soft sign

English

WOTD – 12 June 2021

Etymology

The uppercase and lowercase versions of the soft sign.

Calque of Russian мя́гкий знак (mjáxkij znak), from мя́гкий (mjáxkij, “palatal, palatized, soft”) + знак (znak, “mark, sign”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌsɒftˈsaɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˌsɔftˈsaɪn/
• Rhymes: -aɪn

Noun

soft sign (plural soft signs)

1. The Cyrillic letter Ь/ь (transliterated in English with an apostrophe (’) or prime (′)), which in modern languages using the Cyrillic alphabet serves to denote a soft (palatized) consonant.

   Synonyms: front jer, front yer

   Antonym: hard sign

Hypernyms

• jer, yer

Translations

Cyrillic letter Ь/ь

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Belarusian: мя́ккі знак m (mjákki znak)
• Bulgarian: ер ма́лък m (er málǎk)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 軟音符號／软音符号 (ruǎn yīn fúhào), 软音符号 (ruǎn yīn fúhào)

• Chuvash: ҫемҫелӗх палли (śemś̬elĕh palli)
• Czech: měkký znak m
• Dutch: zacht teken n
• Esperanto: mola signo
• Estonian: pehmendusmärk (et)
• Finnish: pehmeä merkki, pehmennysmerkki
• French: signe mou (fr) m
• German: weiches Zeichen n, Weichheitszeichen n
• Greek: μαλακό σημείο n (malakó simeío), «μιάχκιι ζνακ» m («miáchkii znak»)
• Italian: segno tenue m
• Kazakh: жіңішкелік белгі (jıñışkelık belgı)
• Kyrgyz: ичкертүү белгиси (ickertüü belgisi), жумшартуу белгиси (jumşartuu belgisi)
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: мек знак m (mek znak), мал ер m (mal er)
• Mongolian: зөөлний тэмдэг (zöölnii temdeg)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bløtt tegn n

• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: ѥрь m (jerĭ)

• Polish: miękki znak m
• Portuguese: sinal suave m
• Romanian: semn moale (ro) n
• Russian: мя́гкий знак (ru) m (mjáxkij znak), ерь (ru) m (jerʹ) (archaic)
• Rusyn: мня́гкый знак m (mnjáhkŷj znak), ірь m (irʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: meki znak m, jer (sh)
• Slovak: mäkký znak m
• Slovene: mehki znak m
• Southern Altai: јымжак темдек (ǰïmžak temdek)
• Spanish: signo suave m, signo blando m
• Swedish: mjuktecken n
• Tatar: нечкәлек билгесе (neçkälek bilgese)
• Turkish: inceltme işareti (tr)
• Tuvan: чымчак демдек (çımçak demdek)
• Udmurt: небыт пус (ńebyt pus)
• Ukrainian: м'яки́й знак m (mʺjakýj znak), є́рик m (jéryk) (archaic)
• Yakut: сымнатыы бэлиэтэ (sımnatıı beliete)

Further reading

• soft sign on Wikipedia.Wikipedia