I (Cyrillic)

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Cyrillic letter I
Cyrillic alphabet
А	Б	В	Г	Ґ	Ѓ	Д
Ђ	Е	Ё	Є	Ж	З	Ѕ
И	І	Ї	Й	Ј	К	Ќ
Л	Љ	М	Н	Њ	О	П
Р	С	Т	Ћ	У	Ў	Ф
Х	Ц	Ч	Џ	Ш	Щ	Ъ
Ы	Ь	Э	Ю	Я
Non-Slavic Letters
Ӑ	Ә	Ӕ	Ҕ	Ӗ	Ғ	Ӏ
Ӂ	Җ	Ӝ	Ҙ	Ӟ	Ӡ	Ӣ
Ӥ	Ҡ	Қ	Ҟ	Ҝ	Ң	Ҥ
Ө	Ӧ	Ҧ	Ҫ	Ҷ	Ҹ	Ӵ
Ҽ	Ҿ	Ҩ	Ҳ	Һ	Ҭ	Ҵ
Ӳ	Ӯ	Ү	Ұ	Ӱ
Archaic letters
Ҁ	Ѹ	Ѡ	Ѿ	Ѻ	Ѣ	ІА
Ѥ	Ѧ	Ѫ	Ѩ	Ѭ	Ѯ	Ѱ
Ѳ	Ѵ	Ѷ

I or Y (И, и) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet, representing /i/ in Russian and /ɪ/ in Ukrainian. It looks like a backwards version of the Latin alphabet's capital N, and is derived from the Greek letter eta (Η, η representing [ɛː] in Ancient Greek and [i] in Modern Greek).

[edit] Origins

In the early Cyrillic alphabet there was little or no distinction between the letters и (izhei) and і (izhe), 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.

[edit] Usage

It is the tenth letter of the Russian alphabet, and in Russian is 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 or Yot in Ukrainian and represents the Y in English "boy."

It is transliterated from Russian as i, or from Ukrainian as y or i, using different romanization systems. See transliteration of Russian into English and romanization of Ukrainian.

The Cyrillic letters и and я are used in faux Cyrillic typography.

[edit] See Also

• Eta (letter)
• Iota