In modern Russian has no phonetic value of its own, and is purely an orthographic device. Its function is to separate a number of prefixes ending in a consonant from a following morpheme that begins with aniotated vowel. It is therefore commonly seen in front of the letters "я", "ё", "е", and "ю". The hard sign marks the fact that the sound[j] continues to be heard in the composition. Example:
It therefore functions as a kind of "separation sign", which is used after prepositions and has been used only sparingly in the aforementioned cases since the spelling reform of 1918.
