I (И и; italics:И и orИ и; italics:И и) is a letter used in almost all modernCyrillic alphabets with the exception ofBelarusian and Ukrainian, where it is replaced byІ.
Because the Cyrillic letterИ was derived from theGreek letter Eta (Ηη), the Cyrillic⟨И⟩ had the shape of⟨Η⟩ up to the 13th century.
The name of the Cyrillic letter И in theEarly Cyrillic alphabet wasижє (iže), meaning "which".
In theCyrillic numeral system, the Cyrillic letter И had a value of 8, corresponding to the Greek letter Eta (Ηη).
In theEarly Cyrillic alphabet, like in the Greek alphabet of the time (seeIotacism), there was little or no distinction between the letter⟨И⟩/⟨H⟩ and the letter⟨І⟩, the latter of which was derived from theGreek letter Iota (Ιι). Both remained in the alphabetical repertoire while they represented different numbers in theCyrillic numeral system: eight and ten.
InNew Church Slavonic, they co-exist with each other with no pronunciation differences. But inUkrainian andRusyn, the two letters have different pronunciations. Other modern orthographies for Slavic languages eliminated one of the two letters in alphabet reforms of the 19th or the 20th centuries. The Russian, Macedonian, Serbian, and Bulgarian languages now use only⟨И⟩, andBelarusian uses only⟨І⟩. However, the letter⟨І⟩ was also used in Russian beforethe reform of 1917–1918.
Originally, Cyrillic⟨И⟩ had the shape identical to the capitalGreek letter Eta⟨Η⟩. The middle stroke was later turned counterclockwise, which resulted in the modern form resembling a mirrored capitalLatin letter N⟨N⟩ and so⟨И⟩ is used infaux Cyrillic typography. However, the style of the two letters is not fully identical: in roman fonts,⟨И⟩ has heavier vertical strokes and serifs on all four corners, and⟨N⟩ has a heavier diagonal stroke and lacks a serif on the bottom-right corner.
In roman and oblique fonts, the lowercase letter⟨и⟩ has the same shape as the uppercase letter⟨И⟩. In italic fonts, the lowercase letter⟨и⟩ looks like the italic form of the lowercaseLatin U⟨u⟩. Both uppercase and lowercase handwritten forms of the Cyrillic letter I look like handwritten forms of the Latin letter U.
Since 1918,⟨и⟩ has been the tenth letter of theRussian alphabet, and inRussian, it represents/i/, like thei in machine, except after some consonants (see below). In Russian, the letter typically denotes a precedingsoft consonant and so is considered the soft counterpart to⟨ы⟩, which represents[ɨ]. However, unlike other "soft" vowels (е,ё,ю andя),и in isolation is not preceded by the/j/ semivowel. In Russian, the letter could be combined in the digraph⟨ио⟩ (like⟨ьо⟩,⟨їô⟩ and⟨iо⟩) to representё before it started around the 1950s, although that letter remains rare as people usually useе (apparent confusion has remained in thetranscription of some foreign words).
In early Russian typewriters like this one, there was no key for the digit 1, so the capital І was used instead. Following theRussian alphabet reform of 1918, a 1 key was added.
⟨И⟩ was used significantly less in Russian before the Bolshevik reform of 1918:
⟨і⟩ was used before all vowels and before the semivowel ⟨й⟩ except at the end of amorpheme in a compound word, where ⟨и⟩ was used. So англійскій (English) used ⟨і⟩, but пяти + акровый = пятиакровый (five-acre) used ⟨и⟩.
⟨и⟩ was used as the last letter of a word and before consonants except inміръ for "world, universe, local community, commons, society, laity" (and words derived from it) to differentiate fromмиръ "peace"). After 1918, both are spelledмир.
According to critics of the Bolshevik reform, the choice ofИи as the only letter to represent that side and the removal ofІі defeated the purpose of 'simplifying’ the language, asИи occupies more space and, furthermore, is sometimes indistinguishable fromШш.
⟨И⟩ is pronounced[ɨ] in⟨жи⟩ (sounds like⟨жы⟩[ʐɨ]),⟨ши⟩ (sounds like⟨шы⟩[ʂɨ]) and⟨ци⟩ (sounds like⟨цы⟩[t͡sɨ]), because in Russian, the sound[i] usually cannot be pronounced after "zh"⟨ж⟩, "sh"⟨ш⟩, and "ts"⟨ц⟩.
In theBulgarian Cyrillic alphabet⟨и⟩ is the ninth letter. It represents the sound/i/ and also occurs with a grave accent,ѝ, to distinguish orthographically the conjunction⟨и⟩ ("and") and the short form of the indirect object⟨ѝ⟩ ("her").
InKazakh,⟨И⟩ is used for/əj/ and/ɪj/ in native words and for/i/ in loanwords, and⟨І⟩ is used for/ɪ/ in native words.
InBelarusian, the letter (и) is not used at all, and the sound/i/ is represented by the letter⟨і⟩, which is also known asBelarusian-Ukrainian I.
The letter⟨И⟩ is the eleventh letter of theUkrainian alphabet and represents the sound[ɪ], a separatephoneme inUkrainian. The Ukrainian⟨и⟩ can be transliterated to other languages that use the Cyrillic script by either⟨и⟩ and⟨ы⟩ because of the lack of a uniform transliteration rule. Speakers of other Slavic languages can perceive Ukrainian[ɪ] as[i],[ɨ], or sometimes even[e] (seeUkrainian phonology for more on the pronunciation of[ɪ]). The sound[i] in Ukrainian is represented by the letter⟨і⟩, just as in Belarusian.
The vowel that is represented by⟨и⟩ can, as is the case for almost any other Slavonic vowel, be stressed or unstressed. The stressed variant is sometimes (in special texts like dictionaries or to prevent ambiguity) graphically marked by theacute,grave, thedouble grave, or thecircumflex accent.
Special Serbian texts also use⟨и⟩ with amacron to represent long unstressed variant of the sound. Serbian⟨и⟩ with a circumflex can be unstressed as well, which then represents the plural form of thegenitive case to distinguish from other similar forms.
Modern Church Slavonic orthography uses the smooth breathing sign (Greek and Church Slavonic:psili, Latin:spiritus lenis) above the initial vowels (for tradition alone since there is no difference in pronunciation). It can be combined with acute or grave accents if necessary.
None of those combinations is considered to be a separate letter of respective alphabet, but one of them (⟨Ѝ⟩) has an individual code position inUnicode.
⟨И⟩ with abreve forms the letter⟨й⟩ for the consonant/j/ or a similar semivowel, like they in English "yes." The form has been used regularly in Church Slavonic since the 16th century, but it officially became a separate letter of alphabet only much later (in Russian in 1918). The original name of⟨й⟩ wasI s kratkoy ('I with the short [line]'), laterI kratkoye ('short I') in Russian. It is known similarly asI kratko inBulgarian but asYot in Ukrainian.
Cyrillic alphabets of non-Slavic languages have additional⟨и⟩-based letters like⟨И̃⟩ or⟨Ҋ⟩.
