A page from Azbuka, the firstRussian textbook, printed byIvan Fyodorov in 1574. This page features the Cyrillic alphabet.
Ot (Ѿѿ; italics:Ѿѿ) is a letter of theearly Cyrillic alphabet. Though it originated as aligature of the lettersOmega (Ѡѡ) andTe (Тт), it functions as a discrete letter of the alphabet, placed betweenх andц.[1] This can be seen in the first printed Cyrillic abecedarium (illustrated), and continues in modern usage.[2]
Ot is used inChurch Slavonic to represent the prepositionотъ 'from' and prefixотъ-. It does not stand for this sequence of letters in any other context, nor can the sequenceотъ be substituted for it where it does occur. It is used with a similar purpose in mediaeval manuscripts of otherSlavonic languages written with the Cyrillic alphabet. In printed booksѿ is often used in preference to(ѡ҃) for the numeral 800.
^Note that Ivan Fedorov’s alphabet does not includeѡ (though it does includeѽ). This is because it does includeѻ, which was considered orthographically equivalent; one may compare the alphabet fromSpiridon Sobol’s abecedarium of 1631, which hasѡ where Ivan Fedorov hasѻ.
^Иеромонах Алипий, Грамматика церковно-славянского языка, Saint Petersburg, 1997, p. 17
