Ef (Cyrillic)

"ф" redirects here. For the very similar Greek letter, see Φ, φ - Phi (Greek) or ɸ, a voiceless bilabial fricative.

The Cyrillic script
Cyrillic letter Ef
Numeric value:	500
Slavic letters
А Б В Г Ґ Д Ђ Ѓ 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 Ҕ Ӻ Ӷ Ԁ Ԃ Ꚉ Ӗ Ӂ Җ Ӝ Ԅ Ҙ Ӟ Ԑ Ӡ Ԇ Ӣ Ҋ Ӥ Қ Ӄ Ҡ Ҟ Ҝ Ԟ Ԛ Ӆ Ԓ Ԡ Ԉ Ԕ Ӎ Ӊ Ң Ӈ Ҥ Ԣ Ԋ Ӧ Ө Ӫ Ҩ Ԥ Ҧ Ҏ Ԗ Ҫ Ԍ Ҭ Ԏ Ӯ Ӱ Ӳ Ү Ұ Ҳ Ӽ Ӿ Һ Ԧ Ҵ Ҷ Ӵ Ӌ Ҹ Ꚇ Ҽ Ҿ Ӹ Ҍ Ӭ Ԙ Ԝ Ӏ
Archaic letters
Ҁ Ѻ ОУ Ѡ Ѿ Ѣ Ꙓ Ꙗ Ѥ Ѧ Ѫ Ѩ Ѭ Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ Ѷ Ꙟ Ꙉ
List of Cyrillic letters Cyrillic digraphs

Ef (Ф ф; italics: Ф ф) is a Cyrillic letter, commonly representing the voiceless labiodental fricative /f/, like the pronunciation of ⟨f⟩ in "fill". The Cyrillic letter Ef is romanized as ⟨f⟩.

History

The Cyrillic letter Ef was derived from the Greek letter Phi (Φ φ). It merged with an eliminated letter Fita (Ѳ) in the Russian alphabet in 1918.

The name of Ef in the Early Cyrillic alphabet is фрьтъ (fr̥tŭ or frĭtŭ), in later Church Slavonic and Russian form it became фертъ (fert).

In the Cyrillic numeral system, Ef has a value of 500.

Usage

The Slavic languages practically do not have native words containing /f/; this sound, which did not exist in Proto-Indo-European, arose in Greek and Latin from PIE *bʰ (which yielded Slavic /b/) and in the Germanic languages from PIE *p (which remained unchanged in Slavic). The letter ф is, therefore, almost exclusively found in words of foreign origin, especially Greek (from ph and sometimes from th), Latin, French, German, English, and Turkic.

Few native Slavic words with this letter (in different languages) are examples of onomatopoeia (like Russian verbs фукать, фыркать etc.) or reflect sporadic pronunciation shifts, for example:

• from пв /pv/: Serbian уфати 'to hope' (cf. Church Slavonic уповати 'to hope')
• from хв /xv/: Macedonian сфати '(he) understands' (cf. Church Slavonic схватити 'to take, to catch')
• from х /x/: Russian toponym Фили 'Fili' (from хилый 'sickly')

Russian

Ef is the twenty-second (if Yo is included) letter of the Russian alphabet. It represents the consonant /f/ unless it is before a palatalizing vowel when it represents /fʲ/.

Related letters and other similar characters

• Φ φ/ϕ : Greek letter Phi
• Ѳ ѳ : Cyrillic letter Fita
• F f : Latin letter F

Computing codes

External links

• The dictionary definition of Ф at Wiktionary
• The dictionary definition of ф at Wiktionary