Yat

Jat (Cyrillic ять, scientific transliteration jat ' ) is the name of the Cyrillic letter Ѣ (uppercase ) or ѣ (lowercase ), which refers to a sound represented, being the pre-Slavic * ě ( the asterisk in Old Church Slavonic, as in linguistics common that this sound not used directly, but its former existence is developed well founded ). Therefore, also referred to this sound in Slavic as Jat.

• 2.1 Glagolitic
• 2.2 Cyrillic
• 2.3 numerical value
• 2.4 encoding

The sound ì *

The ancient Slavic According ì * was initially created from urindogermanischem long * ē, later also the diphthongs * ai and oi * were * ì (see, eg IE * Semen > urslaw. * Seme, Latin Semen, OHG Samo, NHG seeds). The pronunciation of this text was probably a long, very open front vowel [ æ ː ], but perhaps since ancient times dialectally different and in some areas quite close front vowel [e ː ].

In the further development * is ė in the various Slavic languages ​​with different sounds on the entire scale of [a ] to [ i] represented.

The representation of * ě in the East Slavic

In Russian and Belorussian * is ė with * e to [ ɛ ] collapsed, while it appears as [i ] in the Ukrainian language. It should be noted that this [i ] is other than the reflection of the pre-Slavic * i, which is represented in Ukrainian as [ ɪ ]. One can of Ukraine, so do not call " ikavisch ". (Examples )

The representation of * ě in West Slavic

In Polish * is ė - as in Bulgarian - before " hard" Dental to [ a] become, in all other cases to [ ɛ ] (see also Polish Vokalumlautung ).

In the Czech long * is ė to [i ː ] become ( and thus coincided with * i), short * ì to [ ʲ ɛ ] (as well as * ę ).

In Slovak, long * was to ì [ iɛ ], short for [ ɛ ].

In Upper Sorbian the * is ė behind s and z become [ ɨ ], ​​while it has in Lower Sorbian changes to [ ɛ ].

(Examples )

The representation of * ě in South Slavic

Slovenian

In Slovene developed * ė to a closed [ e] - in contrast to * e, which is represented as an open [ ɛ ]. (Examples )

Serbo-Croatian dialects: Ekavisch, Ijekavisch, Ikavisch

While in the Kajkavian dialects of Croatian * ì mainly as a closed [e ] is represented as the Slovenian, are each divided according to the different representation of * e in ekavische, ijekavische and ikavische on both the štokavischen and the čakavischen dialects. It is in the ekavischen dialects * ì collapsed to [i ] with * e to [ ɛ ] and in the ikavischen with * i. In the ijekavischen dialects resulted in a diphthong [ iɛ ], which is written as a long and short ije than ever and is mainly used in the Bosnian language. (Hence called the ijekavischen dialects sometimes jekavisch; see the dialect map at Brabec / Kraste / Zivkovic. ) In Ijekavischen stands in front o < l the ikavische, to r times the ekavische reflex, eg htio < * chъtělъ ' wanted ' vremena < * vrěmene ' time (Gen. Sg ) ' (but: vrijeme < * Vreme ' time ( nominative singular ) ').

The modern standard varieties developed in the 19th century all based on a štokavisch - ijekavischen dialect ( from the region Ostherzegowina ) so that Standardbosnisch, Croatian and Montenegrin - Serbian as well as the variety in Bosnia and Herzegovina are ijekavisch. Only in the Serbian Serbian Ekavische the Vojvodina has ultimately prevailed. (Examples )

See also: Štokavisch (dissemination and dialects ), Čakavisch ( dialects ), differences between the Serbo-Croatian standard varieties ( phonology )

Bulgarian and Macedonian

The eastern South Slavic dialects are characterized by different mixes of * ě reflections [ a] and [ ɛ ], and in the East [ a] predominates and in the West [ ɛ ].

In the Bulgarian standard language * ě as [ ʲ a] is ​​represented when it stood consonants in stressed position before a non- palatalized ( "hard" ). The consonants ч, ш and ж are here counted as palatalized consonants, even though they are not palatal in Bulgarian. In all other cases, [ ɛ ]. This / a / - / s / alternation is called in many Bulgarian textbooks and grammars я - кане or променливо я.

In Macedonian * is ė in all positions * e to [ ɛ ] collapsed (as in ekavischen Serbian).

Overview with sample words

The letter ѣ

Glagolitic

In the Glagolitic alphabet, there was only a letter ( in Croatian, square font, Award form), the * ì simultaneously and * Marked yes. This suggests that the Glagolitic alphabet was invented in a region, ì in the * and * were indeed collapsed.

Cyrillic

The Cyrillic alphabet, which is obviously originated in a different area than the Glagolitic, distinguishes between ѣ of * ě and я * for yes.

According to the classification by August Leskien only those texts written in Cyrillic belong to the canon of the Old Church Slavonic language in which the graphemes for ì * and be mistaken for * yes, as this indicates that they are written from a Glagolitic template. Those manuscripts that do not meet this criterion will not be counted in the canon, which is why their language can be regarded as an editorial of the Church Slavonic. This was taken a areal definition for the definition of Old Church Slavonic, whereby various manuscripts are not considered, despite its considerable age as cannon texts.

In today's Slavic written languages ​​, the letter is no longer found. Most recently, he was eliminated in the spelling reform in 1918 in Russian and even in 1945 the Bulgarian.

From the letter shape is very similar to the so-called semi- soft sign ( Ҍ ), but which fulfills a different function.

Value

The Jat is one of those Glagolitic and Cyrillic letters, the loud call, which was not present in the Greek, so that there was no Greek letters for the one could assume a. Accordingly, Jat has a numerical value either in the Glagolitic still in Cyrillic. The origin of the letter forms is unclear.

Coding

Although the letter Jat lacking in many fonts, but is included in Unicode. Upper and lower case letter there have the numbers 1122 (hexadecimal 462 ) and 1123 (hex 463 ). In HTML, they are thus as Ѣ (or Ѣ ) or ѣ (or ѣ ) representable.