Ve (Cyrillic)

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Cyrillic letter Ve
Image:Cyrillic letter Ve.png
Cyrillic numerals: 2
Unicode (hex)
majuscule: U+0412
minuscule: U+0432
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

Ve (В, в) is the third letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the sound /v/. It is shaped exactly like a capital Latin letter B but is pronounced differently.

This letter and б are derived from Greek Beta (Β, β), which, evidently, already represented /v/ in Greek by the time the Cyrillic alphabet was created. The old name for в was Vedi and it had numerical value of two in the old system of Cyrillic numerals. It looks like the capital letter B of the Latin alphabet.

In Russian, its phonemic representation is similar to English /v/ except word-finally (when it is represents a voiceless [f]) and before a palatalizing vowel when it represents /vʲ/.

In standard Ukrainian pronunciation (based on the Poltava dialect), в represents a sound like an English W ([w]) when in the word final position. Because of this, it is not uncommon to see transliterations of words ending in в, end in "w".

e.g. Владислав (Vladyslaw)

Additionally, some Ukrainians also use such pronunciation in words where the letter is directly proceeded by a consonant, while for others all occurrences of the letter в denote /w/. In Eastern Ukraine, the letter в may represent a devoiced [f], but this is considered a Russification, as word final devoicing does not occur in standard Ukrainian.

e.g. standard Ukrainian pronunciation of the word сказав (he said) is /skazaw/. However in Eastern Ukraine one is likely to hear the Russified [skazaf] (with final devoicing).

In the Belarusian language, the letter в only represents the sound /v/. In the word final position, or if directly proceeded by a consonant it mutates to the letter Ў, a unique Belarusian letter representing the sound /w/. e.g. the Belarusian noun 'language' is мова (mova), but the adjectival form is моўный (mownyy), and the genitive plural of the noun (formed by removing the final а) is моў (mow).

In Serbian, the letter в only represents the sound /v/.

[edit] Code positions

Character encoding Case Decimal Hexadecimal Octal Binary
Unicode Capital 1042 0412 002022 0000010000010010
Small 1074 0432 002062 0000010000110010
ISO 8859-5 Capital 178 b2 262 0010110010
Small 210 d2 322 0011010010
KOI 8 Capital 247 f7 367 0011110111
Small 215 d7 327 0011010111
Windows 1251 Capital 194 c2 302 0011000010
Small 226 e2 342 0011100010

Its HTML entities are: В or В for capital and в or в for small letter.

[edit] See also