Why does ы have a soft sign in it?

Question

It's the only letter with two disconnected parts. How did this letter ы come about?

Sorry, you're wrong way about "the only letter with two disconnected parts". What about Й, so called "shortened И"? And wait, there is Ё, as "Е with 2 dots". — Yury Schkatula, Apr 04 '19 at 13:18
@YurySchkatula Those can be considered diacritics. Something very different and common across orthographies of many languages. — Vladimir F Героям слава, Apr 04 '19 at 13:26

score 21 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 26 '24 at 21:01

21

The letter ы is a ligature of ъ and і.

In the past, these were both separate vowels (pronounced something like /ɤ̞/ and /i/) and ы was considered as a sort of combination of those two vowels.

edited Feb 26 '24 at 21:01

CocoPop

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answered Apr 04 '19 at 07:54

Omar and Lorraine

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Modern (and even pre-1918) 'ъ' is very much disconnected from its roots. This link can provide some insight: 'Yer'. – Alexander Apr 04 '19 at 17:46

Why does ы have a soft sign in it?

1 Answers1