Yery

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Cyrillic letter Yery
Unicode (hex)
majuscule: U+042B
minuscule: U+044B
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	Ꙟ
List of Cyrillic letters

Yery (Ы, ы) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. It represents the phoneme /i/ after non-palatalized (hard) consonants in the Belarusian, Rusyn and Russian alphabets. Because of phonological processes, the actual realization of /i/ after most consonants (д, з, л, н, р, с, т, or ц) is retracted to a close central unrounded vowel (IPA: [ɨ]), or after labials (б, в, м, п), IPA: [^wi]. The letter cannot appear after any of the other consonants not already listed, or after vowels; in such cases, и replaces it in its grammatical functions.

Like many Cyrillic letters, originally the letter yery was formed from a ligature—between Yer ъ and I (then і, dotless or with two dots) or Izhe (then н, now и). In ancient manuscripts, it is almost without exception found as ъі or ън. Once the letters ъ and ь subsequently lost their values as vowels from the Slavic languages, the current form ы evolved.

The letter is usually Romanized in English and most other West-European languages as y, e.g. Krylov (family name, Крылов).

There are several proper and common nouns of non-Russian origin (including some geographical names in Russia) with beginning with the letter: Ytyk-Kyuyol (Ытык-Кюёль), Ygyatta (Ыгыатта), a village and a river in Sakha (Yakutia) Republic respectively, and Eulji Mundeok (Ыльчи Мундок), a Korean military leader.

Yery is no longer found in the Ukrainian alphabet, however a similar sound exists, represented by the letter И.

The Early Cyrillic alphabet used Ꙑ , ꙑ　or somewhat a ligature of Ъ and a І (Minuscule: ъ and a ӏ back then instead of Ы, ы.

The Russian yery (ы) is a sound which is made by raising your tongue to a position in your mouth exactly between the positions of the sound of 'y' in myth and that of 'ou' in should. Practice it by first pronouncing the English sounds, one after another, until you are conscious of where your tongue is when you pronounce them. Your tongue should be rather high in your mouth in either case, but when you pronounce the 'y' in myth your tongue should be in the front of your mouth while it is in the back when you pronounce the 'ou' of should. When you become aware of these positions, force your tongue to a position exactly at the midpoint between these two positions and, without rounding your lips, make the sound.

[edit] References

[edit] General

• http://www.alphadictionary.com/rusgrammar/index.html