English

Noun

hard sign ‎(plural hard signs)

1. The Cyrillic letter Ъ/ъ, which in modern languages serves to denote a hard (non-palatalized) consonant.

Synonyms

• yer, back yer

Antonyms

• soft sign

Translations

Usage notes

• 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 an iotated 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:

  съёмка ‎(sʺjómka) (IPA^(key): [ˈsjɵmkə]): "filming"

  сёстры ‎(sjóstry) (IPA^(key): [ˈsʲɵstrɨ]): nominative plural of сестра́ ‎(sestrá) "sister"

• 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.

See also

• ъ ‎() (usage of "ъ" in Russian)
• ъ ‎(ǎ) (usage of "ъ" in Bulgarian)