Ve (Cyrillic) Explained

Ve (В в; italics:

В в) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It commonly represents the voiced labiodental fricative pronounced as //v//, like (v) in "vase". It can also represent pronounced as //ʋ//.

The capital letter Ve looks the same as the capital Latin letter B but is pronounced differently.

Ve is commonly romanized by the Latin letter V (as described by ISO 9), but sometimes the Latin letter W is used instead, such as in Polish, or by the German Duden transcription.[1]

History

Both Ve and the Cyrillic letter Be (Б б) were derived from the Greek letter Beta (Β β), which already represented pronounced as //v// in Greek by the time the Cyrillic alphabet was created.[2]

In the Early Cyrillic alphabet, its name was (vědě), meaning "I know".[3]

In the Cyrillic numeral system, it had the value of 2.

Usage

In Russian and Bulgarian, Ve generally represents pronounced as //v//, but at the end of a word or before voiceless consonants, it represents the voiceless pronounced as /[f]/. Before a palatalizing vowel, it represents pronounced as //vʲ//.

In standard Ukrainian pronunciation (based on the Poltava dialect), Ve represents a sound like the English W (pronounced as /[w]/) when in the word final position. Because of this, it is not uncommon to see words ending in (в) transcribed to end in (w), for example, Ukrainian: Владислав = Vladyslaw for Vladislav.

Additionally, some Ukrainians also use this pronunciation in words where the letter is directly preceded by a consonant, while for others all occurrences of the letter Ve denote pronounced as /[w]/. In Eastern Ukraine, the letter Ve may represent a voiceless pronounced as /[f]/, but this is considered a Russianism, as word-final devoicing does not occur in standard Ukrainian. For example, the standard Ukrainian pronunciation of the word Ukrainian: сказав ([he] said) is pronounced as //skazaw//. However, in Eastern Ukraine one is likely to hear the Russified pronounced as /[skazaf]/ (with final devoicing).

In Belarusian, the letter Ve represents only the sound pronounced as //v//. In the word final position, or if directly proceeded by a consonant, it mutates to the letter Short U (Ў ў), a Belarusian letter representing the sound pronounced as //w//. E.g., the Belarusian noun "language" is Belarusian: мова (mova), but the adjectival form is Belarusian: моўны (mowny), and the genitive plural of the noun (formed by removing the final (а)) is Belarusian: моў (mow).

In Rusyn, the letter Ve represents the sound /v/, or /w/ if it is at the end of the word.

In Serbian and Montenegrin, the letter Ve represents only the sound /v/.

In Macedonian the letter is used for the sound /v/, but if the letter appears at the end of the word then it is pronounced as /f/. An example of this is the word бев [bɛf] ('I was').

In Tuvan, it is used for /ʋ/.

In Mongolian, Kalmyk, and Dungan, it is used for /w/.

Related letters and other similar characters

See also

Notes and References

  1. Book: . 2000 . . 3-411-04012-2 . 22nd . 1 . Mannheim . 118 . de.
  2. Book: Campbell . George L. . The Routledge Handbook of Scripts and Alphabets . Moseley . Christopher . 2013-05-07 . Routledge . 978-1-135-22296-3 . en.
  3. Book: Corbett . Professor Greville . The Slavonic Languages . Comrie . Professor Bernard . September 2003 . Routledge . 978-1-136-86137-6 . en.