Ь

See also: ь, ъ, and ѣ

Ь U+042C, Ь CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER SOFT SIGN ← Ы [U+042B] Cyrillic Э → [U+042D]

Translingual

Letter

Ь (upper case, lower case ь)

1. A letter of the Cyrillic script, called the soft sign.

Letter

Ь (upper case, lower case ь)

1. A letter of the Old Cyrillic script, called front yer or yeri.

Letter

Ь (upper case, lower case ь)

1. (chiefly obsolete) A letter of the Unified Northern Alphabet, Yañalif and similar orthographies, used during the short-lived Soviet Latinization campaign of the 1930s.

Usage notes

• Languages with this letter were Abaza, Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Chukchi, Chuvash, Crimean Tatar, Dungan, East Circassian (formerly Cherkess), Even, Evenki, Ingrian, Kalmyk, Karachay-Balkar, Karakalpak, Kazakh, Ket, Khakas, Kildin Sami, Komi-Zyrian, Korean, Koryak, Kumyk, Kyrgyz, Nanai, Nivkh, Nogai, Northern Khanty, Northern Kurdish, Northern Mansi, Northern Selkup, Southern Altai (formerly Oyrot), Tabasaran, Talysh, Tatar, Tsakhur, Tundra Nenets, Turkmen, Tuvan, Udmurt, Uyghur, Uzbek, and Yakut.
• Where ⟨Ь, ь⟩ was used in Latin script, small-capital ⟨ʙ⟩ was often used as the lower-case form of ⟨B⟩.
• In most languages, it was pronounced /ɨ/ or /ɯ/, corresponding to Anatolian Turkish ⟨I⟩. The exception was Kalmuk, where it had its Cyrillic sound value of palatalization.

Bashkir

Letter

Ь • (�) (upper case, lower case ь)

1. The thirty-eighth letter of the Bashkir alphabet, written in the Cyrillic script.
2. (obsolete) A letter of the Bashkir alphabet, written in the Latin script; Yañalif alphabet, 1930s.

See also

• (Cyrillic-script letters) хәреф; А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Ғ ғ, Д д, Ҙ ҙ, Е е, Ё ё, Ж ж, З з, И и, Й й, К к, Ҡ ҡ, Л л, М м, Н н, Ң ң, О о, Ө ө, П п, Р р, С с, Ҫ ҫ, Т т, У у, Ү ү, Ф ф, Х х, Һ һ, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ъ ъ, Ы ы, Ь ь, Э э, Ә ә, Ю ю, Я я

Bulgarian

Pronunciation

• In the digraph ЬО: IPA^(key): [jɔ]

Letter

Ь • (ʹ) (upper case, lower case ь)

1. The twenty-eighth letter of the Bulgarian alphabet, called ер малък (er malăk) and written in the Cyrillic script.

Usage notes

• This letter is only ever used following a consonant as the digraph ьо (e.g. in шофьор (šofjor)) to denote palatalization. (If a word were in all-caps then the upper case version would be used.)

See also

• (Cyrillic-script letters) А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е, Ж ж, З з, И и (Ѝ ѝ), Й й, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ъ ъ, Ь ь, Ю ю, Я я

Chuvash

Letter

Ь • (ʹ) (upper case, lower case ь)

1. The thirty-fourth letter of the Chuvash alphabet, called ҫемҫелӗх палли (śemś̬elĕh palli) and written in the Cyrillic script.

See also

• (Cyrillic-script letters) А а, Ӑ ӑ, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е, Ё ё, Ӗ ӗ, Ж ж, З з, И и, Й й, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, П п, Р р, С с, Ҫ ҫ, Т т, У у, Ӳ ӳ, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ъ ъ, Ы ы, Ь ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я

Eastern Mari

Letter

Ь • () (upper case, lower case ь)

1. The thirty-third letter of the Eastern Mari alphabet, written in the Cyrillic script.

See also

• (Cyrillic-script letters) А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е, Ё ё, Ж ж, З з, И и, Й й, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, Ҥ ҥ, О о, Ӧ ӧ, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Ӱ ӱ, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ъ ъ, Ы ы, Ь ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я

Kazakh

Alternative scripts

Arabic	n/a
Cyrillic	Ь
Latin	n/a

Letter

Ь • (ʹ) (upper case, lower case ь)

1. The thirty-ninth letter of the Kazakh alphabet, written in the Cyrillic script.
2. (obsolete) A letter of the Kazakh alphabet, written in the Latin script; Yañalif alphabet, 1930s.

See also

• (Cyrillic-script letters) А а, Ә ә, Б б, В в, Г г, Ғ ғ, Д д, Е е, Ё ё, Ж ж, З з, И и, Й й, К к, Қ қ, Л л, М м, Н н, Ң ң, О о, Ө ө, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Ұ ұ, Ү ү, Ф ф, Х х, Һ һ, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ъ ъ, Ы ы, І і, Ь ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я

Mongolian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʲ/

Letter

Ь • (ʹ) (upper case, lower case ь)

1. The thirty-second letter of the Mongolian alphabet, called зөөлний тэмдэг (zöölnii temdeg) and written in the Cyrillic script.

See also

• (Cyrillic-script letters) үсэг; А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е, Ё ё, Ж ж, З з, И и, Й й, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, Ө ө, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Ү ү, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ъ ъ, Ы ы, Ь ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я

Pannonian Rusyn

Pronunciation

• ДЬ: IPA^(key): [ˈɟ]
• ЛЬ: IPA^(key): [ˈʎ]
• НЬ: IPA^(key): [ˈɲ]
• ТЬ: IPA^(key): [ˈc]

Letter

Ь (ʹ) (upper case, lower case ь)

1. The thirty-second letter of the Pannonian Rusyn alphabet, called мегки знак (mehki znak) and written in the Cyrillic script.

Usage notes

• See ь (ʹ).

See also

• (Cyrillic-script letters) А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Ґ ґ, Д д, Е е, Є є, Ж ж, З з, И и, Ї ї, Й й, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ю ю, Я я, Ь ь

Romanian

Letter

Ь (I) (upper case, lower case ь)

1. The twenty-eighth letter of the Moldovan alphabet, written in the Cyrillic script.

See also

• (Cyrillic-script letters) А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е, Ж ж, Ӂ ӂ, З з, И и, Й й, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Ы ы, Ь ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я

Russian

Letter

Ь • (ʹ) (upper case, lower case ь)

1. alternative letter-case form of ь (ʹ).

Usage notes

• Used only when writing in capital letters.

See also

• (Cyrillic-script letters) бу́ква; А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е, Ё ё, Ж ж, З з, И и, Й й, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ъ ъ, Ы ы, Ь ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я

Udmurt

Letter

Ь • () (upper case, lower case ь)

1. The thirty-fifth letter of the Udmurt alphabet, written in the Cyrillic script.

Usage notes

• Used only when writing in all-capital letters.

See also

• (Cyrillic-script letters) А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Д д, Е е, Ё ё, Ж ж, Ӝ ӝ, З з, Ӟ ӟ, И и, Ӥ ӥ, Й й, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, Ӧ ӧ, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ӵ ӵ, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ъ ъ, Ы ы, Ь ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я

Ukrainian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ʲ]

• Audio:

  (file)

Letter

Ь • (ʹ) (upper case, lower case ь)

1. The twenty-sixth letter of the Ukrainian alphabet, called м'який знак (mʺjakyj znak) and written in the Cyrillic script.

See also

• (Cyrillic-script letters) А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Ґ ґ, Д д, Е е, Є є, Ж ж, З з, И и, І і, Ї ї, Й й, К к, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, П п, Р р, С с, Т т, У у, Ф ф, Х х, Ц ц, Ч ч, Ш ш, Щ щ, Ь ь, Ю ю, Я я

Yakut

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɯ/

Letter

Ь • (ʹ) (upper case, lower case ь, Cyrillic equivalent Ы)

1. (obsolete) A letter of the Yakut alphabet, written in the Latin script; Yañalif alphabet, 1929–1939.