| Cyrillic letter I | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Cyrillic numerals: 8 | ||||||
| Unicode (hex) | ||||||
| majuscule: U+0418 | ||||||
| minuscule: U+0438 | ||||||
| Cyrillic alphabet | ||||||
| А | Б | В | Г | Ґ | Д | Ѓ |
| Ђ | Е | Ѐ | Ё | Є | Ж | З |
| Ѕ | И | Ѝ | І | Ї | Й | Ј |
| К | Л | Љ | М | Н | Њ | О |
| П | Р | С | Т | Ћ | Ќ | У |
| Ў | Ф | Х | Ц | Ч | Џ | Ш |
| Щ | Ъ | Ы | Ь | Э | Ю | Я |
| Non-Slavic letters | ||||||
| Ӑ | Ӓ | Ә | Ӛ | Ӕ | Ғ | Ӷ |
| Ҕ | Ӗ | Ҽ | Ҿ | Ӂ | Җ | Ӝ |
| Ҙ | Ӟ | Ӡ | Ӥ | Ӣ | Ӏ | Ҋ |
| Қ | Ҟ | Ҡ | Ӄ | Ҝ | Ӆ | Ӎ |
| Ҥ | Ң | Ӊ | Ӈ | Ӧ | Ө | Ӫ |
| Ҩ | Ҧ | Ҏ | Ҫ | Ҭ | Ӳ | Ӱ |
| Ӯ | Ү | Ұ | Ҳ | Һ | Ҵ | Ӵ |
| Ҷ | Ӌ | Ҹ | Ӹ | Ҍ | Ӭ | |
| Archaic letters | ||||||
| Ҁ | Ѹ | Ѡ | Ѿ | Ѻ | Ѣ | ІА |
| Ѥ | Ѧ | Ѫ | Ѩ | Ѭ | Ѯ | Ѱ |
| Ѳ | Ѵ | Ѷ | ||||
| List of Cyrillic letters | ||||||
I or Y (И, и) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet, representing /i/ in Russian and /ɪ/ in Ukrainian. It is derived from the Greek letter eta (Η, η representing [ɛː] in Ancient Greek and [i] in Modern Greek).
Contents |
Origins
In the early Cyrillic alphabet there was little or no distinction between the letters И (izhe) and І (i), descended from the Greek letters Η (eta) and Ι (iota). They both remained in the alphabetical repertoire because they represented different numbers in the Cyrillic numeral system, eight and ten, and are therefore sometimes referred to as octal I and decimal I.
Usage
It is the tenth letter of the Russian alphabet, and in Russian it represents /i/, like the i in machine. Although in isolation it is not preceded by the /j/ semivowel like other "soft" vowels (е, ё, ю, and я), in Russian it is considered the soft counterpart to ы, which represents [ɨ], because it denotes a preceding soft consonant. In Ukrainian and Belarusian, the sound /i/ is represented by the letter і, sometimes called Ukrainian I. The letter и is the eleventh letter of the Ukrainian alphabet. Belarusian has dispensed entirely with the letter и. With a breve, it forms the letter й, called I kratkoye ("short I") in Russian, similarly I kratko in Bulgarian, or Yot in Ukrainian and it represents the y in English "yes." It is transliterated from Russian as i, or from Ukrainian as y or i, using different romanization systems. See romanization of Russian and romanization of Ukrainian.
Shape
Originally, Cyrillic И, и had the shape identical to Greek uppercase Η or Latin uppercase H. Later, the middle stroke turned counterclockwise which made the modern form similar to the mirrored Latin alphabet's capital N (this is why И is used in faux Cyrillic typography). But style of the two letters is not fully identical: in Roman-type fonts, И has serifs on all four corners, whereas N only on bottom-left and top-right ones; also, И has (contrarily to N) thicker vertical lines than the diagonal one. Lowercase и in regular fonts has the same shape as uppercase И. In italic (cursive) fonts, lowercase и may look like Latin u. In handwritten (calligraphic) fonts, both lower- and uppercase forms of и have usually the shape of handwritten Latin lowercase u.
