Yu (Cyrillic)

Yu or Ju ю; italics: Ю ю) is a letter of the Cyrillic script used in East Slavic and Bulgarian alphabets.

Cyrillic letter Yu
Phonetic usage:[ju]
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
АБВГҐДЂ
ЃЕЀЁЄЖЗ
З́ЅИЍЙІЇ
ЈКЛЉМНЊ
ОŌПРСС́Т
ЋЌУӮЎФХ
ЦЧЏШЩЪЫ
ЬЭЮЯ
Non-Slavic letters
А́А̀ӐА̄А̊А̃Ӓ
Ӓ̄ӔӘӘ́Ә̃ӚВ̌
ҒГ̧Г̑Г̄Г̣Г̌Ҕ
ӺҒ̌ӶԀԂ
Д̆Д̣ԪԬД̆Ӗ
Е̄Е̃Ё̄Є̈ӁҖӜ
ԄҘӞЗ̌З̱З̣Ԑ
Ԑ̈ӠԆӢИ̃ҊӤ
И́ҚӃҠҞҜК̣
ԚӅԮԒԈӍӉ
ҢԨӇҤԊО́О̀
О̆О̂О̃ӦӦ̄ӨӨ̄
Ө́Ө̆ӪҨԤҦР̌
ҎԖҪС̣С̱Т̌Т̣
ҬԎУ̃Ӱ
Ӱ́ӲҮҮ́ҰХ̣Х̱
Х̮Х̑ҲӼӾҺҺ̈
ԦҴҶӴӋҸҼ
ҾЫ̆Ы̄ӸҌЭ̆Э̄
Э̇ӬӬ́Ӭ̄Ю̆Ю̈Ю̈́
Ю̄Я̆Я̄Я̈ԜӀ
Archaic letters
ҀѺ
ОУѠѼѾ
ѢѤѦ
ѪѨѬѮ
ѰѲԌ
ѴѶԘ
ԢԔԠԞ

In English, Yu is commonly romanized as yu (or ju). In turn, ю is used, where is available, in transcriptions of English letter u (in open syllables), and also of the ew digraph. The sound [y], like u in French and ü in German, may also be approximated by the letter ю.

Pronunciation

It is a so-called iotated vowel, pronounced in isolation as /ju/, like the pronunciation of u in "human". After a consonant, no distinct [j] sound is pronounced, but the consonant is softened. The exact pronunciation of the vowel sound of ю in Russian depends also on the succeeding sound because of allophony. Before a soft consonant, it is [ʉ], the close central rounded vowel, as in 'rude'. Before a hard consonant or at the end of a word, the result is a back vowel [u], as in "new".

History

Apart from the form I-O, in early Slavonic manuscripts the letter appears also in a mirrored form O-I (Ꙕ, ꙕ).[1] It is the latter form that is probably the original, precisely displaying the Greek combination omicron-iota (οι). At the time that the Greek alphabet was adapted to the Slavonic language giving rise to the Cyrillic alphabet, it denoted the close front rounded vowel /y/ in educated Greek speech. This digraphic representation of /y/ was so basic for speakers of Greek that the simple letter upsilon (υ) representing the same sound came to be called υ ψιλόν (y psilon) "simple" υ in contrast to "complex" οι. The close front rounded vowel does not appear in East Slavic. See above.

There was another way for it to lead to the modern form. By the analogy to several 'iotated' letters Ѥ, ІА, Ѩ and Ѭ, the ancient ligature (or letter) Uk оѵ/оу possibly had its iotated form іоѵ/іоу.

Also, the iotified big Yus Ѭ merged itself to ю in East Slavic languages.

Computing codes

Character information
PreviewЮю
Unicode nameCYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER YUCYRILLIC SMALL LETTER YU
Encodingsdecimalhexdecimalhex
Unicode1070U+042E1102U+044E
UTF-8208 174D0 AE209 142D1 8E
Numeric character referenceЮЮюю
Named character referenceЮю
KOI8-R and KOI8-U224E0192C0
Code page 8551579D1569C
Windows-1251222DE254FE
ISO-8859-5206CE238EE
Macintosh Cyrillic1589E254FE

References

  1. Yefim Karskiy (1979) [First published 1928]. Славянская кирилловская палеография [The Slavic Cyrillic paleography] (in Russian) (2nd, facsimile ed.). Nauka. pp. 205–206.
  • The dictionary definition of Ю at Wiktionary
  • The dictionary definition of ю at Wiktionary
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