E, from theAlphabet Book оf the Red Army Soldier (1921)
Э э (Э э; italics:Э э; also known asbackwards ye, fromRussianе оборо́тное,ye oborótnoye,[ˈjɛɐbɐˈrotnəjə]) is a letter found in threeSlavic languages:Russian,Belarusian, andWest Polesian. It represents thevowels[e] and[ɛ], as the e in the word "editor". In other Slavic languages that use theCyrillic script, the sounds are represented byYe (Е е), which represents in Russian and Belarusian[je] in initial and postvocalic position or[e] withpalatalization of the precedingconsonant. This letter closely resembles and should not be confused with the older Cyrillic letterUkrainian Ye (Є є), of which Э is a reversed version.
The letter⟨э⟩ originated in the thirteenth century as a variant of⟨є⟩, at first, according to Đorđić[1] in superscripted line-final position, but by the end of the century elsewhere as well.[2] In the following centuries it continued to appear sporadically as an uncommon variant of⟨є⟩, but not later than in the fifteenth century amongst the Eastern Slavs it began to be used to indicate initial (uniotated)[e]. According toYefim Karskiy, "Western Russianustav knows⟨э⟩, e.g. in Miscellany of the 15th c. from the Public Library (manuscr. #391) (экъсеквїє etc.), chronicles of 15th-16th cc., Miscellany ofPoznań (16th c.),[3]Statut of 1588... It is difficult to say whether it has been developed here independently or it came from South Slavic manuscripts, where⟨э⟩ occurs as early as in 13-14th cc."[4] Although the revision ofMeletius Smotrytsky’s grammar published in Moscow in 1648 does not include⟨э⟩ in its alphabet, it does consistently writeЭтѷмолѻ́гїа (Etymologia), in contrast toЄтѷмоло́ґїѧ in the first edition of 1619. It was by no means confined to this function in the period, however, as the prevalent spellingsреэстръ, маэоръ (besideмаеоръ, маіоръ) for modern Russianреестр,майор demonstrate.
Specimens of thecivil script with annotations by Peter I.
In the specimens of thecivil script presented toPeter I in 1708, forms of⟨э⟩ were included among forms of⟨є⟩, but the latter was deleted by Peter. The former was used in some early 18th-century Russian texts, but some authorities of the period considered it superfluous, likeMikhail Lomonosov, on the grounds that "the letter Е, having several different pronunciations, could serve in the pronounетотъ and the interjectionей"[5] and that it was inappropriate to introduce letters solely for use in loanwords. However, the inclusion of⟨Э⟩ in its modern function, in the Russian Academy's Dictionary of 1789–94, marks the point from which it can be considered as an established part of the Russian orthographical standard.
There were still some objections to the letter even as late as 1817, whenM. T. Kačenovskij was questioning whether "yet another hard э" was necessary when the language already had "a soft ѣ and a hard е".[6]
In contemporary Russian,⟨э⟩ is used to represent[e],[ɛ] in initial position (электричество 'electricity') and postvocalic position (дуэль 'duel'). Among such words are only a few native Russian roots:эт- (это 'this is', этот/эта/это 'this (m./f./n.)', эти 'these', поэтому 'thus' etc.),эк- (экий 'what a'),эдак-/этак- (эдак/этак 'that way', эдакий/этакий 'sort of') and a few interjections likeэй 'hey',э 'uh, oh',э-э-э 'uh'.
Even though Russian contains a significant number of loanwords in which[e] occurs after a hard (unpalatalised) consonant, it is still the practice to use the letter⟨е⟩ for[e],[ɛ]:теннис, сепсис (tennis,sepsis). There are few traditional exceptions to that practice amongcommon noun loanwords:
the original list (the first half of the 20th century) contained just three words:
мэр 'mayor', from French'maire'
пэр 'peer (a noble)', from French'pair'
сэр 'sir', from English or from Old French'sieur'
two later additions (1950s-1960s):
мэтр 'master, skilled artist', from French'maître'
new additions (1980s and later) are more numerous:
рэкет 'racket, racketeering', from English
рэп 'rap (music)', from English
фэнтези 'fantasy (literature)', from English
and several others; spelling of new words sometimes varies and dictionaries often give variants or contradict one another (likeхетчбэк 'hatchback (car)' in spelling dictionary vsхетчбек/хэтчбек in explanatory dictionary[1]).
Inproper nouns, however,⟨э⟩ may occur after consonants:Улан-Удэ 'Ulan-Ude' andБлэр 'Blair'. However, many such loanwords are spelled with⟨е⟩:Блерио 'Blériot' (a French aviator). That is the case especially for names that entered the language centuries ago like:Берлин, 'Berlin'. The use of⟨э⟩ is much more frequent for names from non-European languages:Мао Цзэдун 'Mao Zedong'.
The letter⟨э⟩ is also used in Russian to render initialœ in foreign words: thusEure (the river inFrance) is writtenЭр. After consonants this is transcribed as⟨ё⟩. In the 19th century, some writers used⟨ӭ⟩ for that sound in both positions,[7] but that was never accepted as standard orthography. (The letter⟨ӭ⟩ was re-invented in the 20th century forKildin Sami.) It is also used to represent a stressed/æ/ in languages such as English, which can cause a problem of conflating/æ/ with English/ɛ/ (for example, "Addison" and "Edison" would be spelled the same). However, in other positions, Russian also uses⟨а⟩ for/æ/ and⟨е⟩ for/ɛ/.
Unlike Russian, Belarusian has many native words in which it occurs after a hard consonant. Moreover, its orthographywas standardized later than that of Russian (which reached its present form at the beginning of the 20th century), on the basis of the spoken language rather than historical tradition. Consequently,⟨э⟩ and⟨е⟩ are written in accordance with pronunciation:⟨э⟩ for initial[e] and after hard consonants,⟨е⟩ for initial and postvocalic[je] and after soft consonants. That also means that⟨э⟩ is much more frequent in Belarusian than in Russian.
In theTajik language, the letters е and э have the same function, except that э is used at the beginning of a word (ex. Эрон, "Iran").[10]
InMongolian, э is the standard letter to represent the /ɛ/ phoneme. It is often written doubled to represent the /eː/ phoneme. Е, however, is only used in the few Mongolian words containing it, Russian loanwords and Russian-style transcriptions of foreign names.
^"Западнорусский устав знаетэ, напр. в Сб. XV в. Публ. б. № 391 (экъсеквїє и др.), летописях XV—XVI вв., Позн. Сб. XVI в., Статуте 1588... Трудно сказать, развилось ли оно здесь самостоятельно или же зашло из югославянских рукописей, гдеэ встречается уже в XIII—XIV вв." (Е. Ф. Карский,Белорусы: Язык белорусского народа, вып. 1, М., 1955, р. 69). See also pp. 165-166 for more details and examples.
^Россійская Грамматика Михайла Ломоносова, печатана в Санктпетербургѣ, при Императорской Академїи Наук, 1755 года, p.43
^[М. Т.] Каченовский, “Исторический взгляд на Грамматику Славянских наречий”,Труды О-ва любителей Российской словесности при имп. Московском университете, ч.IX (1817), pp.17-46. He was referring specifically to the spellingЭтѷмоло́ґїѧ in the 1648 grammar mentioned above:“Каким образом появляется здесь обратное Э, которое в азбуке Мелетием обойдено? Разве нужно, при мягком Ѣ, при твердом Е, еще одно твердое Э?” so how far his remarks extend to the Russian of his own day is debatable. The reference to "a soft ѣ and a hard е" was referring to the pronunciation of Church Slavonic current in his day (which is still maintained by theOld Believers). That may have still been regarded as the literary ideal: see Б. А. Успенский,Архаическая система церковнославянского произношения, Москва, 1968, especially pp.29-35.
^Я. К. Грот,Русское правописание, 19-ое изд., Санктпетербург, 1910, p.78
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