Yo (Cyrillic)

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Look up Ё, ё in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Cyrillic letter Yo

Cyrillic alphabet
А	Б	В	Г	Ґ	Ѓ	Д
Ђ	Е	Ѐ	Ё	Є	Ж	З
Ѕ	И	Ѝ	І	Ї	Й	Ј
К	Ќ	Л	Љ	М	Н	Њ
О	П	Р	С	Т	Ћ	У
Ў	Ф	Х	Ц	Ч	Џ	Ш
Щ	Ъ	Ы	Ь	Э	Ю	Я
Non-Slavic letters
Ӑ	Ӓ	Ә	Ӛ	Ӕ	Ҕ	Ӗ
Ғ	Ӷ	Ӏ	Ӂ	Җ	Ӝ	Ҙ
Ӟ	Ӡ	Ӣ	Ӥ	Ҋ	Ҡ	Қ
Ҟ	Ҝ	Ӄ	Ӆ	Ӎ	Ң	Ҥ
Ӊ	Ӈ	Ө	Ӫ	Ӧ	Ҧ	Ҏ
Ҫ	Ҷ	Ҹ	Ӵ	Ҽ	Ҿ	Ӌ
Ҩ	Ҳ	Һ	Ҭ	Ҵ	Ӳ	Ӯ
Ү	Ұ	Ӱ	Ӹ	Ҍ	Ӭ
Archaic letters
Ҁ	Ѹ	Ѡ	Ѿ	Ѻ	Ѣ	ІА
Ѥ	Ѧ	Ѫ	Ѩ	Ѭ	Ѯ	Ѱ
Ѳ	Ѵ	Ѷ

Yo (Ё, ё) is the seventh letter of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet, invented in 1797 by the Russian historian and writer N.M. Karamzin to replace the recklessly confused е and о for /o/ following a palatalized consonant. It is used in the Russian and Belarusian languages, along with many of the Caucasian and Turkic languages which use or used the Cyrillic alphabet, but not in many of the other Slavic languages.

It is an iotated or palatalized O (/jo/ as in yolk, or /ʲo/), but when following a postalveolar fricative, like ж, ч, ш and щ, represents a simple /o/. This letter's syllable is always under stress.

Yo is identical in form to ye, as well as Latin E, except for a symbol similar to an umlaut or diaeresis. This diacritic serves no regular function in Russian (as it does in German or French), and is solely used to differentiate this letter from ye. It was first used at the end of 18th century in literary works by Karamzin, but it has not gained standard usage until 1940s.^{[citation needed]} Many loanwords still conventionaly use a combination of 'й' and 'о' to indicate palatalization.^{[citation needed]}

Though in common use after World War II, in printed Russian yo is still replaced by the letter ye due to their similar appearance and the ability for speakers to tell by context which sound is represented. Its use is mandatory in dictionaries, children's books and textbooks for foreign learners.

Some Russian authors (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn) and periodicals (Literaturnaya Gazeta) always publish their texts with yo.

The fact that yo is frequently replaced with ye in print often causes some confusion to non-Russians, as it makes Russian words and names harder to transcribe accurately. One recurring problem is with Russian surnames, as both -ев (-ev) and -ёв (-ov) are common endings. Thus the English-speaking world knows two leaders of the former Soviet Union as Khrushchev and Gorbachev though their surnames end in Russian with -ёв, better transcribed ov.

In Belarusian it is considered improper to replace "yo" with "ye".

[edit] "Yo" in poetry

In February 22, 2007, the Russian poet and webmaster Sergey Sokolov (Сергей Соколов), also known as Mithgol the Webmaster, published on the page of voting about using the letter "Yo" in Russian Wikipedia a poem in support of "Yo", which is quoted here in line-by-line translation:^[1]

Let's save the seventh letter of alphabet: it's almost killed in the net!
Be sure: your linguistics is in the two dots above the letter "Yo"!
Thirty three letters are what we call the alphabet.
If you are wise, don't hound the seventh of them!

Don't erase the dots above the "Yo" in writing:
There are thirty three letters in Russian alphabet.
Keep the dots above the "Yo" in writing:
They are the pledge of linguistics.
Wise man wouldn't curse the alphabet,
Wise man would update the drivers.

Habits are unsignificant for language:
The literate language has thirty three letters.
The thirty three letters of alphabet can be preserved
Only by correct written speech.
Russian literacy has tenth paragraph.
Oh letter "Yo"! You are like icon in a shrine there.