Re: Yers (was Re: Apologies)

Isidora Zamora scripsit:

> If the names are the same in Bulgarian as they are in Russian old
> orthography, the one above is a 'jus' or 'jus bol'shoj.'
The big jus was called "wide /@/", and the jat' was called "double /e/".

> (There was also a 'jus malyj,' which is
> still in use in modern Church Slavonic in some word positions.)
In modern Russian, the little jus and the iotated A had both come to
be pronounced /ja/ ~ /;a/, so when Peter the Great reformed the alphabet,
he abolished the iotated A and instituted a simplified little-jus glyph,
the current Russian letter ja.

> This one is a 'jat.'  In Church Slavonic, it palatalizes differently
> than 'e' ('est.')  Jat is still used in modern emigree Russian, which
> uses the Pre-Revolutionary orthography.  We have things in Russian
> that were written (not just printed, but composed) recently that use
> this letter (and several others) in them.
Talk about a waste of time, memorizing which are jat's and which are e's.
Jat' does not normally alternate with jo, which gives some clue, but
basically it does nothing but obfuscate the spelling.  Who knows why Peter
didn't abolish jat', izhitsa, iota, and fita when he had the chance.

--
John Cowan                              <jcowan@...>
http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              http://www.reutershealth.com
                Charles li reis, nostre emperesdre magnes,
                Set anz totz pleinz ad ested in Espagnes.

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