Yery

Cyrillic letter Yery
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
А А̀ А̂ А̄ Ӓ Б В Г Ґ Д Ђ Ѓ Е Ѐ Е̄ Е̂ Ё Є Ж З З́ Ѕ И І Ї Ꙇ Ѝ И̂ Ӣ Й Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О О̀ О̂ Ō Ӧ П Р С С́ Т Ћ Ќ У У̀ У̂ Ӯ Ў Ӱ Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш Щ Ꙏ Ъ Ъ̀ Ы Ь Ѣ Э Ю Ю̀ Я Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
Ӑ А̊ А̃ Ӓ̄ Ӕ Ә Ә́ Ә̃ Ӛ В̌ Ԝ Г̑ Г̇ Г̣ Г̌ Г̂ Г̆ Г̈ г̊ Ҕ Ғ Ӻ Ғ̌ ғ̊ Ӷ Д́ Д̌ Д̈ Д̣ Д̆ Ӗ Е̃ Ё̄ Є̈ Ԑ Ԑ̈ Җ Ӝ Ӂ Ж̣ Ҙ Ӟ З̌ З̣ З̆ Ӡ И̃ Ӥ Ҋ Қ Ӄ Ҡ Ҟ Ҝ К̣ к̊ қ̊ Ԛ ᴫ Л́ Ӆ Ԯ Ԓ Л̈ Ӎ ᵸ Н́ Ӊ Ң Ԩ Ӈ Ҥ О̆ О̃ Ӧ̄ Ө Ө̄ Ө́ Ө̆ Ӫ Ԥ П̈ Ҏ Р̌ С̌ Ҫ С̣ С̱ Т́ Т̈ Т̌ Т̇ Т̣ Ҭ У̃ Ӳ У̊ Ӱ̄ Ұ Ү Ү́ Х̣ Х̱ Х̮ Х̑ Х̌ Ҳ Ӽ х̊ Ӿ ӿ̊ Һ Һ̈ Ԧ Ц̌ Ц̈ Ҵ Ҷ Ҷ̣ Ӵ Ӌ Ҹ Ч̇ Ч̣ Ҽ Ҿ Ш̣ ꚜ Ы̆ Ы̄ Ӹ ꚝ Ҍ Ҩ Э̆ Э̄ Э̇ Ӭ Ӭ́ Ӭ̄ Ю̆ Ю̈ Ю̄ Я̆ Я̄ Я̈ Ӏ ʼ ˮ
Archaic or unused letters
А̨ Б̀ Б̣ Б̱ В̀ Г̀ Г̧ Г̄ Г̓ Г̆ Ҕ̀ Ҕ̆ Ԁ Д̓ Д̀ Д̨ Ԃ Ꚁ Ꙣ Е̇ Е̨ Ж̀ Ж̑ Ꙃ Ꙅ Џ̆ Ꚅ Ꚅ̆ Ꙁ З̀ З̑ Ԅ Ԇ Ꚉ Ԫ Ꚃ Ꚕ І̂ І̣ І̨ Ј̵ Ј̃ Ꙉ К̓ К̀ К̆ Ӄ̆ К̑ К̇ К̈ К̄ Ԟ К̂ Л̀ Ԡ Ꙥ Ԉ Л̑ Л̇ Ԕ М̀ М̃ Ꙧ Н̀ Н̄ Н̧ Н̃ Ԋ Ԣ Н̡ Ѻ Ꙩ Ꙫ Ꙭ ꙮ Ꚙ Ꚛ П̓ П̀ П́ Ҧ П̧ П̑ Ҁ Ԛ̆ Р́ Р̀ Р̃ Ԗ С̀ С̈ Ԍ Ҫ̓ Т̓ Т̀ Ԏ Т̑ Ꚋ Т̧ Ꚍ Ꚍ̆ ОУ Ꙋ У̇ У̨ ꙋ́ Ф̑ Ф̓ Х́ Х̀ Х̆ Х̇ Х̧ Х̾ Х̓ һ̱ Ѡ Ꙍ Ѽ Ѿ Ꙡ Ц̀ Ц́ Ц̓ Ꚏ Ꚏ̆ Ꚑ Ч́ Ч̀ Ч̆ Ч̑ Ч̓ Ԭ Ꚓ Ꚇ Ꚇ̆ Ҽ̆ Ш̀ Ш̆ Ш̑ Щ̆ Ꚗ Ꚗ̆ Ъ̄ Ъ̈ Ъ̈̄ Ꙑ Ы̂ Ы̃ Ѣ́ Ѣ̈ Ѣ̆ Ꙓ Э̨ Э̂ Ꙕ Ю̂ Ꙗ Я̈ Я̂ Я̨ Ԙ Ѥ Ѧ Ꙙ Ѫ Ꙛ Ѩ Ꙝ Ѭ Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ Ѷ Ꙟ
List of Cyrillic letters List of Cyrillic multigraphs

Yery or Yeru (Ы, ы, usually called "Ы" [ɨ] in modern Russian or "еры" yerý historically) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. It represents the phoneme /i/ after non-palatalised (hard) consonants in the Belarusian and Russian alphabets. Because of phonological processes, the actual realization of /i/ after alveolar consonants (‹д›, ‹з›, ‹л›, ‹н›, ‹р›, ‹с›, ‹т›, or ‹ц›) is retracted to a close central unrounded vowel [ɨ], or [ʷi] after the labials ‹б›, ‹в›, ‹м›, ‹п›. In Rusyn language it represents a sound that is a bit harder than [ɨ] and close to the Romanian sound î. In some situations it may occur after palatalised consonants (e.g.: синьый which means "blue", which is never the case in Russian), and often follows ‹к›, ‹г›, ‹ґ› and ‹х›.

While vowel letters in the Cyrillic alphabet may be divided into iotated and non-iotated pairs (e.g. ‹а› and ‹я›, both represent /a/ and the latter denotes a preceding palatalised consonant), ‹ы› is more complicated; while it appears only after hard consonants, its phonetic value differs from ‹и› and there is some scholarly disagreement as to whether or not ‹ы› and ‹и› denote different phonemes.

Like many Cyrillic letters, originally the letter yery was formed from a ligature ꙑ—formed from Yer ‹ъ› and ‹і› (formerly written either dotless or with two dots) or Izhe (‹и›, whose former letterform resembled ‹н›). In mediaeval manuscripts, it is almost without exception found as ‹ъі› or ‹ъи›. Once the letters ‹ъ› and ‹ь› subsequently lost their values as vowels in the Slavic languages, the current simplified form ‹ы› evolved.

The letter Yery in several fonts

The letter is usually romanised into English and most other West-European languages as ‹y›, e.g. Krylov (family name, Крылов), although it may be used for other purposes as well (such as in digraphs). This spelling matches Polish, where Latin ‹y› represents the same sound; Russian ‹ы› is used to transliterate Polish ‹y› into Cyrillic (e.g. Maryla – Марыля).

Native Russian words do not begin with ‹ы› (except for the specific verb ыкать, “to say the ‹ы›-sound″), but many proper and common nouns of non-Russian origin (including some geographical names in Russia) that begin with this letter do exist, for example Ytyk-Kyuyol (Ытык-Кюёль), Ygyatta (Ыгыатта), a village and a river in Sakha (Yakutia) Republic respectively, or Eulji Mundeok (Ыльчи Мундок), a Korean military leader.

In the Ukrainian alphabet, the sound [ɪ] similar to Russian ‹ы› is denoted by ‹и›, and the letter ‹ы› never appeared in Ukrainian text. Conversely, Ukrainian ‹и› usually (but not always) is transcribed to Russian as ‹ы›.

The letter ‹ы› is also used in Cyrillic-based alphabets of several Turkic and Mongolian languages (see the list) where it denotes a darker vowel [ɯ]. Corresponding letter in Latin-based scripts is ‹ı› (dotless I).

References

• Russian: An interactive online reference grammar, by Dr Robert Beard

See also

• Close central unrounded vowel
• Ь, ь – Soft sign (Cyrillic)
• Ъ, ъ – Yer or Hard sign (Cyrillic)
• И, и – (Cyrillic)