Izhitsa

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Cyrillic letter Izhitsa

Phonetic usage:[v] or [i]
Numeric value:400
Derived from:Greek letter Upsilon (Υ υ)
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
АА̀А̂А̄ӒБВГ
ҐДЂЃЕЀЕ̄Е̂
ЁЄЖЗЗ́ЅИІ
ЇЍИ̂ӢЙЈК
ЛЉМНЊОО̀О̂
ŌӦПРСС́ТЋ
ЌУУ̀У̂ӮЎӰФ
ХЦЧЏШЩЪ
Ъ̀ЫЬѢЭЮЮ̀Я
Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
ӐА̊А̃Ӓ̄ӔӘӘ́Ә̃
ӚВ̌ԜГ̑Г̇Г̣Г̌Г̂
Г̆Г̈ҔҒӺҒ̌Ӷ
Д́Д̌Д̈Д̣Д̆ӖЕ̃
Ё̄Є̈ԐԐ̈ҖӜӁЖ̣
ҘӞЗ̌З̣З̆ӠИ̃Ӥ
ҊҚӃҠҞҜК̣Ԛ
Л́ӅԮԒЛ̈Ӎ
Н́ӉҢԨӇҤО̆О̃
Ӧ̄ӨӨ̄Ө́Ө̆ӪԤП̈
Р̌ҎС̌ҪС̣С̱Т́Т̈
Т̌Т̇Т̣ҬУ̃ӲУ̊
Ӱ̄ҰҮҮ́Х̣Х̱Х̮Х̑
Х̌ҲӼӾҺҺ̈ԦЦ̌
Ц̈ҴҶҶ̣ӴӋҸ
Ч̇Ч̣ҼҾШ̈Ш̣Ы̆
Ы̄ӸҌҨЭ̆Э̄Э̇
ӬӬ́Ӭ̄Ю̆Ю̈Ю̄Я̆Я̄
Я̈Ӏʼˮ
Archaic or unused letters
А̨Б̀Б̣Б̱В̀Г̀Г̧
Г̄Г̓Г̆Ҕ̀Ҕ̆ԀД̓
Д̀Д̨ԂЕ̇Е̨
Ж̀Ж̑Џ̆
Ꚅ̆З̀З̑ԄԆ
ԪІ̂І̣І̨
Ј̵Ј̃К̓К̀К̆Ӄ̆
К̑К̇К̈К̄ԞК̂
Л̀ԠԈЛ̑Л̇Ԕ
М̀М̃Н̀Н̄Н̧
Н̃ԊԢН̡Ѻ
П̓П̀
П́ҦП̧П̑ҀԚ̆Р́
Р̀Р̃ԖС̀С̈ԌҪ̓
Т̓Т̀ԎТ̑Т̧
Ꚍ̆ОУУ̇
У̨ꙋ́Ф̑Ф̓Х́Х̀Х̆Х̇
Х̧Х̾Х̓һ̱ѠѼ
ѾЦ̀Ц́Ц̓Ꚏ̆
Ч́Ч̀Ч̆Ч̑Ч̓
ԬꚆ̆Ҽ̆Ш̀
Ш̆Ш̑Щ̆Ꚗ̆Ы̂
Ы̃Ѣ́Ѣ̈Ѣ̆Э̨Э̂
Ю̂Я̈Я̂Я̨
ԘѤѦѪѨ
ѬѮѰѲѴѶ

Izhitsa (Ѵ, ѵ; italics: Ѵ ѵ; OCS: ѷжица, Russian: ижица, Ukrainian: іжиця) is a letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet and several later alphabets, usually the last in the row. It originates from the Greek letter upsilon (Y, υ) and was used in words and names derived from or via the Greek language, such as кѵрилъ (kürilǔ, "Cyril", from Greek Κύριλλος) or флаѵии (flavii, "Flavius", from Greek Φλάυιος). It represented the sounds /i/ or /v/ as normal letters и and в, respectively. The Glagolitic alphabet has a corresponding letter with the name izhitsa as well (Ⱛ, ⱛ). Also, izhitsa in its standard form or, most often, in a tailed variant (similar to Latin "y") was part of a digraph оѵ/оу representing the sound /u/. The digraph is known as Cyrillic "uk", and today's Cyrillic letter u originates from its simplified form.

The letter's traditional name, izhitsa (ижица), is explained as a diminutive either of the word иго (igo, "yoke"), due to the letter's shape, or of иже (izhe, "which"), the name of the main Cyrillic and Glagolitic letters for the same sound, /i/.

The numeral value of Cyrillic izhitsa is 400. Glagolitic izhitsa has no numeral value. Church Slavonic editions printed in Russia use a tailed variant of the letter for the numeral purpose, whereas editions from Serbia or Romania (including books in the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet), as well as early printed books from Ukraine, prefer a basic form of the letter without the tail.

Russian[edit]

In the Russian language, the use of izhitsa became progressively rarer during the 18th and 19th centuries. At the beginning of the 20th century, the only two words still spelled with the letter izhitsa in common use were мѵро (müro, [ˈmʲirə], 'chrism') and сѵнодъ (sünod, [sʲɪˈnot], 'synod').

In the documents of the spelling reform of 1917–1918, izhitsa is not mentioned at all,[1][2] although the statement that it was canceled at that time, along with decimal i, yat and fita, is not only widespread, but also reflected in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.[3] In fact, Ѵ fell out of use in the civil alphabet gradually, under the influence not only of the general direction of changes in the spelling of the Russian language, but also of the displacement of words and texts on religious topics from the civil press.[citation needed] At the same time, steam locomotives of class Izhitsa (Ѵ) were produced until 1931 and were in operation until they were decommissioned in the 1950s.[citation needed]

Serbian[edit]

The traditional spelling of Serbian was more conservative; it preserved all etymologically motivated izhitsas in words of Greek origin. Vuk Stefanović Karadžić had reformed the Serbian alphabet in the beginning of the nineteenth century and eliminated the letter, but the old spelling was used in some places as late as the 1880s.

Church Slavonic[edit]

Izhitsa is still in use in the Church Slavonic language. Like Greek upsilon, it can be pronounced as /i/ (like и), or as /v/ (like в). The basic distinction rule is simple: izhitsa with stress and/or aspiration marks is a vowel and therefore pronounced /i/; izhitsa without diacritical marks is a consonant and pronounced /v/. Unstressed, /i/-sounding izhitsas are marked with a special diacritical mark, the so-called kendema or kendima (from the Greek word κέντημα [ˈcendima]). The shape of kendema over izhitsa may vary: in books of Russian origin, it typically looks like a double grave accent or sometimes like a double acute accent. In older Serbian books, kendema most often looked like two dots (trema) or might even be replaced by a surrogate combination of aspiration and acute. These shape distinctions (with the exception of the aspiration-acute combination) have no orthographical meaning and must be considered as just font style variations, thus the Unicode name "IZHITSA WITH DOUBLE GRAVE" is slightly misleading. Izhitsa with kendema (majuscule: Ѷ, minuscule: ѷ) is not a separate letter of the alphabet, but it may have personal position in computer encodings (e.g., Unicode). Historically, izhitsa with kendema corresponds to the Greek upsilon with trema (or διαλυτικά: Ϋ, ϋ). While in modern editions of ancient and modern Greek the trema is used only to prevent a digraph (as <ευ> [ev, ef] versus <εϋ> [ei]), Slavonic usage of kendema still continues that of many medieval Greek manuscripts, in which the "diaeresis" sign was often used simply to mark an upsilon or iota as such, irrespective of any other vowels (e.g. δϊαλϋτϊκά, which would not be correct by today's conventions).

Romanian[edit]

Traditional orthography of the Romanian language used izhitsa in the same manner as Church Slavonic, with all the above-mentioned peculiarities. This writing system was used until about 1860 in Romania and until 1920s in church books in Russian-ruled Bessarabia.[4]

Aleut[edit]

The Cyrillic letter izhitsa was also used historically in certain loanwords in the Cyrillic script version of Aleut.[citation needed]

Abkhaz[edit]

Izhitza was used in the 1909-1926 Abkhaz alphabet of Chochua.

Izhitsa as a replacement of a different character[edit]

In Russian typography, the capital form of izhitsa has traditionally been used instead of the Roman numeral V; this tradition survived several decades longer than izhitsa as a letter of the alphabet.[citation needed]

The izhitsa is sometimes used in place of the new IPA symbol for the labiodental flap (ⱱ) because the signs are similar.[citation needed]

Computing codes[edit]

Character information
Preview Ѵ ѵ Ѷ ѷ
Unicode name CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER IZHITSA CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER IZHITSA CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER
IZHITSA WITH DOUBLE GRAVE ACCENT
CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER
IZHITSA WITH DOUBLE GRAVE ACCENT
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 1140 U+0474 1141 U+0475 1142 U+0476 1143 U+0477
UTF-8 209 180 D1 B4 209 181 D1 B5 209 182 D1 B6 209 183 D1 B7
Numeric character reference &#1140; &#x474; &#1141; &#x475; &#1142; &#x476; &#1143; &#x477;

The tailed variant of izhitsa has no individual position in Unicode; instead, the characters U+0423 У CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER U and U+0443 у CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER U are supposed to represent it.[5][failed verification]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ "Декрет Наркомпроса РСФСР от 23.12.1917 года о введении нового правописания — Викитека". ru.wikisource.org. Retrieved 2020-11-19.
  2. ^ "Декрет Наркомпроса РСФСР, СНК РСФСР от 10.10.1918 «О введении новой орфографии» — Викитека". ru.wikisource.org. Retrieved 2020-11-19.
  3. ^ "Большая Советская Энциклопедия. 3-е издание. В 30 томах. Том 22. Ремень — Сафи". www.encyclopedia.ru. Retrieved 2020-11-19.
  4. ^ Ileana-Stanca Desa, Dulciu Morărescu, Ioana Patriche, Adriana Raliade, Iliana Sulică, Publicațiile periodice românești (ziare, gazete, reviste). Vol. III: Catalog alfabetic 1919–1924, pp. 235–236, 264, 368, 374, 575, 708, 1024. Bucharest: Editura Academiei, 1987
  5. ^ "Cyrillic – Unicode 6.2" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-09-05.

References[edit]