Iotified Cyrillic Letters
In the Cyrillic script, some letter forms are iotified, that is, formed as a ligature of Early Cyrillic I (І) and a vowel.
Normal | Iotified | Comment | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Shape | Sound | Name | Shape | Sound | |
A | А | /a/ | Iotified A | Ꙗ | /ja/ | Now supplanted by Ya (Я). Often substituted and confused with Ѧ in East Slavic texts. |
E | Е | /e/ | Iotified E | Ѥ | /je/ | Superseded by ⟨Є⟩ in Ukrainian, no longer used |
Uk | Ѹ | /u/ | Iotified Uk, evolved to modern Yu | Ю | /ju/ | Uk is an archaic form of U (У) |
Little Yus | Ѧ | /ẽ/ | Iotified Little Yus | Ѩ | /jẽ/ | No longer used |
Big Yus | Ѫ | /õ/ | Iotified Big Yus | Ѭ | /jõ/ | No longer used |
In old inscriptions, other iotified letters, even consonants, could be found, but these are not parts of a regular alphabet:
Normal | Iotified | Comment | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Shape | Sound | Name | Shape | Sound | |
Yat | Ѣ | /æ/ | Iotified Yat | Ꙓ | /jæ/ | iotified form is very rare even in manuscripts |
There are more letters which serve the same function, but their glyphs are not made in the same way.
Normal | Iotified | Comment | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Name | Shape | Sound | Name | Shape | Sound | |
A | А | /a/ | Ya | Я | /ja/ | Used in Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian |
E | Э | /e/ | Ye | Е | /je/ | Used in Belarusian and Russian |
E | Е | /e/ | Ye | Є | /je/ | Used in Ukrainian and Rusyn |
I | І | /i/ | Yi | Ї | /ji/ | Used in Ukrainian and Rusyn |
O | О | /o/ | Yo | Ё | /jo/ | Used in Belarusian, Russian and several others Cyrillic-based alphabets |
Read more about this topic: Iotation
Famous quotes containing the word letters:
“Harvey: About this Voltaire.
Helene: What about him?
Harvey: Howd he ever get time to do all he did?
Helene: He lived to be old.
Harvey: Even so, how many letters did he write?
Helene: Oh, I dont know exactly. Thousands.
Harvey: I cant remember when I even wrote one.
Helene: You should try.
Harvey: Its too late. I wouldnt know where to send it.”
—Tom Waldman (d. 1985)