O (О о; italics:
''О о'') is a letter of the
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, ...
.
O commonly represents the
close-mid back rounded vowel
The close-mid back rounded vowel, or high-mid back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is .
Close-mid back protruded vowel
The close ...
, like the pronunciation of in
Scottish English
Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard ...
"go".
History
The Cyrillic letter O was derived from the
Greek letter
The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BCE. It is derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and was the earliest known alphabetic script to have distinct letters for vowels as ...
Omicron
Omicron (; uppercase Ο, lowercase ο, ell, όμικρον) is the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet. This letter is derived from the Phoenician letter ayin: . In classical Greek, omicron represented the close-mid back rounded vowel in contras ...
(Ο ο).
Form
Modern fonts
In modern-style typefaces, the Cyrillic letter O
looks exactly like the
Latin letter O and the
Greek letter Omicron .
Church Slavonic printed fonts and Slavonic manuscripts
Historical typefaces (like ''poluustav'' (semi-uncial), a standard font style for the
Church Slavonic typography) and old manuscripts represent several additional glyph variants of Cyrillic O, both for decorative and orthographic (sometimes also "hieroglyphic") purposes, namely:
* broad variant (Ѻ/ѻ), used mostly as a word initial letter (see
Broad On for more details);
* narrow variant, being used now in Synodal Church Slavonic editions as the first element of digraph Oy/oy (see
Uk (Cyrillic) Similar letters:
Uk (Ѹ ѹ; italics: ''Ѹ ѹ'') is a digraph of the early Cyrillic alphabet, although commonly considered and used as a single letter. It is an accent nasal vowel from Slavonic language. To save space, it was often wri ...
for more details), and in the editions of
Old Believers for unstressed "o" as well;
* variant with a cross inside (
Crossed O
See also
*Cyrillic characters in Unicode
* Multiocular O
*Earth symbol
A variety of symbols or iconographic conventions are used to represent Earth, whether in the sense of planet Earth, or the inhabited world, or as a classical element. A ci ...
), Ꚛ, used in certain manuscripts as the initial letter of words ''окрестъ'' 'around, nearby' (the root of this Slavonic word, ''крест'', means 'cross') and ''округъ'' 'district, neighbourhood' with their derivatives;
* "eyed" variant (
Monocular O
Monocular O ( majuscule: , minuscule: ) is one of the rare glyph variants of Cyrillic letter . This glyph variant was used in certain manuscripts in the root word ( eye), and also in some other functions, for example, in the word- and syllable- ...
) with a dot inside (Ꙩ/ꙩ), used in certain manuscripts in spelling of word ''око'' 'eye' and its derivatives. In many other texts, including the
birchbark letters, the monocular O was not used as a hieroglyph but largely as a synonym of
Broad On signalling the word-initial position;
* "two-eyed" variants (
Binocular O
Binocular O ( majuscule: , minuscule: ) is one of the exotic glyph variants of Cyrillic letter . This glyph variant can be found in certain manuscripts in the plural or dual forms of the root word eye, like .
A similar jocular glyph (called "d ...
) with two dots inside (Ꙫ/ꙫ or Ꙭ/ꙭ), also
double "O" without dots inside were used in certain manuscripts in spelling of dual/plural forms of the words with the same root 'eye';
* "many-eyed" variant (
Multiocular O
Multiocular O () is a rare glyph variant of the Cyrillic letter O. This glyph variant can be found in a single 15th century manuscript, in the Old Church Slavonic phrase "серафими многꙮ҄читїи" (, "many-eyed seraphim"). It ...
), ꙮ, used in certain manuscripts in spelling of the same root when embedded into word ''многоочитый'' 'many-eyed' (an attribute of
seraphim).
Usage
In
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, O is used word-initially, after another vowel, and after non-
palatalized consonants. Because of a
vowel reduction processes, the Russian phoneme may have a number of pronunciations in unstressed syllables, including and .
In
Macedonian the letter represents the sound /ɔ/.
In
Tuvan the Cyrillic letter can be written as a
double vowel
A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another.
Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to:
Film and television
* Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character
* ...
.
Related letters and other similar characters
*Ο ο :
Greek letter Omicron
*O o :
Latin letter O
*0 :
Digit Zero
*Ё ё :
Cyrillic letter Yo
*Ѻ ѻ :
Cyrillic letter Broad On
*Ӧ ӧ :
Cyrillic letter O with diaeresis
*Ө ө :
Cyrillic letter Oe
*Ӫ ӫ :
Cyrillic letter Oe with diaeresis
*Ҩ ҩ :
Cyrillic letter O-hook
Computing codes
Exotic glyph variants of Cyrillic O are available only in
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...
:
[
* broad Ѻ/ѻ:
** CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER ROUND OMEGA: U+047A
** CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER ROUND OMEGA: U+047B
* narrow ᲂ does not just represent itself, but also used in digraph Oy/oy:
** CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER NARROW O: U+1C82
** CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER UK: U+0478 (deprecated in favor of combination of Cyrillic letters О and у, U+041E U+0443)
** CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER UK: U+0479 (deprecated in favor of combination of Cyrillic letters о and у, U+043E U+0443 or U+1C82 U+0443)
* with a cross inside (Ꚛ/ꚛ):
** CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER CROSSED O: U+A69A
** CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER CROSSED O: U+A69B
* doubled Ꚙ/ꚙ:
** CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER DOUBLE O: U+A698
** CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER DOUBLE O: U+A699
* eyed Ꙩ/ꙩ:
** CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER MONOCULAR O: U+A668
** CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER MONOCULAR O: U+A669
* two-eyed (Ꙫ/ꙫ, Ꙭ/ꙭ):
** CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER BINOCULAR O: U+A66A
** CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER BINOCULAR O: U+A66B
** CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER DOUBLE MONOCULAR O: U+A66C
** CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER DOUBLE MONOCULAR O: U+A66D
* many-eyed ꙮ:
** CYRILLIC LETTER MULTIOCULAR O: U+A66E
* combining O for Church Slavonic abbreviations (as = '(Holy) Trinity'):
** COMBINING CYRILLIC LETTER O: 2DEA
]
References
External links
*
*{{Wiktionary-inline, о
Vowel letters