1 Original use

In the Old Church Slavonic language, yer was a vowel letter, indicating the so-called "reduced vowel" [ъ]. This vowel did stem from the Indo-European short [u] (compare Latin angŭlŭs and Old Church Slavonic ѪГЪЛЪ). In all West Slavic languages the yer either disappeared or was transformed into long [e] vowel.

2 Russian language

2.1 Old Russian: Yer

From the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries, the original [ъ] sound became extinct in all Slavic languages; this so-called fall of the yers is typically considered as marking the final disintegration of Common Slavonic. In Russian, the (hard) yer was dropped entirely in "weak" positions, and was replaced with [o] in "strong" positions. As a result, inflection is at times complicated by the so-called "transitive" (lit. "fugitive") vowels (e.g. сон — сна, угол — угла etc.).

The basic rule governing the fall of the yers in Russian may be stated as follows:

• Strong yers are fully voiced: ь > е, ъ > о.
• Weak yers drop entirely, except that once-terminal ь has palatalized the preceding consonant.
• For determining whether a yer is strong or weak, it is necessary to break the continuous flow of speech into individual words, or very common phrases (typically prepositional) which are entirely run together in speech.
• A terminal yer is weak.
• A yer which is followed in the next syllable by a non-reduced vowel is weak.
• The yer in the syllable before one with a weak yer is strong.
• The yer in the syllable before one with a strong yer is weak.

That is, crudely put, in a string of Old Russian syllables each of which has a reduced vowel, the reduced vowels are in modern Russian alternately given full voicing and drop, and the last yer in this sequence will drop. There are some exceptions to this rule, usually considered as the result of analogy.

2.2 Modern Russian: Hard sign

In modern Russian the letter "ъ" is called the hard sign. Its function is to indicate that the following iotated vowelIn phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by an open configuration of the vocal tract, in contrast to consonants, which are characterized by a constriction or closure at one or more points along the vocal tract. The word vo letter (letter whose name begins with the sound [j], i.e. е ё ю я) is read as if in the beginning of a word. In this function (being placed between a consonant and a vowel letter), the hard sign does not differ from the soft signSoft Sign (, ) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet ( Russian or Ukrainian: myakhkiy znak " "). It is named so because it usually indicates softening, or palatalization, of the preceding consonant. See also hard sign. (ь). However, the "hard sign" is written only after prefixes (exceptions may be found only in transcriptions of foreign words).

3 Bulgarian language

In BulgarianBulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the South branch of the Slavic languages, along with Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian, and Slovenian. The Bulgarian language is closely related to the Macedonian language. Some linguists, however, including al, the er golyam is used for a vowel, [ə] ( SchwaIn linguistics and phonology, the schwa is the vowel sound in many lightly pronounced unaccented syllables in English words of more than one syllable. It is most easily described as sounding like the British English "er" or the American English "uh".).

4 Belarusian language

The letter is absent in the alphabets of the BelarusianBelarusian is the language of the Belarusian nation. It is one of the three East Slavic languages and is spoken in and around Belarus. It is also known as "Belarusan", "Byelorussian", "Belorussian", or "Belarusian". The word "Byelorussian" is an adjective. In the Cyrillic Belarusian alphabet its functions are performed by the apostropheThe word apostrophe can refer to several things: A form of punctuation, see Apostrophe (mark . A style of speech, see Apostrophe (rhetoric . An an album by Frank Zappa, see Apostrophe (album . A French television show about literature, hosted by Bernard P mark. In the Latin Belarusian alphabet ( LacinkaThe Lacinka alphabet is the variant of the Latin alphabet which was used for writing the Belarusian language. Texts using Lacinka first appeared during the 16th century. Official use ceased after Belarus was included into the Soviet Union in 1921; by the) functions of soft and hard signs are performed by other means.

5 Ukrainian language

In UkrainianUkrainian is an East Slavic language, one of three members of this language group, the other two being Russian and Belarusian. Written Ukrainian bears resemblances to these two languages, but with many notable differences. Historically, Belarusian and Ukr, the hard sign is not used. Its purpose (non- palatalization of a consonant preceding the [j] sound) is served by an apostrophe.

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