ь

See also: ъ, ѣ, and Ь

ь U+044C, ь CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER SOFT SIGN ← ы [U+044B] Cyrillic э → [U+044D]

Translingual

Letter

ь (upper case Ь)

1. A letter in the Cyrillic alphabet.

Gallery

• Letter styles
• 

  Cyrillic letter Ь ь, normal above, italics below.

• 

  Handwritten forms

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Bashkir

Letter

ь • (’) (upper case Ь)

1. The thirty-eighth letter of the Bashkir alphabet

See also

• (Cyrillic-script letters) хәреф (xäref); А а (A a), Б б (B b), В в (V v), Г г (G g), Ғ ғ (Ğ ğ), Д д (D d), Ҙ ҙ (Đ ð), Е е (Ye ye), Ё ё (Yo yo), Ж ж (Ž ž), З з (Z z), И и (I i), Й й (Y y), К к (K k), Ҡ ҡ (Q q), Л л (L l), М м (M m), Н н (N n), Ң ң (Ñ ñ), О о (O o), Ө ө (Ö ö), П п (P p), Р р (R r), С с (S s), Ҫ ҫ (Θ θ), Т т (T t), У у (U u), Ү ү (Ü ü), Ф ф (F f), Х х (X x), Һ һ (H h), Ц ц (Ts ts), Ч ч (Č č), Ш ш (Š š), Щ щ (Šč šč), Ъ ъ (ʺ ʺ), Ы ы (Ï ï), Ь ь (’ ’), Э э (E e), Ә ә (Ä ä), Ю ю (Yu yu), Я я (Ya ya)

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Bulgarian

Letter

ь • (ʹ) (lower case, upper case Ь) (italics: Ь, ь)

1. The twenty-eighth letter of the Bulgarian alphabet, called ер ма́лък and written in the Cyrillic script.

Usage notes

• This letter is only ever used following a consonant as the digraph ьо (in шофьор, for example) to denote palatalization.

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Kazakh

Letter

ь • (ʹ) (lower case, upper case Ь)

1. The thirty-ninth letter of the Kazakh Cyrillic alphabet

See also

• (Cyrillic-script letters) А а (A a), Ә ә (Ä ä), Б б (B b), В в (V v), Г г (G g), Ғ ғ (Ğ ğ), Д д (D d), Е е (E e), Ё ё (Yo yo), Ж ж (J j), З з (Z z), И и (Ï ï), Й й (Y y), К к (K k), Қ қ (Q q), Л л (L l), М м (M m), Н н (N n), Ң ң (Ñ ñ), О о (O o), Ө ө (Ö ö), П п (P p), Р р (R r), С с (S s), Т т (T t), У у (W w), Ұ ұ (U u), Ү ү (Ü ü), Ф ф (F f), Х х (X x), Һ һ (H h), Ц ц (C c), Ч ч (Ç ç), Ш ш (Ş ş), Щ щ (Şş şş), Ъ ъ (ʺ ʺ), Ы ы (I ı), І і (İ i), Ь ь (ʹ ʹ), Э э (É é), Ю ю (Yw yw), Я я (Ya ya)

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Mongolian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʲ/

Letter

ь • (i) (uppercase Ь) (italics: Ь, ь)

1. The thirty-second letter of the Mongolian alphabet, written in the Cyrillic script.

See also

• (Cyrillic-script letters) А а (A a), Б б (B b), В в (V v), Г г (G g), Д д (D d), Е е (Ye ye), Ё ё (Yo yo), Ж ж (J j), З з (Z z), И и (I i), Й й (I i), К к (K k), Л л (L l), М м (M m), Н н (N n), О о (O o), Ө ө (Ö ö), П п (P p), Р р (R r), С с (S s), Т т (T t), У у (U u), Ү ү (Ü ü), Ф ф (F f), Х х (Kh kh), Ц ц (Ts ts), Ч ч (Ch ch), Ш ш (Sh sh), Щ щ (Sh sh), Ъ ъ (I i), Ы ы (Y y), Ь ь (I i), Э э (E e), Ю ю (Yu yu), Я я (Ya ya)

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Russian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ʲ]

Letter

ь • (ʹ) (lower case, upper case Ь)

1. The thirtieth letter of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. It is named мя́гкий знак (mjáxkij znak, “soft sign”) and it has no sound of its own, but instead modifies the preceding consonant, causing it to be pronounced soft (i.e., palatalized). In the alphabet, it is preceded by Ы (Y) and followed by Э (E).
2. Less commonly, it just has a traditional orthographic usage with no phonetic meaning (like Russian туш (tuš, “flourish after a toast”) and тушь (tušʹ, “India ink”), both pronounced [tuʂ], but different in grammatical gender and declension), feminine nouns ending with "ь". This rule only applies to nouns ending in ч (č), ш (š), ж (ž) and щ (šč). Verbs in the 2nd person singular end in -ешь, -ёшь, -ишь, the final ш (š) is pronounced as [ʂ].
3. Also, it has a function of "separation sign" ("разделительный мягкий знак"): in Russian, vowels after the soft sign are pronounced separately from the previous consonant and are iotated. Compare Russian льют (lʹjut, “(they) pour/cast”) [lʲjut] and лют (ljut, “'(he is) fierce”) [lʲut].

See also

• Wikipedia article on the Cyrillic alphabet
• Previous letter: Ы (Y)
• Next letter: Э (E)
• Hard sign: ъ ()

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Ukrainian

Letter

ь • (ʹ) (lower case, upper case Ь)

1. The thirty-first letter of the Ukrainian Cyrillic alphabet. It is preceded by Щ (Šč) and followed by Ю (Ju).