Izhitsa

Izhitsa or Izhica (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.

Cyrillic letter Izhitsa

Phonetic usage:[v] or [i], respectively
Numeric value:400
Derived from:Greek letter Upsilon υ)
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
АА́А̀А̂А̄ӒБВ
ГҐДЂЃЕЕ́Ѐ
Е̄Е̂ЁЄЄ́ЖЗЗ́
ЅИІІ́ЇЇ́И́
ЍИ̂ӢЙЈКЛЉ
МНЊОО́О̀О̂Ō
ӦПРСС́ТЋЌ
УУ́У̀У̂ӮЎӰФ
ХЦЧЏШЩЪ
Ъ̀ЫЫ́ЬѢЭЭ́Ю
Ю́Ю̀ЯЯ́Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
ӐА̊А̃Ӓ̄ӔӘӘ́Ә̃
ӚВ̌ԜГ̑Г̇Г̣Г̌Г̂
Г̆Г̈ҔҒӺҒ̌Ӷ
Д́Д̌Д̈Д̣Д̆ӖЕ̃
Ё̄Є̈ҖӜӁЖ̣ҘӞ
З̌З̣З̆ԐԐ̈ӠИ̃Ӥ
ҊҚӃҠҞҜК̣Ԛ
Л́ӅԮԒЛ̈Ӎ
Н́ӉҢԨӇҤО̆О̃
Ӧ̄ӨӨ̄Ө́Ө̆ӪԤП̈
Р̌ҎС̌ҪС̣С̱Т́Т̈
Т̌Т̇Т̣ҬУ̃ӲУ̊
Ӱ̄ҰҮҮ́Х̣Х̱Х̮Х̑
Х̌ҲӼӾҺҺ̈ԦЦ̌
Ц̈ҴҶҶ̣ӴӋҸ
Ч̇Ч̣ҼҾШ̈Ш̣Ы̆
Ы̄ӸҌҨЭ̆Э̄Э̇
ӬӬ́Ӭ̄Ю̆Ю̈Ю̈́Ю̄Я̆
Я̄Я̈Я̈́Ӏ
Archaic or unused letters
А̨Б̀Б̣Б̱В̀Г̀Г̧
Г̄Г̓Г̆Ҕ̀Ҕ̆ԀД̓
Д̀Д̨ԂЕ̇Е̨
Ж̀Ж̑Џ̆
Ꚅ̆З̀З̑ԄԆ
ԪІ̂І̣І̨
Ј̵Ј̃К̓К̀К̆Ӄ̆
К̑К̇К̈К̄ԞК̂
Л̀ԠԈЛ̑Л̇Ԕ
М̀М̃Н̀Н̄Н̧Н̃
ԊԢН̡Ѻ
П̓П̀П́П̧
ҦП̑ҀԚ̆Р́Р̀Р̃
ԖС̀С̈ԌҪ̓Т̓Т̀
ԎТ̑Т̧Ꚍ̆
ѸУ̇У̨ꙋ́Ф̑
Ф̓Х́Х̀Х̆Х̇Х̧Х̓
һ̱ѠѼѾЦ̀Ц́
Ц̓Ꚏ̆Ч́
Ч̀Ч̆Ч̑Ч̓Ԭ
Ꚇ̆Ҽ̆Ш̀Ш̆Ш̑Щ̆
Ꚗ̆Ы̂Ы̃Ѣ́Ѣ̈Ѣ̆
Э̨Э̂Ю̂
Я̈Я̂Я̨ԘѤѦѪ
ѨѬѮѰѲѴ
Ѷ

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

In the Russian language, the use of izhitsa became progressively rarer during the 18th and 19th centuries. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was only one word with relatively stable spelling that included the letter izhitsa: мѵро (miro, "chrism") and its derivatives.

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. 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.

Serbian

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

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). There might be no sign of information of izhitsa with double grave accent (majuscule: Ѷ, minuscule: ѷ), but only the Unicode.

Romanian

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

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

Abkhaz

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

Izhitsa as a replacement of a different character

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.

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

Computing codes

Character information
PreviewѴѵѶѷ
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
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode1140U+04741141U+04751142U+04761143U+0477
UTF-8209 180D1 B4209 181D1 B5209 182D1 B6209 183D1 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]

See also

Notes

  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

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