Iotation Iotified Cyrillic Letters Cyrillic Letters For Iotated

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Iotation is a form of palatalisation which occurs in Slavic languages.

English singular	Serbian singular	Serbian plural
branch	grana	gran'e
leaf	list	liSt'e
stone	kamen	kamen'e

It occurs by mixing of a consonant with the palatal approximant /j/, which is in Greek alphabet represented by iota (ι), hence the name. For example, ni in English onion or Spanish ñ as in mañana have the sound of iotated n. Example on the right shows how Serbian language uses iotation to express plural of a certain class of words.

A iotated consonant is represented in IPA with superscript j after it and in SAMPA with apostrophe after it, so iotated n could be represented as n^j or n'.

As it is invented for writing of Slavic languages, Cyrillic alphabet has relatively complex ways for representing iotation, devoting an entire class of letters to deal with the issue; there are letters which represent iotified consonants as well as letters which iotify adjacent consonants or prevent their iotation. Their exact use depends on language; see Cyrillic alphabet as used in Slavic languages.

Adjective for a phone which undergoes iotation is iotated and for a letterThis article is about "letter", a written message from one party to another. For other uses, see Letter (disambiguation). A letter is a written message from one party to another. Letters are usually intended to be received by someone far away. Before wide formed as ligatureThe word ligature can mean more than one thing. Its primary sense is of something that ties, binds or constricts. The word can be used in this generic sense or more specifically in certain contexts. In music, see ligature (music) In typography, see ligatu of the Early Cyrillic I (І) and another letter, which is used to represent iotation, is iotified.

1 Iotified Cyrillic letters

In the Cyrillic alphabet, some letter forms are iotified, that is, formed as a ligatureThe word ligature can mean more than one thing. Its primary sense is of something that ties, binds or constricts. The word can be used in this generic sense or more specifically in certain contexts. In music, see ligature (music) In typography, see ligatu of Early Cyrillic I (І) and a vowel.

Normal			Iotified			Comment
Name	Shape	Sound	Name	Shape	Sound	Comment
Ais the first letter of the Cyrillic alphabet. The Cyrillic looks exactly like the Latin A. In Russian language however, it is almost always pronounced like the English short O sound (as in pot , never like the English A sound as in "pat". In Serbian and M	А	a	Iotified A	ІА	ja	Now supplanted by Ya (Я)
E	Е	e	Iotified E	Ѥ	je	No longer used
O	О	o	Iotified O	Ю	ju	Used for iotified U (У); see ouk
Little Yus	Ѧ	e~	Iotified Little Yus	Ѩ	je~	Both letters no longer used
Big Yus	Ѫ	o~	Iotified Big Yus	Ѭ	jo~	Both letters no longer used

In old inscriptions, other iotified letters, even consonants, could be found, but these are not parts of a regular alphabet.

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	Comment
A	А	a	Ya	Я	ja
E	Е	e	Ye	Є	je	Used in Ukrainian
		e	Ye	Е	je	Used in Russian and Belarusian
		o	Yo	Ё	jo	Used in Russian
I	І	i	Yi	Ї	ji	Used in Ukrainian

Name	Shape	Sound
Dje	Ђђ	d'
Gje	Ѓѓ	g'
Lje	Љљ	l'
Nje	Њњ	n'
Tshe	Ћћ	t'
Kje	Ќќ	k'

When Vuk Karadic reformed the Serbian language (which was later also applied to Macedonian language), he created new letters which represent iotated consonants. This was possible because in Serbian and Macedonian only several consonants can be iotated. Though it might seem logical, the letters themselves are not called "iotated letters" or by any similar name.

3 See also

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Home > Iotation

1 Iotified Cyrillic letters

2 Cyrillic letters for iotated sounds

3 See also

Topics: Iotation, Iotified Cyrillic Letters, Cyrillic Letters For...