I (Cyrillic)
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| Cyrillic letter I | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 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 | ||||
I or Y (И, и) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet, representing /i/ in Russian and /ɪ/ in Ukrainian. It is derived from the Greek letter eta (Η, η representing [ɛː] in Ancient Greek and [i] in Modern Greek).
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[edit] Origins
In the early Cyrillic alphabet there was little or no distinction between the letters и (izhei) and і (izhe), descended from the Greek letters η (eta) and ι (iota). They both remained in the alphabetical repertoire because they represented different numbers in the Cyrillic numeral system, eight and ten, and are therefore sometimes referred to as octal I and decimal I.
[edit] Usage
It is the tenth letter of the Russian alphabet, and in Russian it represents /i/, like the i in machine. Although in isolation it is not preceded by the /j/ semivowel like other "soft" vowels (е, ё, ю, and я), in Russian it is considered the soft counterpart to ы, which represents [ɨ], because it denotes a preceding soft consonant. In Ukrainian and Belarusian, the sound /i/ is represented by the letter і, sometimes called Ukrainian I.
The letter и is the eleventh letter of the Ukrainian alphabet.
Belarusian has dispensed entirely with the letter и.
With a breve, it forms the letter й, called I kratkoye ("short I") in Russian, similarly I kratko in Bulgarian, or Yot in Ukrainian and it represents the y in English "boy."
It is transliterated from Russian as i, or from Ukrainian as y or i, using different romanization systems. See transliteration of Russian into English and romanization of Ukrainian.
[edit] Shape
Originally, Cyrillic И, и had the shape identical to Greek uppercase Η or Latin uppercase H. Later, the middle stroke turned counterclockwise which made the modern form similar to the mirrored Latin alphabet's capital N (this is why И is used in faux Cyrillic typography). But style of the two letters is not fully identical: in Roman-type fonts, И has serifs on all four corners, whereas N only on bottom-left and top-right ones; also, И has (contrarily to N) thicker vertical lines than the diagonal one. Lowercase и in regular fonts has the same shape as uppercase И. In italic (cursive) fonts, lowercase и may look like Latin u. In handwritten (calligraphic) fonts, both lower- and uppercase forms of и have usually the shape of handwritten Latin lowercase u.
