Latin yeru[1][2] or I with bowl[3][dubiousdiscuss] (majuscule: Ь, minuscule: ь)[note 1] is an additional letter of the Latin alphabet based on the Cyrillic soft sign. It was introduced in 1928 into the reformed Yañalif, and later into other alphabets for Soviet minority languages. The letter was designed specifically to represent the non-front close vowel sounds IPA: [ɨ] and IPA: [ɯ].[4] Thus, this letter corresponds to the letter I ı in modern Turkic alphabets,[5][6][7][8][9][10] and the letter yery (⟨Ы ы⟩) in Cyrillic.

I with bowl
Ь ь
Due to the absence of a character in Unicode, it cannot be displayed in computer-compatible fonts; in some cases, graphemes similar in style can be used instead.
Usage
Writing systemLatin script
TypeAlphabetic
Language of originYañalif
Sound values[ɯ]
[ɤ̆]
[ɨ]
History
Development
  • Ь ь
Other
Writing directionLeft-to-Right
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Usage

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The letter was originally included in the Yañalif, and later also in the alphabets of the Kurdish, Abaza, Sami, Ingrian, Kalmyk, Komi, Tsakhur, Azerbaijani and Bashkir languages, as well as in the draft reform of the Udmurt alphabet. During the project of the Latinization of the Russian language, this letter corresponded to the Cyrillic letter Ы ы. In Kalmyk, however, it represented palatalisation of the preceding consonant, thus corresponding to the Cyrillic homoglyph Ь ь.

In languages and alphabets that used this letter, the lowercase form of B was a small capital ⟨ʙ⟩ so that there would be no confusion between ⟨b⟩ and ⟨ь⟩.

Encoding

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A Latin letter I with bowl hasn't been adopted into Unicode because of the concern that encoding it could open the door to "duplicating the whole Cyrillic alphabet as Latin letters."[1][2][11][3] Instead, computer and mobile users can substitute similar letters, either Ь ь or Ƅ ƅ (Latin letter tone six, the letter that was previously used in the Zhuang alphabet to denote the sixth tone IPA: [˧]).

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Here represented with the Cyrillic soft sign, to which it is homoglyphic

References

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  1. ^ a b Karl Pentzlin, Ilya Yevlampiev (2008-11-03). "Proposal to encode four Latin letters for Jaꞑalif" (PDF). Retrieved 2017-10-24.
  2. ^ a b Karl Pentzlin, Ilya Yevlampiev (2010-09-24). "Proposal to encode two Latin letters for Jaꞑalif" (PDF). Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  3. ^ a b Nikita Manulov (2022-05-20). "Proposal to encode Latin capital and small letter I with bowl" (PDF). Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  4. ^ W. K. Matthews (2013). Languages of the USSR. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-107-62355-2.
  5. ^ Tatar (tatarça / татарча / تاتارچا)
  6. ^ Azerbaijani (آذربايجانجا ديلي / Azərbaycan dili / Азәрбајҹан дили)
  7. ^ Karaim (къарай тили, Karay dili, לשון קדר)
  8. ^ Khakas (Хакас тілі / Khakas tîlî)
  9. ^ Kumyk (Къумукъ тил / Qumuq til)
  10. ^ Tuvan (Тыва дыл / Tyva dyl)
  11. ^ "Proposal to encode Latin letters used in the Former Soviet Union" (PDF). 2011-10-18. Retrieved 2017-09-26.