Ef (Cyrillic)
Template:Short description Template:Hatnote group Template:Infobox grapheme
Ef or Fe (Ф ф; italics: Ф ф or Ф ф; italics: Ф ф) is a Cyrillic letter, commonly representing the voiceless labiodental fricative Template:IPA, like the pronunciation of Template:Angbr in fill, flee or fall. The Cyrillic letter Ef is romanized as Template:Angbr.
History
The Cyrillic letter Ef was derived from the 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 Template:Lang (Template:Translit or Template:Translit), in later Church Slavonic and Russian form it became Template:Lang (Template:Translit).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In the Cyrillic numeral system, Ef has a value of 500.
Appearance and usage in Slavic languages
The Slavic languages have almost no native words containing Template:IPA. This sound did not exist in Proto-Indo-European (PIE). It arose in Greek and Latin from PIE Template:Lang (which yielded Slavic Template:IPA). In some instances in Latin, it represented historical th-fronting and derived from Proto-Indo-European Template:Lang. In the Germanic languages, the f sound arose from PIE Template:Lang 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, German, Dutch, English, and Turkic languages
Example borrowings in Russian:
- from Greek: Template:Lang, "catastrophe" (from φ); Template:Lang, "Theodore" (from θ; cf. Bulgarian Template:Lang)
- from Latin: Template:Lang, "federation"; Template:Lang, "effect"
- from German: Template:Lang, "potato" (from Kartoffel); Template:Lang, "pound" (from Pfund)
- from Dutch: Template:Lang, "flag"
- from English: Template:Lang, "office"
- from French: Template:Lang, "France"
The few native Slavic words with this letter (in different languages) are examples of onomatopoeia (like Russian verbs Template:Lang, Template:Lang etc.) or reflect sporadic pronunciation shifts:
- from пв Template:IPA: Serbian Template:Lang 'to hope' (cf. Church Slavonic Template:Lang 'to hope')
- from хв Template:IPA: Macedonian Template:Lang '(he) understands' (cf. Church Slavonic Template:Lang 'to take, to catch'), Russian Template:Lang 'bustard' (cf. Ukrainian Template:Lang 'bustard')
- from кв Template:IPA: Russian Template:Lang 'eagle-owl' (cf. Ukrainian Template:Lang 'to cry')
- from х Template:IPA: Russian toponym Template:Lang 'Fili' (from Template:Lang '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 and Ukrainian alphabet; and the 26th letter of the Macedonian alphabet. It represents the consonant Template:IPA unless it is before a palatalizing vowel, when it represents Template:IPA.
Related letters and other similar characters
- Template:Not a typo : Greek letter Phi
- Ѳ ѳ : Cyrillic letter Fita
- F f : Latin letter F
- Փ փ : Armenian letter Piwr
- Q q Latin letter Q
- Ჶ ჶ Fi (letter)
Computing codes
Cultural references
The phraseologism "Template:Lang", "to stand as Template:Translit" means "to stand with arms akimbo".