Ve (В в; italics:
''В'' ''в'') 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, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...
. It commonly represents the voiced labiodental fricative , like in "vase".
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 but sometimes the
Latin letter W (such as in
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
or
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
).
History
Both Ve and the
Cyrillic letter Be (Б б) were derived from the
Greek letter Beta (Β β), which already represented in Greek by the time the Cyrillic alphabet was created.
In the
Early Cyrillic alphabet
The Early Cyrillic alphabet, also called classical Cyrillic or paleo-Cyrillic, is a writing system that was developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the late 9th century on the basis of the Greek alphabet for the Slavic people living ...
, its name was (''vědě''), meaning "I know".
In the
Cyrillic numeral system
Cyrillic numerals are a numeral system derived from the Cyrillic script, developed in the First Bulgarian Empire in the late 10th century. It was used in the First Bulgarian Empire and by South and East Slavic peoples. The system was used ...
, it had the value of 2.
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 ...
and
Bulgarian
Bulgarian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Bulgaria
* Bulgarians, a South Slavic ethnic group
* Bulgarian language, a Slavic language
* Bulgarian alphabet
* A citizen of Bulgaria, see Demographics of Bulgaria
* Bul ...
, Ve generally represents , but
at the end of a word or
before voiceless consonants, it represents the voiceless . Before a
palatalizing vowel, it represents .
In standard
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine
* Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe
* Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine
* So ...
pronunciation (based on the
Poltava dialect), Ve represents a sound like the English W () when in the word final position. Because of this, it is not uncommon to see words ending in transcribed to end in , for example, = ''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 . In Eastern
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, the letter Ve may represent a voiceless , but this is considered a
Russianism
Russianism or Russicism is an influence of the Russian language on other languages. In particular, Russianisms are Russian or Russified words, expressions, or grammar constructs used in Slavic languages, languages of CIS states and languages of t ...
, as
word-final devoicing
Final-obstruent devoicing or terminal devoicing is a systematic phonological process occurring in languages such as Catalan, German, Dutch, Breton, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, Turkish, and Wolof. In such languages, voiced obstruents in fina ...
does not occur in standard Ukrainian. For example, the standard Ukrainian pronunciation of the word (''
esaid'') is . However in Eastern Ukraine one is likely to hear the Russified (with final devoicing).
In
Belarusian, the letter Ve represents only the sound . 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 . E.g., the Belarusian noun "language" is (''mova''), but the adjectival form is (''mowny''), and the genitive plural of the noun (formed by removing the final ) is (''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
ɛf('I was').
In
Tuvan, it is used for /
ʋ/.
In
Mongolian,
Kalmyk, and
Dungan Dungan may refer to:
* Donegan, an Irish surname, sometimes spelled Dungan
* Dungan people, a group of Muslim people of Hui origin
** Dungan language
** Dungan, sometimes used to refer to Hui Chinese people generally
* Dungan Mountains in Sibi Dist ...
, it is used for /w/.
Related letters and other similar characters
*Β β :
Greek letter Beta
*Б б :
Cyrillic letter Be
*Ѵ ѵ :
Cyrillic Letter Izhitsa
*B b :
Latin letter B
*V v :
Latin letter V
*W w :
Latin letter W
*Ԝ ԝ :
Cyrillic Letter We
Computing codes
External links
*
*
References
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