian alphabet|Ukrainian]]|| align=center | 16th || {{IPA|/ɫ/, /lʲ/}}
|}

In addition, л was formerly used in [[Chukchi language|Chukchi]] to represent the [[voiceless alveolar lateral fricative]] {{IPA|/ɬ/}} but has since been replaced by ԓ.

=== Use in mathematics ===
El is sometimes used to represent the [[Clausen function]], and if not, the capital greek letter Lambda is.

==Related letters and other similar characters==
*Λ λ : [[Λ|Greek letter Lambda]]
*Љ љ : [[Љ|Cyrillic letter Lje]]
*Ӆ ӆ : [[Ӆ|Cyrillic letter El with tail]]
*Ԓ ԓ : [[Ԓ|Cyrillic letter El with hook]]
*Ԯ ԯ : [[Ԯ|Cyrillic letter El with descender]]
*L l : [[L|Latin letter L]]
*Ł ł : [[Ł|Latin letter L with stroke]]
*ת : [[Taw|Hebrew letter Taw]]

==Computing codes==
{{charmap
|041B|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter El
|043B|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter El
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=EC |map1char2=CC
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=D1 |map2char2=D0
|map3=[[Code page 866]] |map3char1=8B |map3char2=AB
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=CB |map4char2=EB
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=BB |map5char2=DB
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=8B |map6char2=EB
}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Л}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|л}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]

Short I (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:15:50Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{Short description|Letter of the Cyrillic script}}
{{For| the sound in English sometimes represented by ''ĭ''| near-close near-front unrounded vowel}}
{{Infobox grapheme
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = Short I
| image = Cyrillic letter short I - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|j}}]
| number =
| fam1 =
| letter = Й й
| equivalents = Y y, J j, ĭ
| language = [[Church Slavonic|Church Slavonic]]
| unicode = U+0419, U+0439
}}
[[File:Azbuka Benois - Й.jpg|thumb|''Yot'', from [[Alexandre Benois]]' 1904 [[alphabet book]]]]
'''Short I''' or '''Yot/Jot''' (Й й; italics: ''Й й'' or Й й; italics: ''Й й'') (sometimes called '''I Kratkoye''', {{langx|ru|и краткое}}, [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]: йот) or '''I with breve''', [[Russian language|Russian]]: и с бреве) is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Franklin |first=Simon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-r-PDwAAQBAJ |title=The Russian Graphosphere, 1450-1850 |date=2019-05-16 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-49257-7 |pages=108 |language=en}}</ref> It is made of the Cyrillic [[I (Cyrillic)|letter И]] with a [[breve]].

The short I represents the [[palatal approximant]] {{IPA|/j/}}, like the pronunciation of {{angle bracket|y}} in '''''y'''esterday''.

Depending on the [[romanization]] system in use and the Slavic language that is under examination, it can be romanized as {{angle bracket|y}}, {{angle bracket|j}}, {{angle bracket|i}} or {{angle bracket|ĭ}}. For more details, see [[romanization of Russian]], [[romanization of Ukrainian]], [[romanization of Belarusian]] and [[romanization of Bulgarian]].

==History==
Active use of {{angle bracket|Й}} (or, rather, the breve over {{angle bracket|И}}) began around the 15th and 16th centuries. Since the middle of the 17th century, the differentiation between {{angle bracket|И}} and {{angle bracket|Й}} is obligatory in the Russian variant of [[Church Slavonic]] orthography (used for the Russian language as well). During the [[civil script|alphabet reforms of Peter I]], all diacritic marks were removed from the Russian writing system, but shortly after his death, in 1735, the distinction between {{angle bracket|И}} and {{angle bracket|Й}} was restored.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Language dynamics in the early modern period |date=2022 |others=Karen Bennett, Angelo Cattaneo, Lingua Franca and Translation in the Early Modern Period (2018 : Lisbon, Portugal) "A host of tongues...": Multilingualism |isbn=978-1-000-57461-6 |location=New York, NY |oclc=1287743631}}</ref> {{angle bracket|Й}} was not officially considered a separate letter of the alphabet until the 1930s.

Because {{angle bracket|Й}} was considered to be a vowel and not a consonant, it was not required to take a [[hard sign]] when it came at the end of a word in pre-reform orthography.

==Usage==
{|class="wikitable"
! Language !! position in alphabet !! name
|-
| [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] || align=center|11th || {{lang|be|і нескладовае}} (''i nieskladovaje'', or "non-syllabic I")
|-
| [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] || align=center|10th || {{lang|bg|и кратко}} (''i kratko'' or "short I")
|-
| [[Russian language|Russian]] || align=center|11th || {{lang|ru|и краткое}} (''i kratkoye'' or "short I")
|-
| [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] || align=center|14th || {{lang|uk|йот}} {{IPA|/jɔt/}}, {{lang|uk|й}} {{IPA|/ɪj/}}
|-
| [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]] || align=center|13th || қысқа й /qysqa ɪ/ (qysqa i or "short I")
|}

In [[Russian language|Russian]], it appears predominantly in diphthongs like {{IPA|/ij/}} in широк'''ий''' (''shirokiy'' 'wide'), {{IPA|/aj/}} in кр'''ай''' (''kray'' 'end', '[[krai]]'), {{IPA|/ej/}} in дол'''ей''' (''doley'' 'portion'), {{IPA|/oj/}} in гор'''ой''' (''goroy'' 'mountain'), and {{IPA|/uj/}} in б'''уй'''ство (''buystvo'' 'rage').<ref>{{Cite conference |last1=Zhang |first1=Xiangning |last2=Zhang |first2=Ruolin |title=Proceedings of the 2018 4th International Conference on Economics, Social Science, Arts, Education and Management Engineering (ESSAEME 2018) |chapter=Evolution of Ancient Alphabet to Modern Greek, Latin and Cyrillic Alphabets and Transcription between Them |date=July 2018 |chapter-url=https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/essaeme-18/25900400 |journal=Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research |language=en |publisher=Atlantis Press |pages=156–162 |doi=10.2991/essaeme-18.2018.30 |isbn=978-94-6252-549-8|doi-access=free }}</ref> It is used in other positions only in foreign words, such as Йopк (York, [[Yo (Cyrillic)#Transcription of foreign words|not with {{angbr|Ё}}]]), including fellow Slavic words like Йовович (Yovovich).

In [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]], the letter is used to represent a short [[Near-close near-front unrounded vowel|ɪ]] sound (e.g. бер'''ей'''ік (tr. (Let us) '''give''')). The letter, much like the other 11 [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]] letters, does not have another Latin version and merges with [[I (Cyrillic)|Ии]] ([[İ]]i).

In [[Serbo-Croatian language|Serbo-Croatian]] and [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]], the [[Je (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter Јe]] is used to represent the same sound. Latin-based Slavonic writing systems, such as Polish, Czech and the Latin version of Serbo-Croatian use the [[J|Latin letter J]] (not the [[Y|letter Y]], as in English), for that purpose.

==Related letters and other similar characters==
[[File:Contrastive use of kratka and breve.JPG|thumb|250px|Contrastive use of Cyrillic kratka (for consonant [j]) and Latin breve (for short vowel [ĭ]) above '''и''' in [[Russian language|Russian]]-[[Tundra Nenets language|Nenets]] dictionary]]

*И и : [[I (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter I]]
*Ы ы : [[Ы|Cyrillic letter Yery]]
* Η η: [[Η|Greek letter Eta]]
*H h : [[H|Latin letter H]]
*І і : [[І|Cyrillic letter І]]
*I i : [[I|Latin letter I]]
*Ĭ ĭ : [[Ĭ|Latin letter Ĭ]]
*J j : [[J|Latin letter J]]
*Ј ј : [[Ј|Cyrillic letter Je]]
*Y y : [[Y|Latin letter Y]]
*Ў ў : [[Ў|Cyrillic letter Short U]]
* ̆ [[combining character|Combining]] [[breve]] U+0306
{{anchor|Code positions}}
Note that breve in Й may be quite different from ordinary breve, the former having a thinner central part and thicker ends (the opposite holds for ordinary breve). This is often seen in serif fonts, cf. Й (Cyrillic Short I) and Ŭ (Latin U with breve).

==Computing codes==

{{charmap
|0419|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Short I
|0439|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Short I
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=EA |map1char2=CA
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=BE |map2char2=BD
|map3=[[Code page 866]] |map3char1=89 |map3char2=A9
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=C9 |map4char2=E9
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=B9 |map5char2=D9
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=89 |map6char2=E9
}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Й}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|й}}

{{Authority control}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Vowel letters|I]]
[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]

Ze (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:08:36Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{Short description|Letter of the Cyrillic script}}
{{Distinguish|text=the Arabic numeral [[3]], the letter [[E (Cyrillic)|Э (Cyrillic E)]], the letter [[Yogh|Ȝ (yogh)]], or the letter [[ezh|Ʒ (ezh)]]}}
{{More citations needed|date=July 2016}}
{{Infobox grapheme
| letter = З з
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = Ze ({{Script|Cyrs|зємл҄ꙗ}})
| image = File:Cyrillic letter Ze - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|z}}], [{{IPA link|zʲ}}] (if followed by е, ё, or ь)
| number = 7 ([[Cyrillic numerals]])
| fam1 = [[Zeta|Ζ ζ]]
| equivalents = Z z
| variations = Ꙁ ꙁ
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]]
| unicode = U+0417, U+0437, U+A640, U+A641
| alphanumber = 8
}}
[[File:Azbuka Benois - З.jpg|thumb|''Ze'', from [[Alexandre Benois]]' 1904 [[alphabet book]]]]
'''Ze''' (З з; italics: ''З з'' or З з; italics: ''З з'') is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]].

It commonly represents the [[voiced alveolar fricative]] {{IPA|/z/}}, like the pronunciation of {{angbr|z}} in "'''z'''ulu".

Ze is romanized using the Latin letter {{angbr|z}}.

The shape of Ze is [[Homoglyph|very similar]] to the [[3|Arabic numeral three]] {{angbr|3}}, and should not be confused with the [[E (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter E]] {{angbr|Э}}.

==History and shape==
[[Image:JIUKEN typewriter.JPG|thumb|Russian typewriters like this one were manufactured without the digit 3 as the letter Ze could be used instead.]]
Ze is derived from the [[Zeta (letter)|Greek letter Zeta]] (Ζ ζ).

In the [[Early Cyrillic alphabet]] its name was {{Script|Cyrs|землꙗ}} (''zemlja''), meaning "earth". The shape of the letter originally looked similar to a Greek letter '''[[Zeta|Ζ]]''' or Latin letter '''[[Z]]''' with a tail on the bottom ({{Slavonic|ꙁ}}). Though a majuscule form of this variant ({{Slavonic|Ꙁ}}) is encoded in Unicode, historically it was only used as caseless or lowercase.<ref name=Ponomar>Ponomar Project. ''The Complete Character Range for Slavonic Script in Unicode.''</ref>

In the [[Cyrillic numerals|Cyrillic numeral system]], Zemlja had a value of 7.

Medieval Cyrillic manuscripts and Church Slavonic printed books have two variant forms of the letter Zemlja: з and {{Slavonic|ꙁ}}. Only the form {{Slavonic|ꙁ}} was used in the oldest [[uncial script|ustav]] ([[uncial]]) writing style; з appeared in the later poluustav ([[half-uncial]]) manuscripts and typescripts, where the two variants are found at proportions of about 1:1.<ref name=Ponomar /> Some early grammars tried to give a phonetic distinction to these forms (like palatalized vs. nonpalatalized sound), but the system had no further development. [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] scribes and typographers began to regularly use З/з in an initial position, and {{Slavonic|ꙁ}} otherwise (a system in use till the end of the 19th century). [[Russia]]n scribes and typographers largely abandoned the widespread use of the variant {{Slavonic|ꙁ}} in favor of з in the wake of [[Patriarch Nikon of Moscow|Patriarch Nikon]]'s reforms.<ref name=Ponomar /> They still used the older form mostly in the case of two З's in row: {{Slavonic|ЗꙀ}} (the system in use till the mid-18th century).

The [[civil script|civil (Petrine) script]] knows only one shape of the letter: З/з. This shape is therefore confusing with the number 3, given that the two shapes are very similar to it. However, shapes similar to Z/z can be used in certain stylish typefaces.

In calligraphy and in general handwritten text, lowercase з can be written either fully over the baseline (similar to the printed form) or with the lower half under the baseline and with the loop (for the Russian language, a standard shape since the middle of the 20th century).

==Usage==
The letter Ze may represent:
* {{IPA|/z/}}, the [[voiced alveolar sibilant]] (Macedonian, Bulgarian, Bosnian, Serbian, Montenegrin, Russian, Ukrainian, Rusyn and Belarusian);
* {{IPA|/zʲ/}}, if followed by {{angbr|ь}} or any of the [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalizing]] vowels, as in Russian зеркало {{IPA|[ˈzʲer.kə.ɫə]}} ("mirror");
* {{IPA|/s/}}, the [[voiceless alveolar sibilant]] (in final position or before voiceless consonants);
* {{IPA|/sʲ/}}, if followed by {{angbr|ь}} in final position or before voiceless consonants;
* {{IPA|/ʒ/}} or {{IPA|/z̠/}} (Iron dialect of [[Ossetian language|Ossetian]], but {{IPA|/z/}} in Digoron and Kudairag);
* clusters {{angbr|зж}} and {{angbr|зш}} are pronounced in Russian as if they were {{angbr|жж}} and {{angbr|шш}}, respectively (even if {{angbr|з}} is the last letter of a preposition, like in Russian без жены "without wife" or из школы "from school");
* cluster {{angbr|зч}} (sometimes also {{angbr|здч}}) is pronounced in Russian as if it was {{angbr|щ}} (рассказчик "narrator", звёздчатый "stellar, star-shaped", без чая "without tea");
* cluster {{angbr|дз}} can be pronounced (mostly in Ukrainian, Rusyn and Belarusian) as the [[voiced alveolar affricate]] {{IPA|/dz/}} (Ukrainian дзеркало "mirror") or its palatalized form {{IPA|/dzʲ/}} (Belarusian гадзіннік "clock"), but if {{angbr|д}} and {{angbr|з}} belong to different morphemes, then they are pronounced separately. In the standard Iron dialect of Ossetian, this cluster simply stands for {{IPA|/z/}}; other dialects treat it as the affricate {{IPA|/d͡z/}}.
* {{IPA|/t͡s/}}, the [[voiceless alveolar affricate]] in [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]], similar to [[German language|German]] ''z''.

==Other related letters and similar characters==
*3 : [[3 (number)|Digit Three]]
*Ζ ζ : [[Ζ|Greek letter Zeta]]
*Z z : [[Z|Latin letter Z]]
*Ʒ ʒ : [[Ʒ|Latin letter Ezh]]
*Ȝ ȝ : [[Ȝ|Latin letter Yogh]]
*Ɜ ɜ : [[Open-mid central unrounded vowel|Latin letter reversed open E]]
*Ҙ ҙ : [[Ҙ|Cyrillic letter Dhe or Ze with descender]]
*Ӡ ӡ : [[Ӡ|Cyrillic letter Abkhazian Dze]]
*Ԑ ԑ : [[Ԑ|Cyrillic letter Reversed Ze]]

{{anchor|Encodings}}

=== З-shaped Latin letters ===

==== Zhuang ====
A letter that looks like Cyrillic Ze (actually, a stylization of digit 3) was used in the Latin [[Zhuang alphabet]] from 1957 to 1986 to represent the third (high) [[tone (linguistics)|tone]]. In 1986, it was replaced by {{angbr|j}}.

==Computing codes==
{{charmap
|0417|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Ze
|0437|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Ze
|A640|name3=Cyrillic Capital Letter Zemlya
|A641|name4=Cyrillic Small Letter Zemlya
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=FA |map1char2=DA ||
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=F4 |map2char2=F3 ||
|map3=[[Code page 866]] |map3char1=87 |map3char2=A7 ||
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=C7 |map4char2=E7 ||
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=B7 |map5char2=D7 ||
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=87 |map6char2=E7 ||
}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|З}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|з}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]

Ye (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:06:06Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{Short description|Cyrillic letter}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2007}}
{{For|the Cyrillic letter Je|Je (Cyrillic)}}{{Distinguish|E}}
{{infobox grapheme
| letter = Е е
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = Ye/E/Ie ({{Script|Cyrs|есть}})
| image = Cyrillic letter Ye - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|e}}], [{{IPA link|ɛ}}], [{{IPA link|ɪ̞}}], [{{IPA link|j}}{{IPA link|e}}], [{{IPA link|j}}{{IPA link|ɛ}}], [{{IPA link|j}}{{IPA link|ɪ̞}}], [{{IPA link|j}}{{IPA link|i}}~{{IPA link|j}}{{IPA link|ɵ}}]
| number = 5 ([[Cyrillic numerals]])
| fam1 = [[Epsilon|Ε ε]]
| equivalents = e, ie, je
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]]
| unicode = U+0415, U+0435
| alphanumber = 6
}}
[[File:Karion Istomin's alphabet E.jpg|thumb|''Ye'', from [[Karion Istomin]]'s [[alphabet book]] (1694)]]

'''E''' (Е е; italics: ''Е е'' or Е е; italics: ''Е е''), known in Russian and Belarusian as '''Ye''', '''Je''', or '''Ie''', is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]]. In some languages this letter is called E. It commonly represents the vowel {{IPA|[e]}} or {{IPA|[ɛ]}}, like the pronunciation of {{angle bracket|e}} in "y'''e'''s". It was derived from the [[Epsilon|Greek letter epsilon]] (Ε ε), and the shape is very similar to the [[E|Latin letter E]] or another version of [[E (Cyrillic)]].

Ye is romanized using the [[E|Latin letter E]] for Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian, Ukrainian and Rusyn, and occasionally Russian (Озеро Байкал, Ozero Baykal), Je for Belarusian (Заслаўе, Zaslaŭje), Ye for Russian (Европа, Yevropa), and Ie occasionally for Russian (Днепр, Dniepr) and Belarusian (Маладзе́чна, Maladziečna).

==Usage==

===Russian and Belarusian===
*At the beginning of a word or after a vowel, Ye represents the phonemic combination {{IPA|/je/}} (phonetically {{IPA|[je]}} or {{IPA|[jɛ]}}), like the pronunciation of {{angle bracket|ye}} in "'''ye'''s". Ukrainian uses the letter {{angle bracket|є}} (see [[Ukrainian Ye]]) in this way.
*Following a consonant, Ye indicates that the consonant is [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]], and represents the vowel {{IPA|/e/}} (phonetically {{IPA|[e]}} or {{IPA|[ɛ]}}), like the pronunciation of {{angle bracket|e}} in "y'''e'''s".

In Russian, the letter {{angle bracket|е}} can follow unpalatalized consonants, especially {{angle bracket|ж}}, {{angle bracket|ш}}, and {{angle bracket|ц}}. In some loanwords, other consonants before {{angle bracket|е}} (especially {{angle bracket|т}}, {{angle bracket|д}}, {{angle bracket|н}}, {{angle bracket|с}}, {{angle bracket|з}}, and {{angle bracket|р}}) are also not palatalized, see [[E (Cyrillic)]]. The letter {{angle bracket|е}} also represents {{IPA|/jo/}} (as in "'''yo'''gurt") and {{IPA|/o/}} after palatalized consonants, {{angle bracket|ж}}, and {{angle bracket|ш}}. In these cases, {{angle bracket|ё}} may be used, see [[Yo (Cyrillic)]]. In unstressed syllables, {{angle bracket|e}} represents reduced vowels like {{IPA|[ɪ]}}, see [[Russian phonology]] and [[Vowel reduction in Russian]].

===Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian, Ukrainian and Rusyn===
This letter is called E, and represents the vowel phoneme {{IPA|/e/}} (phonetically {{IPA|[e]}} or {{IPA|[ɛ]}}), like the pronunciation of {{angle bracket|e}} in the word "s'''e'''t".

=== Mongolian ===
The letter represents the sound {{IPA|/jo/}} ('''й'''+'''ө''') at the beginning of words ([[yo (Cyrillic)|yo]] represents {{IPA|/jɔ/}}) like '''ес''' (nine) and '''ерөнхийлөгч''' (president), and also represents {{IPA|/je/}} at the beginning of some words and in the middle or end of words and {{IPA|/e/}} in Russian loanwords and transcriptions of foreign names. Finally, it represents {{IPA|/i/}} in the volitional forms of certain verbs like '''хүргэе''' and '''тэгье''', etc.

===Turkic languages and Tajik===
In Turkic languages utilizing the Cyrillic script (such as [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]], [[Kyrgyz language|Kyrgyz]] and [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]]) and in [[Tajik language|Tajik]], Ye is used to represent the phoneme {{IPA link|e}}~{{IPA link|ɛ}}, both word-finally and medially. Isolated, word-initially, or vowel-succeeding, this letter is substituted with the letter [[Э]]. If the letter Ye occurs word-initially, isolated, or vowel-succeeding, it represents the phoneme /je/~/jɛ/. This is done in imitation of the Russian usage, as many of these languages received Cyrillic orthographies as part of [[Russification#In the Soviet Union|Russification in the Soviet Union]].

== Related letters and other similar characters ==
* the Latin letter [[E]]
* the Latin letter [[É]]
* the Greek letter [[Epsilon|Ε]]
* [[Ukrainian Ye]]

==Computing codes==
{{charmap
|0415|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Ie
|0435|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Ie
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=E5 |map1char2=C5
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=A9 |map2char2=A8
|map3=[[Windows-1251]] |map3char1=C5 |map3char2=E5
|map4=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map4char1=B5 |map4char2=D5
|map5=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map5char1=85 |map5char2=E5
}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Е}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|е}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]
[[Category:Vowel letters]]

Ge (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:03:01Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{Short description|Letter of the Cyrillic script}}
{{For|the letter also named Ge, but used in Ukrainian and sometimes in Belarusian|Ghe with upturn}}
{{Redirect-distinguish-text|Ghe (Cyrillic)}}
{{Distinguish|Γ|text=the Greek letter [[Γ|Gamma (Γ)]], the Coptic letter [[Ⲅ|Gamma (Ⲅ)]], or the Latin letter [[R|R (lowercase)]]}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2007}}
{{infobox grapheme
| letter = Г г
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = Ge/He ({{Script|Cyrs|глаголи}})
| image = Cyrillic letter Ge - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt =
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|ɡ}}], [{{IPA link|k}}], [{{IPA link|ɦ}}~{{IPA link|ʕ}}], [{{IPA link|ɣ}}], [{{IPA link|h}}]
| number = 3 ([[Cyrillic numerals]])
| fam1 = [[Gamma|Γ γ]]
| equivalents = G g, H h
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]]
| unicode = U+0413, U+0433
| alphanumber = 4
}}
[[File:Azbuka Benois - Г.jpg|thumb|''Ge'', from [[Alexandre Benois]]' 1904 [[alphabet book]]]]
'''Ge''', '''ghe''', or '''he''' (Г г; italics: ''Г г'' or Г г; italics: ''Г г'') is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]]. Most commonly, it represents the [[voiced velar plosive]] {{IPAslink|ɡ}}, like the {{angbr|g}} in "'''g'''ift", or the [[voiced glottal fricative]] {{IPAblink|ɦ}}, like the {{angbr|h}} in "'''h'''eft". It is generally romanized using the Latin letter ''[[g]]'' or ''[[h]]'', depending on the source language.

==History==
The Cyrillic letter ge was derived directly from the Greek letter [[Gamma]] (Γ) in [[uncial script]].

In the [[Early Cyrillic alphabet]], its name was [[wikt:ru:глаголь|глаголь]] (''glagol' ''), meaning "speak".

In the [[Cyrillic numerals|Cyrillic numeral system]], it had a numerical value of 3.

==Usage==

=== Slavic languages ===
[[File:Cyrillic G with oblique forms.png|100px|thumb|left|Г in: Russian/Serbian normal font; Bulgarian Cyrillic; Russian/Bulgarian italic; Serbian italic]]

==== Belarusian, Rusyn, and Ukrainian ====
From these three languages, the letter is romanized with ''h''. Its name is ''he'' in Belarusian and Ukrainian, and ''hy'' in Rusyn.

In [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]] (like in Southern Russian), the letter corresponds to the [[voiced velar fricative|velar fricative]] {{IPAslink|ɣ}}<ref name="ge-sounds" /> and its soft counterpart {{IPA|/ɣʲ/}}.

In [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] and [[Rusyn language|Rusyn]], it represents a [[voiced glottal fricative]] {{IPAblink|ɦ}},<ref name="ge-sounds" /> a [[breathy voice]]d counterpart of the English {{IPAblink|h}}.

In [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] and [[Rusyn language|Rusyn]], a voiced velar plosive {{IPAslink|ɡ}} is written with the [[Ghe with upturn|Cyrillic letter ghe with upturn]] (Ґ ґ). In Belarusian, the official orthography uses г for both {{IPAslink|ɣ}} and {{IPAslink|ɡ}} (which is rare), although in [[Taraškievica]] ghe with upturn is optionally used for {{IPAslink|ɡ}}. Ґ is transliterated with [[G]].

In all three languages' historical ancestor [[Ruthenian language|Ruthenian]], the sound {{IPAslink|ɡ}} was also represented by the digraph кг.

==== Russian ====
In standard [[Russian language|Russian]], ghe represents the [[voiced velar plosive]] {{IPAslink|ɡ}} but is devoiced to {{IPAblink|k}} word-finally or before a voiceless consonant. It represents {{IPA|/ɡʲ/}} before a [[palatalization (phonetics)|palatalizing]] vowel. In the [[Southern Russian dialects|Southern Russian]] dialect, the sound becomes the [[voiced velar fricative|velar fricative]] {{IPAslink|ɣ}}. Sometimes, the sound is the [[voiced glottal fricative|glottal fricative]] {{IPAslink|ɦ}} in the regions bordering Belarus and Ukraine.

It is acceptable, for some people, to pronounce certain Russian words with {{IPAblink|ɣ}} (sometimes referred to as ''Ukrainian Ge''): {{lang|ru|Бог, богатый, благо, Господь}} (''Bog, bogatyj, blago, Gospod’''). The sound is normally considered nonstandard or dialectal in Russian and is avoided by educated Russian speakers. {{lang|ru|Бог}} (''Bog'', "God") is always pronounced {{IPA|[box]}} in the [[nominative case]].<ref name="ge-sounds">{{cite web | url= http://www.gramota.ru/book/village/map14.html | script-title=ru:Звуки на месте буквы г | language= Russian |trans-title=Sounds in place of the letter г | work= Scholarly Dialectical Atlas | at= map 14}}</ref>

In the Russian nominal genitive ending {{lang|ru|-ого, -его}}, ghe represents {{IPAblink|v}}, including in the word {{lang|ru|сегодня}} ("today", from {{lang|ru|сего дня}}).

It represents a voiceless {{IPAblink|x}} (not {{IPAblink|k}}) in front of [[Ka (Cyrillic)|ka]] in two Russian words, namely, {{lang|ru|мягкий}} and {{lang|ru|лёгкий}}, and their derivatives.

The Latin letter ''h'' of words of Latin, Greek, English or German origin is usually transliterated into Russian with ghe rather than [[Kha (Cyrillic)|kha]]: '''''h'''ero'' → {{lang|ru|'''г'''ерой}}, '''''h'''amburger'' → {{lang|ru|'''г'''амбургер}}, '''''[[Haydn]]''''' → {{lang|ru|'''Г'''айдн}}. That can occasionally cause ambiguity, as for example English ''Harry'' and ''Gary''/''Garry'' would be spelled the same in Russian, e.g. [[Harry Potter|Гарри Поттер]]). The reasons for using ghe to write ''h'' include the fact that ghe is used for ''h'' in Ukrainian, Belarusian and some Russian dialects, along with the perception that kha sounds too harsh. Nevertheless, in newer loanwords (especially from English), kha is often used. {{citation needed|date=March 2017}}

==== South Slavic ====
In standard [[Serbian language|Serbian]], [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]], [[Montenegrin language|Montenegrin]], [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]] and [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]] the letter ghe represents a [[voiced velar plosive]] {{IPAslink|ɡ}}. In Bulgarian and Macedonian, it is also devoiced to {{IPAblink|k}} word-finally or before a voiceless consonant.

=== Usage in non-Slavic languages ===
{{Expand section|date=May 2025}}
In many non-Slavic languages it can represent both {{IPA|/ɡ/}} and {{IPA|/ʁ~ɣ/}} (the latter mostly in [[Turkic languages|Turkic]] and some [[Finno-Ugric languages]]).

In [[Ossetian language|Ossetian]], an [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian language]] spoken in the [[Caucasus]], ⟨г⟩ represents the voiced velar stop {{IPA|/ɡ/}}. However, the digraph ⟨гъ⟩ represents the [[voiced uvular fricative]] {{IPA|/ʁ/}}.

== Cultural references ==
In the [[Russian Empire]], the name of the letter ''glagol' ''was an informal reference to the Γ-shaped [[gallows]]:
:Кругом пустыня, дичь и голь,
:А в стороне торчит глаголь,
:И на глаголе том два тела
:Висят. Закаркав, отлетела
:Ватага чёрная ворон,...
:[All around there is desert, wilderness and bareness... And a ''glagol' '' sticks out on the side, And on that ''glagol' '' two bodies hang. The gang of black crows croaked and flew off..]
::[[Alexander Pushkin]], 1836<ref>[https://www.culture.ru/poems/5589/alfons-saditsya-na-konya Альфонс садится на коня…]</ref>

==Related letters and other similar characters==
*Γ γ: [[Gamma|Greek letter Gamma]]
*G g: [[G|Latin letter G]]
*H h: [[H|Latin letter H]], romanized as in Belarusian, Ukrainian, and Rusyn
*Z z: [[Z|Latin letter Z]], alternative form of italicized Cyrillic Г (ge)
*Ґ ґ: [[Ghe with upturn|Cyrillic letter ghe with upturn]], the letter ''g,'' named ge in Ukrainian
*Ѓ ѓ: [[Gje|Cyrillic letter Gje]]
*Ғ ғ: [[Ghayn (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter Ghayn]]
*R r: [[R|Latin letter R (lowercase)]]
*[[Hryvnia sign|₴]]: [[Ukrainian hryvnia]] (Currency sign)
*Г̇ г̇: Ge with dot above, used by [[Nikolai Katanov]] to transliterate the Arabic letter [[ghayn]] (غ).{{cn|date=May 2025}}

== Computing codes ==
{{charmap
|0413|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Ghe
|0433|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Ghe
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=E7 |map1char2=C7
|map2=CP 855 |map2char1=AD |map2char2=AC
|map3=[[Windows-1251]] |map3char1=C3 |map3char2=E3
|map4=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map4char1=B3 |map4char2=D3
|map5=[[MacCyrillic encoding|Mac Cyrillic]] |map5char1=83 |map5char2=E3
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Г}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|г}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]

Be (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T10:00:46Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{Short description|Letter of the Cyrillic script}}
{{Distinguish|Coptic alphabet{{!}}ϭ|Cherokee syllabary{{!}}Ꮾ|6|Delta (letter){{!}}δ/𝛿|Ƃ}}
{{Redirect|B (Cyrillic)|the Cyrillic character В|Ve (Cyrillic)}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2018}}
{{Infobox grapheme
|name=Б (Buky/{{nobold|бѹкꙑ}})
|letter=Б б
|variations=([[B (Cyrillic)#Related letters and other similar characters|See below]])
|image=Cyrillic letter Be - uppercase and lowercase.svg
|imageclass=skin-invert-image
|script=[[Cyrillic script]]
|type=[[Alphabet]]
|typedesc=ic
|language=[[Old Church Slavonic]]
|phonemes=[{{IPA link|b}}] [{{IPA link|p}}] [{{IPA link|β}}]
|unicode=U+0411, U+0431
|alphanumber=2
|usageperiod=~900 to present
|fam1=<hiero>O1</hiero>
|fam2=[[File:Proto-semiticB-01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Bet]]
|fam3=[[File:Proto-Canaanite - bet.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px]]
|fam4=[[File:Phoenician beth.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Bet]]
|fam5=[[File:Greek Beta 16.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px]]
|fam6=[[beta|Β β]]
|sisters=*[[B]]
*[[Beta|B β]]
*[[Ve (Cyrillic)|В в]]
*[[Ƃ|Ƃ ƃ]]
|equivalents=[[B]] ([[Latin script]])
|direction=Left-to-right
}}

[[File:Азбука_красноармейца._Б.jpg|thumb|''Be'', from the ''Alphabet Book оf the Red Army soldier'' (1921)]]
'''Be''' (Б б; italics: ''Б б'' or Б б; italics: ''Б б'') is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]]. It commonly represents the [[voiced bilabial plosive]] {{IPA|/b/}}, like the English pronunciation of {{angbr|b}} in "'''b'''all". It should not be confused with the [[Ve (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter Ve]] (В в), which is shaped like Latin capital letter B but represents the [[voiced labiodental fricative]] {{IPA|/v/}} or the [[voiced bilabial fricative]] {{IPA|/β/}}. The Cyrillic letter Б (Be) is romanized using the Latin letter B.

==History==
The Cyrillic letters Be and [[Ve (Cyrillic)|Ve]] (В в) were both derived from the Greek letter [[Beta]] (Β β).

In the [[Early Cyrillic alphabet]] the name of the letter Be was {{Script|Cyrs|бѹкꙑ}} (''buky''/буки), meaning "letter".

In the [[Cyrillic numerals|Cyrillic numeral system]], the letter Be had no numeric value because the letter Ve inherited the Greek letter Beta's numeric value.

==Form==
The Russian small letter б (be) is similar (but not identical) in shape to the [[6|digit 6]]. Its lowercase form also somewhat resembles a lowercase letter [[B]] ("b"), the letter to which it corresponds in the Latin alphabet. After all, the lowercase letter [[B]] ("b") developed from scribal alterations to the capital letter [[B]] ("B"), just as б did from scribal alterations to the capital letter [[Ve (Cyrillic)|В]] ("Ve").
[[Image:Б Cambria.svg|thumb|120px|left|Printed forms (the font used is{{nbsp}}[[Cambria (typeface)|Cambria]])]]

In Serbian and Macedonian the italic form is allowed to vary, but the regular should look like in other languages.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Peshikan |first1=Mitar |last2=Jerković |first2=Jovan |last3=Pižurica |first3=Mato |title=Pravopis srpskoga jezika |date=1994 |publisher=Matica Srpska |page=42 |ref=PravopisSrpskog}}</ref>

The cursive form of the lowercase letter Be resembles the lowercase [[Delta (letter)|Greek letter Delta]] (δ), but they are slightly different in their upper portions.

==Usage==
<div style="float:right">{{Listen|filename=Cyrillic-Б.ogg|title=Б (Cyrillic).ogg|description=Pronunciation of name of Cyrillic 'Б'|format=[[Ogg]]}}</div>
In [[Russian language|Russian]] and [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]], the letter Be generally represents the [[voiced bilabial plosive]] {{IPA|/b/}}, but word-finally or before a voiceless [[consonant]], it also represents the voiceless {{IPA|[p]}}. Before a [[palatalization (phonetics)|palatalizing]] vowel, it represents {{IPA|/bʲ/}}. In [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]], the letter represents the sound {{IPA|/b/}}, but if it is in the final position of the word, it is pronounced as {{IPA|/p/}}, like in {{lang|mk|леб}} {{IPA|/lɛp/}} ('bread').

In [[Mari language|Mari]], it may represent either /b/ or the [[voiced bilabial fricative]] {{IPA|/β/}}.

In Serbian, the letter represents the voiced bilabial plosive /b/, regardless of the position in the word.

==Related letters and other similar characters==
{{Flowlist|
*Β β : [[Beta (letter)|Greek letter Beta]]
*В в : [[Ve (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter Ve]]
*B b : [[B|Latin letter B]]
*Ƃ ƃ : [[Ƃ|Latin letter Ƃ]]
}}

{{Anchor|Code positions}}

==Computing codes==
{{Charmap
|0411|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Be
|0431|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Be
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=E2 |map1char2=C2
|map2=CP 855 |map2char1=A3 |map2char2=A2
|map3=[[Windows-1251]] |map3char1=C1 |map3char2=E1
|map4=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map4char1=B1 |map4char2=D1
|map5=[[MacCyrillic encoding|Mac Cyrillic]] |map5char1=81 |map5char2=E1
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Б}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|б}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]

Ve (Cyrillic)

2025-10-25T09:58:52Z

2600:6C50:607F:55F3:5011:960A:3C15:18CB:

{{Short description|Letter of the Cyrillic script}}
{{distinguish|text=the Latin letter [[B]]}}
{{missing information|Bashkir|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox grapheme
|name=Ve (Vědě/{{nobold|вѣдѣ}})
|letter=В в
|variations=([[Ve (Cyrillic)#Related letters and other similar characters|See below]])
|image=Cyrillic letter Ve - uppercase and lowercase.svg
|script=[[Cyrillic script]]
|type=[[Alphabet]]
|typedesc=ic
|language=[[Old Church Slavonic]]
|phonemes=[{{IPA link|v}}] [{{IPA link|f}}] [{{IPA link|u̯}}] [{{IPA link|β}}] [{{IPA link|ʋ}}] [{{IPA link|w}}] [{{IPA link|ʷ}}]
|unicode=U+0412, U+0432, U+1C80
|alphanumber=3
|number=2
|fam1=<hiero>O1</hiero>
|fam2=[[File:Proto-semiticB-01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Bet]]
|fam3=[[File:Proto-Canaanite - bet.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px]]
|fam4=[[File:Phoenician beth.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Bet]]
|fam5=[[File:Greek Beta 16.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px]]
|fam6=[[beta|B β]]
|sisters=*[[B]]
*[[Beta|B β]]
*[[Be (Cyrillic)|Б б]]
*[[Ƃ|Ƃ ƃ]]
|usageperiod=~900 to present
|direction=Left-to-right
}}
[[File:Азбука_красноармейца._В.jpg|thumb|''Ve'', from the ''Alphabet Book оf the Red Army soldier'' (1921)]]
'''Ve''' (В в; italics: ''В в'' or В в; italics: ''В в'') is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]]. It commonly represents the voiced labiodental fricative {{IPA|/v/}}, like {{angbr|v}} in "'''v'''ase". It can also represent {{IPA|/ʋ/}}.

The capital letter Ve [[Homoglyph|looks the same as]] the capital [[B|Latin letter B]] but is pronounced differently.

Ve is commonly romanized by the [[V|Latin letter V]] (as described by [[ISO 9]]), but sometimes the [[W|Latin letter W]] is used instead, such as in [[Polish language|Polish]],{{citation needed|date=August 2023}} or by the [[German language|German]] [[Duden]] transcription.<ref>{{Cite book |title=[[Duden]] |date=2000 |publisher=[[Bibliographisches Institut]] |isbn=3-411-04012-2 |edition=22nd |volume=1 |location=Mannheim |page=118 |language=de}}</ref>

==History==
Both Ve and the [[Be (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter Be]] (Б б) were derived from the [[Beta (letter)|Greek letter Beta]] (Β β), which already represented {{IPA|/v/}} in Greek by the time the Cyrillic alphabet was created.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Campbell |first1=George L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6lQwRD2Cb8EC |title=The Routledge Handbook of Scripts and Alphabets |last2=Moseley |first2=Christopher |date=2013-05-07 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-22296-3 |language=en}}</ref>

In the [[Early Cyrillic alphabet]], its name was {{Script|Cyrs|вѣдѣ}} (''vědě''), meaning "I know". In the old [[Russian alphabet]] the name was ''vedi''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Corbett |first1=Professor Greville |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=euI4CQAAQBAJ |title=The Slavonic Languages |last2=Comrie |first2=Professor Bernard |date=September 2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-86137-6 |language=en}}</ref>

In the [[Cyrillic numerals|Cyrillic numeral system]], it had the value of 2.

==Form==
The cursive, handwritten, and italic forms look rounded like the capital letter, or the Greek letter [[beta]] ({{char|ϐ}}). This form is also used in Bulgarian forms.

==Usage==
In [[Russian language|Russian]] and [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]], Ve generally represents {{IPA|/v/}}, but [[devoicing|at the end of a word]] or [[assimilation (linguistics)|before voiceless consonant]]s, it represents the voiceless {{IPA|[f]}}. Before a [[palatalization (phonetics)|palatalizing]] vowel or [[soft sign]], it represents {{IPA|/vʲ/}}.

In standard [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] pronunciation (based on the [[Poltava]] dialect), Ve usually represents [ʋ] in the word initial position (or preceding most vowels) and a sound like the English W ({{IPA|[w]}}) when in the word final position. Because of this, it is not uncommon to see words ending in {{angbr|в}} transcribed to end in {{angbr|w}}, for example, {{lang|uk|Владислав}} = ''Vladyslaw'' for ''Vladislav''.

Additionally, some Ukrainians also use this pronunciation in words where the letter is directly preceded by a consonant, while for others all occurrences of the letter Ve denote {{IPA|[w]}}. In Eastern [[Ukraine]], the letter Ve may represent a voiceless {{IPA|[f]}}, but this is considered a [[Russianism]], as [[Final-obstruent devoicing|word-final devoicing]] does not occur in standard Ukrainian. For example, the standard Ukrainian pronunciation of the word {{lang|uk|сказав}} (''[he] said'') is {{IPA|/skazaw/}}. However, in Eastern Ukraine one is likely to hear the Russified {{IPA|[skazaf]}} (with final devoicing).

In [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], the letter Ve represents only the sound {{IPA|/v/}}. In the word final position, or if directly proceeded by a consonant, it mutates to the letter [[Short U]] (Ў ў), a Belarusian letter representing the sound {{IPA|/w/}}. E.g., the Belarusian noun "language" is {{lang|be|мова}} (''mova''), but the adjectival form is {{lang|be|моўны}} (''mowny''), and the genitive plural of the noun (formed by removing the final {{angbr|а}}) is {{lang|be|моў}} (''mow'').

In [[Rusyn language|Rusyn]], the letter Ve represents the sound /v/, or /w/ if it is at the end of the word.

In [[Serbian language|Serbian]] and [[Montenegrin language|Montenegrin]], the letter Ve represents only the sound /v/.

In [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]] the letter is used for the sound /v/, but if the letter appears at the end of the word then it is pronounced as /f/. An example of this is the word бев [bɛf] ('I was').

In [[Tuvan language|Tuvan]], it is used for /[[labiodental approximant|ʋ]]/.

In [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]], [[Kalmyk language|Kalmyk]], and [[Dungan language|Dungan]], it is used for /w/.

==Related letters and other similar characters==
*Β β : [[Beta (letter)|Greek letter Beta]]
*Б б : [[Be (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter Be]]
*Ѵ ѵ : [[Izhitsa|Cyrillic Letter Izhitsa]]
*B b : [[B|Latin letter B]]
*V v : [[V|Latin letter V]]
*W w : [[W|Latin letter W]]
*Ԝ ԝ : [[We (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic Letter We]]

{{anchor|Code positions}}

==Computing codes==

{{charmap
|0412|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Ve
|0432|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Ve
|1C80|name3=Cyrillic Small Letter Rounded Ve
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=F7 |map1char2=D7
|map2=CP 855 |map2char1=EC |map2char2=EB
|map3=[[Windows-1251]] |map3char1=C2 |map3char2=E2
|map4=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map4char1=B2 |map4char2=D2
|map5=[[MacCyrillic encoding|Mac Cyrillic]] |map5char1=82 |map5char2=E2
}}
==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|В}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|в}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]