ѵ

See also: и, υ, v, V, and ⱱ

ѵ U+0475, ѵ CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER IZHITSA ← Ѵ [U+0474] Cyrillic Ѷ → [U+0476]

Translingual

Letter

ѵ (upper case Ѵ)

1. A letter of the Cyrillic script, called izhitsa.

Letter

ѵ (upper case Ѵ)

1. A letter of the Old Cyrillic script, called izhitsa.

Gallery

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Old Church Slavonic

Letter

ѵ • (ü) (upper case Ѵ)

1. A letter of the Old Church Slavonic alphabet, called ижица (ižica), and written in the Old Cyrillic script.

Usage notes

Used to denote the sound [y]~[i] when in a syllabic position and [v] when in a consonantal position, analogous to Greek upsilon. In some texts, however, ⟨ѵ⟩ was used to denote [v] exclusively, whereas the vowel was instead written ⟨ѷ⟩ (ižica with kěndema).

See also

(Old Cyrillic-script letters) А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е (Є є), Ж ж, Ѕ ѕ (Ꙃ ꙃ), З з (Ꙁ ꙁ), И и, І і (Ї ї), Ꙉ ꙉ, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, Оу оу (Ꙋ ꙋ), Ф ф, Х х, Ѡ ѡ (Ѿ ѿ), Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ъ ъ, Ꙑ ꙑ, Ь ь, Ѣ ѣ, Ꙗ ꙗ, Ѥ ѥ, Ю ю, Ѫ ѫ, Ѭ ѭ, Ѧ ѧ (Ꙙ ꙙ), Ѩ ѩ (Ꙝ ꙝ), Ѯ ѯ, Ѱ ѱ, Ѳ ѳ, Ѵ ѵ, Ҁ ҁ

Old Novgorodian

Letter

ѵ • (ü) (lower case, upper case Ѵ)

1. A letter of the Old Novgorodian alphabet, written in the Old Cyrillic script.

Russian

Letter

ѵ • (i) (lower case, upper case Ѵ)

1. (obsolete) A letter of the Russian alphabet, called и́жица (ížica), and written in the Cyrillic script.

Usage notes

In Russian, this letter was used for the letter υ (u, upsilon). It was pronounced [i] by itself, and [f] or [v] after a vowel; similar to its counterpart in modern Greek.

Since the 18th century, the letter izhitsa became rarely used in Russian, until in the early 20th century it consistently appeared in one word, мѵро (miro, “myrrh”) and derived words. There were several other terms that were sometimes written with the izhitsa, such as сѵнодъ (sinod, “synod”), Сѵрія (Sirija, “Syria”), and ѵпостась (ipostasʹ, “hypostasis; the being of Jesus Christ”).

It was finally eliminated during the spelling reform of 1918, though remained in use until the 1950s as a designation for a series of Russian – later Soviet – steam locomotives; these being withdrawn in the 1950s.

References

• Dal, Vladimir (1880–1882) “И (ижица)”, in Толковый Словарь живаго великорускаго языка [Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language] (in Russian), 2nd edition, Publication of the bookseller-typographer Wolf, M. O.