YAT Anshin! Uchu Ryokou

Yat or jat (Ѣ ѣ; italics: ''Ѣ ѣ'') is the thirty-second letter of the old Cyrillic alphabet. It is usually romanized as E with a haček: ''Ě ě''.

There is also another version of yat, the iotated yat (majuscule: , minuscule: ), which is a Cyrillic character combining a decimal I and a yat. There was no numerical value for this letter and it was not in the Glagolitic alphabet. It was encoded in Unicode 5.1 at positions U+A652 and U+A653.

Usage

Yat represented a Common Slavic long vowel, usually notated as . It is generally believed to have represented the sound or , like the pronunciation of in "cat" or in "egg", which was a reflex of earlier Proto-Slavic * and *. That the sound represented by yat developed late in the history of Common Slavic, and is significant for its role in the Slavic second palatalization of the Slavic velar consonants.

The Glagolitic alphabet contained only one letter for both yat and the Cyrillic iotated a . According to Kiril Mirchev, this meant that after in the Thessaloniki dialect (which served as a basis for Old Church Slavonic) mutated into a wide vowel that resembled or was the same as yat ().

To this day, the most archaic Bulgarian dialects, i.e., the Rup and Moesian dialects feature a similar phonetic change where after iota and the formerly palatal consonants (), () and () becomes , e.g. -> ("(I) was standing"), -> ("drunkard"), -> ("frogs"), etc. Dialects that still feature this phonetic change include the Razlog dialect, the Smolyan dialect, the Hvoyna dialect, the Strandzha dialect, individual subdialects in the Thracian dialect, the Shumen dialect, etc.

This problem did not exist in the Cyrillic alphabet, which had two separate letters for yat and iotated a, and . Any subsequent mix-ups of yat and iotated a and/or other vowels in Middle Bulgarian manuscripts are owing to the ongoing transformation of the Bulgarian vowel and consonant system in the Late Middle Ages.

An extremely rare "iotated yat" form also exists, documented only in Svyatoslav's Izbornik from 1073.

Standard reflexes

In various modern Slavic languages, yat has reflected into various vowels. For example, the Proto-Slavic root ''*bělъ'' "white" became:

* in Standard Russian (dialectal , or even in some regions)
* in Ukrainian and Rusyn
* in Belarusian
* - in Bulgarian ( - in Western dialects)
* in Macedonian
* in the standard Serbian Ekavian variant of Serbo-Croatian (genitive )
* in Ikavian Serbo-Croatian
* in the standard Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian Ijekavian variants of Serbo-Croatian (genitive )
* in Slovenian
* in Polish
* in Czech
* in Slovak.

Other reflexes

Other reflexes of yat exist; for example:
*Proto-Slavic ''*telěga'' / телѣга became (; ѣ > i reflex) in Serbo-Croatian.
*Proto-Slavic ''*orěhъ'' / орѣхъ became (; ѣ > a reflex) in Serbo-Croatian.

Confusion with other letters

Due to these reflexes, yat no longer represented an independent phoneme but an already existing one, represented by another Cyrillic letter. As a result, children had to memorize by rote whether or not to write yat. Therefore, the letter was dropped in a series of orthographic reforms: in Serbian with the reform of Vuk Karadžić, in Ukrainian-Ruthenian with the reform of Panteleimon Kulish, later in Russian and Belarusian with the Bolshevik reform in 1918, and in Bulgarian and Carpathian dialects of Ruthenian language as late as 1945.

The letter is no longer used in the standard modern orthography of any of the Slavic languages written with the Cyrillic script, but survives in Ukrainian (Ruthenian) liturgical and church texts of Church Slavonic in Ruthenian (Ukrainian) edition and in some written in the Russian recension of Church Slavonic. It has, since 1991, found some favor in advertising to deliberately invoke an archaic or "old-timey" style.

Bulgarian

The open articulation of yat (as or ) and the reflexes of Proto-Slavic *tj/*ktĭ/*gtĭ and *dj as () and () have traditionally been considered the two most distinctive phonetic features of Old Bulgarian. Based on
* the preserved articulation of yat as in the remote eastern Albanian villages of Boboshticë and Drenovë;
* preserved archaic Slavic toponyms in southern and eastern Albania, Thessaly and Epirus featuring ''ia'', ''ea'' or ''a'' in yat's etymological place, e.g., or (renamed Moschopotamos in 1926) from , "cornel-tree" (see also Dryanovo); (renamed :el:Λεπτοκαρυά Ιωαννίνων in 1927) from , "hazel" (see also Lyaskovets); Labovë e Kryqit and Labovë e Madhe from , "bread" (see also Hlyabovo), etc.;
* the consistent etymological use of at the Ohrid Literary School until the mid-1200s;
* the use of ''ia'', ''ea'' or ''a'' in yat's etymological place in a number of toponyms in a 1019 Greek-language charter by Byzantine emperor Basil II "the Bulgar Slayer" relating to the newly created Theme of Bulgaria, e.g., for (Prizren); for (Sofia); for (Prilep); for the medieval fortress of ( Devol, now in eastern Albania); for the medieval fortress of (Prosek), etc.;
* the use of ''ea'' or ''a'' in yat's etymological place in a number of local toponyms in the area of modern-day Strumica in a 1152 Greek-language charter by Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos, relating to the Holy Mother of God monastery in Veljusa, e.g., for (), for , for , for ;
* the 16th-century Greek-Bulgarian lexicon from Bogatsko in southwestern Macedonia written in Greek letters, which featured ''ia'' in yat's etymological place, e.g., , mliako ("milk"); , želiazo ("iron"); , viadro ("pale"); , vriateno ("spindle"); , poviasmo ("distaff"); , viaždi ("eyebrows"); , koliano ("knee"); , neviasta ("bride"), , riaka ("river"), , viater ("wind"), etc., indicating that the Kostur dialect was still yakavian at the time; etc. etc.
the entire areas of modern Bulgarian and Macedonian are assumed to have been ѣkavian/yakavian until the Late Middle Ages.

In addition to the replacement of with in a number of Old and Middle Bulgarian Cyrillic manuscripts—reflecting the mutation of iotated a into , the opposite process of mutation of yat into palatalised consonant + was also underway. The process affected primarily yat in stressed syllables followed by hard consonant, with multiple examples present in manuscripts from both West and East, e.g. the Grigorovich Prophetologion of the late 1100s (e.g., instead of , "body"), the Tarnovo Gospel of 1273 (e.g, instead of , "them"), the Strumitsa Apostle of the mid-1200s (e.g., instead of , "all-wise"), etc.

However, the most certain proof of yakavian pronunciation of —and another confirmation that currently Ekavian dialects used to be Yakavian in the Middle Ages—comes from the use of hardened consonant + ''a'' in yat's etymological place. While individual examples of hardened () or () + can be found even in Old Bulgarian manuscripts, the mutation is most consistent after hardened () and () in Middle Bulgarian manuscripts. Thus, the Strumitsa Apostle, for example, features hosts of examples, e.g., instead of ("whole", neutr. sing.), instead of ("to kiss"), instead of ("chastely"), instead of ("hands", dual), etc. etc.

An opposite process of narrowing of yat into started in the west in the 1200s, with a first example of consistent replacement of with in Tsar Constantine Tikh's Virgin Charter of the early 1260s. The Charter, which was written in Skopje, predates the first Ekavian Serbian document (dated to 1289) by 15–20 years, which refutes the nationalistic claims of Serbian linguists, e.g. Aleksandar Belić that Ekavism is a uniquely Serbian phenomenon and confirms, e.g., Nicolaas van Wijk's theory that it is a native Western Bulgarian development.

Mirchev and Totomanova have linked the mutation of yat into to either consonant depalatalization in stressed syllables or to unstressed syllables. Thus, those Bulgarian dialects that retained their palatalized consonants remained Yakavian in stressed syllables, whereas those that lost them moved towards Ekavism; unstressed yat, in turn, became practically everywhere. This eventually led to the current dialectal division of Eastern South Slavic into Eastern Bulgarian Yakavian and Western Bulgarian and Macedonian Ekavian.

The different reflexes of yat define the so-called yat boundary (), which currently runs roughly from Nikopol on the Danube to Thessaloniki on the Aegean Sea. West of that isogloss, ''yat'' is always realized as . East of it, there are different types of yakavism. Standard Bulgarian's alternation of yat between or in stressed syllable before a hard syllable/consonant and in all other cases is only characteristic of the Balkan dialects (cf. Maps no. 1 & 2).

Examples of the alternation in the standard language (and the Balkan dialects) in the form (''stressed, followed by hard consonant/syllable'')→(''stressed, followed by soft consonant/syllable'')→(''unstressed'') follow below:

* ("white", masc. sing.) dj.→ ("white", pl.) dj.→ ("whiteness") .
* ("milk") .→ ("milky") dj.→ ("milkman") .
* ("foam") .→ ("to foam") .→ ("foamy") dj.* ("laughter") .→ ("to laugh") .→ ("laughable") dj.* ("(I) succeeded") .→ ("successful") dj.→ ("success rate") .* ("coast") .→ ("coastal") dj.→ ("the coast") .
The Moesian dialects in the northeast and the Rup dialects in the southeast feature a variety of other alternations, most commonly or in stressed syllable before hard consonant/syllable, in stressed syllable before soft consonant/syllable and in unstressed syllables (cf. Maps no. 1 & 2). The open articulation as before hard consonant/syllable has survived only in isolated dialects, e.g., Banat Bulgarian and in clusters along the ''yat boundary''. The open articulation as after hardened () survives as a remnant of former yakavism in a number of western Bulgarian and eastern Macedonian dialects (cf. Map no. 3).

As the yat boundary is only one of many isoglosses that divides the dialects of Eastern South Slavic into Western and Eastern, the term "'' Yat Isogloss Belt''" has recently superseded the term "''yat boundary''". The Belt unifies Yakavian and Ekavian dialects with mixed, Western and Eastern traits into a buffer zone that ensures a gradual transition between the two major dialect groups.

From the late 19th century until 1945, standard Bulgarian orthography did not reflect the and alternation and used the Cyrillic letter for both in yat's etymological place. This was regarded as a way to maintain unity between Eastern and Western Bulgarians, as much of what was then seen as Western Bulgarian dialects was under foreign control. However, this also complicated orthography for a country that was generally Eastern-speaking. There were several attempts to restrict the use of the letter only to those word forms where there was a difference in pronunciation between Eastern and Western Bulgarian (e.g., in the failed orthographic reform of 1892 and in several proposals by professor Stefan Mladenov in the 1920s and 1930s), but the use of the letter remained largely etymological. In response, in the Interwar period, the Bulgarian Communist Party started referring to the letter as a manifestation of "class elitism" and "Greater Bulgarian Chauvinism" and made its elimination a top priority.

Consequently, after Bulgaria's occupation by the Soviet Union in 1944 and the installation of a puppet government headed by the communists, was summarily thrown of the Bulgarian alphabet and the spelling changed to conform to the Eastern pronunciation by an orthographic reform in 1945 despite any objections. After 1989, the elimination of yat from the alphabet has generally been regarded as a violation of the unity of the Bulgarian language, in particular, in right-leaning circles, and nationalistic parties like VMRO-BND have campaigned, unsuccessfully, for its reintroduction.

Notably, the Macedonian Patriotic Organization, an organisation of Macedonian Bulgarian emigrants in North America, continued to use in the Bulgarian edition of newsletter, Macedonian Tribune, until it switched to an English-only version in the early 1990s.

Russian

In Russian, written confusion between the yat and appears in the earliest records; when exactly the distinction finally disappeared in speech is a topic of debate. Some scholars, for example W. K. Matthews, have placed the merger of the two sounds at the earliest historical phases (the 11th century or earlier), attributing its use until 1918 to Church Slavonic influence. Within Russia itself, however, a consensus has found its way into university textbooks of historical grammar (e.g., V. V. Ivanov), that, taking all the dialects into account, the sounds remained predominantly distinct until the 18th century, at least under stress, and are distinct to this day in some localities. Meanwhile, the yat in Ukrainian usually merged in sound with instead (see below).

The story of the letter yat and its elimination from the Russian alphabet makes for an interesting footnote in Russian cultural history. See Reforms of Russian orthography for details. A full list of words that were written with the letter yat at the beginning of 20th century can be found in the Russian Wikipedia.

A few inflections and common words were distinguished in spelling by / (for example: "to eat" / "(there) is"; "I heal" / "I fly"; , "bluer" / "blue" (n.); , "knowledge" / "leadership").

The retention of the letter without discussion in the Petrine reform of the Russian alphabet of 1708 indicates that it then still marked a distinct sound in the Moscow '' koiné'' of the time. However, in 1748 an early proposal for partial revision of the usage of was made by Vasily Trediakovsky. The polymath Lomonosov in his 1755 grammar noted that the sound of was scarcely distinguishable from that of the letter , although he firmly defended their distinction in spelling. A century later (1878) the philologist Grot stated flatly in his standard ''Russian orthography'' (, ) that in the common language there was no difference whatsoever between their pronunciations. However, dialectal studies in the 20th century have shown that, in certain regional dialects, a phonemically distinct reflex of *ě has still been retained.

Some reflexes of have further evolved into , especially in inflected forms of words where have become stressed, while the dictionary form has it unstressed. One such example is "star" against "stars". Some dictionaries used a ''yat'' with a diaeresis, , to denote this sound, in a similar fashion to the creation of the letter .

A proposal for spelling reform from the Russian Academy of Science in 1911 included, among other matters, the systematic elimination of the yat, but was declined at the highest level. According to Lev Uspensky

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