The letter e in Russian. The letter e - is it needed in the Russian language? To write or not to write
At the end of 1783, President Russian Academy Sciences, Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, the favorite of Empress Catherine II, gathered academicians of literature, including prominent writers Gavrila Derzhavin and Denis Fonvizin. The princess asked the learned men if they knew how to spell the word “Christmas tree.” After a short brainstorming, the academicians decided that it should be written “yulka”. But to Dashkova’s next question, whether it is legal to represent one sound in two letters, the pundits could not find an answer. Approaching the board, the princess erased the “i” and “o”, writing the letter “e” instead. Since then, academicians began to use the letter “e” in correspondence with the princess. The letter came to the people only in 1797 through the efforts of Nikolai Karamzin, who used it in his almanac “Aonids”.
Ekaterina Dashkova was born in 1744 into a family of Moscow boyars. Her father Roman Vorontsov became fabulously rich during the time of Catherine I and even received the nickname “Roman - a big pocket.” Dashkova was one of the most educated women of her time, capable of arguing on equal terms with philosophers and encyclopedists. She was considered the closest friend of Catherine II. True, on the night when the queen overthrew her husband Peter III, Dashkova overslept. Ekaterina could not forgive Dashkova for this, and the friendship fell apart.
The letter “ё” became widely known thanks to the famous historian Karamzin. In the first book of his poetic almanac "Aonids" with the letter "ё" the words "dawn", "eagle", "moth" and "tears" were printed, as well as the verb "flowed". In this regard, Karamzin was considered the author of the letter “ё”... And of all thirty-three letters of the Russian alphabet, not a single one caused as much controversy as the letter “Ё”...
On November 29, 1783, in the house of the director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, one of the first meetings of the newly created Russian Academy took place, which was attended by G. R. Derzhavin, D. I. Fonvizin, I. I. Lepyokhin, Ya. B. Knyazhnin , Metropolitan Gabriel and others. The project of a complete explanatory Slavic-Russian dictionary, the later famous 6-volume “Dictionary of the Russian Academy”, was discussed.
The academicians were about to go home when Ekaterina Romanovna asked those present if anyone could write the word “Christmas tree”. The academics decided that the princess was joking, but she, having written the word “Iolka” she had spoken, asked: “Is it legal to represent one sound with two letters?” Noting that “these reprimands have already been introduced by custom, which, when it does not contradict common sense, should be followed in every possible way,” Dashkova proposed using the new letter “e” “to express words and reprimands, with this consent, beginning as matіory, іolka, іож , іol".
Dashkova’s arguments seemed convincing, and the feasibility of introducing a new letter was asked to be assessed by Metropolitan Gabriel of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, a member of the Academy of Sciences. On November 18, 1784, the letter “е” received official recognition.
After this, the letter E for 12 years occasionally appeared only in handwritten form and, in particular, in the letters of G.R. Derzhavin. Replicating it printing press took place in 1795 at the Moscow University Printing House with H. Riediger and H. A. Claudia during the publication of the book “And My Trinkets” by Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev, a poet, fabulist, chief prosecutor of the Senate, and then Minister of Justice. This printing house, in which, by the way, the newspaper “Moskovskie Vedomosti” was printed since 1788, was located on the site of the current Central Telegraph.
The first word printed with the letter E was the word “everything”. Then came the words: light, stump, immortal, cornflower. In 1796, in the same printing house, N.M. Karamzin in his first book “Aonid” with the letter E prints: dawn, eagle, moth, tears and the first verb with E “flowed”. Then in 1797 - the first annoying typo in a word with E. The proofreader did not notice, and the edition was published with “garnished” instead of “faceted”. And in 1798, G.R. Derzhavin used the first surname with the letter E - Potemkin. These are Yo’s first steps through the pages of books.
The spread of the letter “ё” in the 18th-19th centuries was also hampered by the then attitude towards the “yokaya” pronunciation as bourgeois, the speech of the “vile rabble”, while the “church” “eka” pronunciation was considered more cultured and noble.
Formally, the letter “ё”, like “y”, entered the alphabet (and received serial numbers) only in Soviet times.
The decree signed by the Soviet People's Commissar for Education A.V. Lunacharsky read: “Recognize the use of the letter e as desirable, but not obligatory.” And on December 24, 1942, by order people's commissar Education of the RSFSR Vladimir Petrovich Potemkin introduced the mandatory use of the letter “ё” in school practice, and from that time on. it is officially considered part of the Russian alphabet.
For the next 14 years, fiction and scientific literature were published with almost complete use of the letter “е”, but in 1956, on the initiative of Khrushchev, new, several simplified rules spelling, and the letter “е” again became optional.
Nowadays, the question of using “е” has become the subject of scientific battles, and the patriotic part of the Russian intelligentsia selflessly defends the obligatory nature of its use. In 2005, a monument was even erected to the letter “e” in Ulyanovsk.
In accordance with the Letter of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated 05/03/2007 No. AF-159/03 “On the decisions of the Interdepartmental Commission on the Russian Language”, it is required to write the letter “ё” in cases where the word may be misread, for example, in names own, since ignoring the letter “е” in this case is a violation of the Federal Law “On state language Russian Federation».
According to current rules Russian spelling and punctuation, in ordinary printed texts the letter ё is used selectively. However, at the request of the author or editor, any book can be printed sequentially with the letter “e”.
Myths about the letter E
The problem with the letter e is this: the vast majority of those who talk about it or defend it know very little about it and about the language as a whole. This fact itself, naturally, negatively affects her reputation. Due to the fact that the quality of the argumentation of its supporters is close to zero, fighting it is a piece of cake. Arguments about the sacred seventh place in the alphabet can only work to prove the insanity of their supporter, but not in favor of using the letter e itself.
1. The letter e has always existed, but now enemies are fighting it
This is the most common myth, it is completely unclear where it came from. It seems that people say this because no one will check, but the reference to tradition looks convincing. In reality, the prevalence of the letter е has only grown throughout its history (except for a small deviation, when in the 1940s, it seems, there was a directive on its mandatory use, and then everyone gave up on it).
You need to understand that once upon a time there was not only the letter ё, but even such a sound. In the Church Slavonic language, those words that we pronounce with е are pronounced with е (“brothers and sisters!”), and in general the pair o - e (ѣ) stands in the row a - ya, ou - yu and y - and (ï) (see, for example, “Abridged practical Slavic grammar with systematic Slavic and Russian examples, collections and dictionaries”, Moscow, 1893). Yes, there is no letter e in Church Slavonic either.
The occasional appearance in print at the end of the 18th and 19th centuries of the symbol ё was a response to the appearance of a new sound in speech. But it received official status after the revolution. In a Russian language textbook published in 1911 we read: “E is written in words when this sound is pronounced like yo: ice, dark, light.” It’s not even written “like yo”, it’s written “like yo”. And in the alphabet there is no e: after e comes z. It’s not for me to judge, but I believe that the letter e at that time looked as outlandish in books as the ruble sign looks today.
Letter E - entrance to the store - in Moscow
2. Without it, it is impossible to distinguish between everything and everyone
This, of course, is not entirely a myth, but there is so much misunderstanding around this situation that it should be examined separately.
Let's start with the fact that all the words were written with in different letters and without any ё, so that their indistinguishability today must be blamed on the language reform, during which yati was abolished, and not at all on the practical unusability of ё. At the same time modern rules The Russian language requires writing two dots in cases of possible discrepancies, so not using е where “everything” is read without it is a spelling error.
It is clear that the situation can also be the opposite, when you need to suggest that in a certain case it is e that is read. But this problem cannot be overcome by requiring the mandatory use of e.
Memorial sign to the letter E in Perm (on the territory of the Remputmash motor-locomotive repair plant)
3. Numerous examples of reading difficulties prove the need for
When fighting for the letter e, a set of pairs of words are constantly presented, most of which are some kind of unimaginable crap. It feels like these words were specially invented to protect the letter e. What the hell is this bucket, what kind of fable is this? Before you started collecting examples, had you seen or heard these words somewhere?
And, I repeat, in cases where both words can be used equally, spelling rules require the use of ё.
For example, in Gordon’s “Book about Letters,” published by the ArtLebedev Publishing House, the word “we recognize” does not have dots over it, which is why it naturally reads “we recognize.” This is a spelling error.
The very fact that to prove your point of view you need to collect examples bit by bit, most of which are completely unconvincing, it seems to me, only proves that the problem has been made up. There are no fewer examples with unspecified stress, but no one fights for the placement of stress.
There would be much more practical benefit if the word healthy was written “zdarova”, because you want to read “great” with the emphasis on the first syllable. But for some reason no one is fighting for this!
4. Due to inconsistency in the use of ё, the surname Montesquieu is misspelled
We also spell the surname Jackson “incorrectly”: in English it is pronounced much closer to Chaksn. The very idea of transmitting foreign language pronunciation in Russian letters is obviously a failure, but when it comes to defending the letter ё, as I already said, no one pays attention to the quality of the argumentation.
The topic of conveying foreign names and titles by means of Russian graphics generally lies beyond the topic of the letter e and is comprehensively covered in the corresponding reference book by R. Gilyarevsky and B. Starostin.
By the way, the sound at the end of Montesquieu is halfway between e and e, so in this situation, even if the task is to accurately convey the sound, the choice of e is obvious. And “Pasteur” is completely nonsense; There is no smell of iotation or softening, so “Pastor” is much better suited for transmitting sounds.
5. Poor e is not a letter
The letter е is often sympathized with due to its unfair non-inclusion in the alphabet. The conclusion that it is not in the alphabet is apparently made from the fact that it is not used in house numbering and lists.
In fact, of course, it is in the alphabet, otherwise the rules of the Russian language could not possibly require its use in some cases. In lists it is not used in the same way as th, due to its similarity with its neighbor. It's just inconvenient. In some cases, it is advisable to also exclude Z and O due to the similarity with the numbers 3 and 0. It’s just that, of all these letters, e is closest to the beginning of the alphabet, and therefore its “dropout” is noticeable most often.
By the way, only 12 letters of the alphabet are used in license plates.
The situation in pre-revolutionary spelling was completely different: there was no letter e in the alphabet. It was just a symbol that some publishers used to show off. Here Zhenya in another note puts it in a quote from a book published in 1908. It wasn't in the book itself. Why was the quote distorted? In the pre-revolutionary text it looks completely ridiculous.
In any case, fighting for the letter e is the same nonsense as fighting against it. If you like it, write it; if you don’t like it, don’t write it. I like writing because I don't see any reason not to write it. And a Russian-speaking person must be able to read both ways.
compilation based on RuNet materials - Fox
A few facts
The letter E is in the sacred, “lucky” 7th place in the alphabet.
There are about 12,500 words in the Russian language with Ё. Of these, about 150 begin with Ё and about 300 end with Ё.
The frequency of occurrence of E is 1% of the text. That is, for every thousand characters of text there are an average of ten yoshkas.
In Russian surnames, Yo occurs in approximately two cases out of a hundred.
There are words in our language with two and even three letters E: “three-star”, “four-vector”, “Boryolekh” (a river in Yakutia), “Boryogesh” and “Kögelön” ( male names in Altai).
More than 300 surnames differ only in the presence of E or E. For example, Lezhnev - Lezhnev, Demina - Demina.
In the Russian language there are 12 male and 5 female names, in full forms of which E is present. These are Aksyon, Artyom, Nefed, Parmen, Peter, Rorik, Savel, Seliverst, Semyon, Fedor, Yarem; Alena, Klena, Matryona, Thekla, Flena.
In Ulyanovsk, hometown"yofikator" Nikolai Karamzin, there is a monument to the letter E.
In Russia, there is an official Union of Efictionists of Russia, which is engaged in the fight for the rights of “de-energized” words. Thanks to their vigorous activity to besiege the State Duma, now all Duma documents (including laws) are completely “eified”. Yo - at the instigation of the chairman of the Union Viktor Chumakov - appeared in the newspapers “Versiya”, “Slovo”, “Gudok”, “Arguments and Facts”, etc., in television credits and in books.
Russian programmers created a jetator - computer program, which automatically places dotted letters in the text. And the artists came up with the copyright - an icon for marking official publications.
E, e (called: e) is one of the letters found in all modern Cyrillic alphabets. 6th in the Russian alphabet, as well as in the Belarusian and Bulgarian; 7th - in Ukrainian, Macedonian and Serbian; It is also used in writing among non-Slavic peoples.
In the Church and Old Church Slavonic alphabets - the 6th, is called “is” and “est”, respectively (from the Greek “εστι”); The Cyrillic symbol - , has the meaning of the number 5, in the Glagolitic alphabet it looks like , and corresponds to the number 6.
Derived from the letter Ε, ε (epsilon) of the Greek alphabet (the appearance of Glagolitic writing is sometimes also associated with Semitic scripts). In a form identical to the Latin “E, e”, it has been used since 1707-1711, when the civil script was introduced.
Previously for print lowercase letter They used only an open style: e narrow - in the form of a square E, and e wide, in the form of an elongated rounded E (it was written only at the beginning of a word and in specific grammatical forms, sometimes after vowels). The development of small handwritten and printed letters occurred in the 17th century. in Old Russian cursive, and before that its form was close to either lowercase Greek ε (epsilon) or є.
Pronunciation
In Russian, pronunciation depends on the stress and position of the letter in the word:
Being under stress, after vowels and at the beginning of words it denotes the sound pair [ye], reduced in the pre-stressed 1st syllable to [йи e], in others unstressed syllables sounds like [йь];
After consonant letters (except for w, c and sh, and individual borrowings, such as molybdenum, amber, panel, temp, highway, Graves' disease etc., and abbreviations such as esdek, eser) softens the previous consonant and the sound under stress [e], (in the 1st pre-stressed syllable - [and e]; in other unstressed syllables - [b]);
Under stress after zh, ts and sh (and other consonants in the above in some cases) means [e], in the 1st pre-stressed syllable - [ы e], in other syllables without stress - [ъ];
Also, sometimes the letter E is written as E. The reason for this is to speed up writing by eliminating dots, but when printing texts, such a replacement is usually not recommended.
The meaning of the letter in the Belarusian language is basically the same, only due to the greater phonetic nature of the language, the reading rules are somewhat simpler: it is impossible not to soften the preceding consonant (in this case it is written e, not e: tendentsyya, shests), with strong reduction, other letters are also used (shastsi - six, Myafodziy - Methodius).
In Ukrainian, it is similar to the Russian letter E (and the equivalent of the Russian letter E is the letter Є).
IN Serbian language is always pronounced as [e], since in Serbian writing softening and iotating are clearly indicated, with special letters for soft consonants (“in lately" - "in the middle of time").
As in Russian, in the Bulgarian language, it softens the preceding consonant, and after vowels and at the beginning of a word it is pronounced with an iot (ezik [yezik]). This sound is typical for eastern Bulgaria. In the west of the country, the pronunciation corresponds to the Russian “e”.
Derived letters "E"
From the letter E of the Cyrillic alphabet in writing various peoples branched off: Ѥ (used in Old Russian, Old Slavonic, Old Serbian, etc.; until the 17th century it was used in the Serbian translation of the Church-Slavic language), Є (used in the current Ukrainian, Old Serbian, Church Slavonic), Ё (in Russian and Belarusian); from the Glagolitic form the letter E came from (exists in the Russian and Belarusian languages, previously it was also in Bulgarian and Serbian).
In the near future, the È style, used in the Macedonian language to distinguish homonyms (“Everything you write will be used (can be used) against you” - “Whatever you write can be used against you!”) may become an independent letter. Sometimes it already occupies a separate position in a number of computer fonts and encodings.
I would like to know what documents exist regulating the use of the letter “Y”. Thank you.
Serebryakov Sergey Nikolaevich
The decision of the Interdepartmental Commission on the Russian Language notes that the first appearance of the letter Yo noted in print in 1795. It was used in lifetime publications A.S. Pushkin and other great Russians writers of the 19th century century, dictionary by V.I. Dahl, alphabet systems L.N. Tolstoy, K.D. Ushinsky. I.I. used this letter in his works. Dmitriev, G.R. Derzhavin, M.Yu. Lermontov, I.I. Kozlov, F.I. Tyutchev, I.I. Lazhechnikov, V.K. Kuchelbecker, I.S. Turgenev, gr. L.N. Tolstoy, K.D. Ushinsky, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A.P. Chekhov and many others. After securing it in seventh place in the Russian alphabet of 33 letters after the reform of 1917-1918, the scope of its application in writing and in print steadily expanded.
Due to the rapid development of typographic activity at the end of the 19th century, the letter Yo began to be replaced from texts by a letter similar in appearance, but completely different E. This phenomenon had business case: the presence of the letter E caused additional material costs. Now the presence of letters in the text Yo with computer typing and layout using any typeface and typeface, it does not lead to an increase in printing costs. As the experience of magazines and newspapers has shown, it takes 3-4 months for editors and proofreaders to get used to correcting omissions of this letter.
Nowadays the letter Yo contained in more than 12,500 words, 2,500 names of Russian citizens and former USSR, in thousands of geographical names of Russia and the world, names and surnames of citizens foreign countries. According to statistics on the occurrence of Russian letters in various texts for the letter Yo the result is below 0.5 percent (less than once per 200 characters).
U Russian citizens problems arise with documents if in their last name, first name, place of birth in some cases the letter Yo indicated, but not in others. Problems arise when filling out passports, birth certificates, registering inheritance, transliterating surnames, transmitting telegrams and in a number of other cases. About 3 percent of citizens of the Russian Federation have last names, first names or patronymics that contain the letter Yo, and often the entry in the passport turns out to be distorted. The reason for this is non-compliance with the requirement established by the Rules of Russian Spelling and Punctuation, approved in 1956, to use the letter Yo in cases where a word may be misread. Proper names (surnames, first names, patronymics, geographical names, names of organizations and enterprises) refer specifically to this case. Therefore, the use of the letter Yo in proper names must be indisputable and obligatory.
Once upon a time, “Yati” and “Eri”, Fita and Izhitsa left our alphabet relatively painlessly - as if they never existed at all. A slight nostalgia jumps in, perhaps, when you see a sign like “Tavern”, and then among older people, young people - up to the lantern.
But as for the letter “Y” in the rules of the Russian language, there is a whole epic here, and it would not be a sin to recall its key points. “History of the issue” - as they usually say in scientific circles.
The wine went to my head!
The honor of discovery and introduction and the wide use of this letter are shared between Catherine II’s associate, Princess Elizaveta Romanovna Dashkova (she is also the President of the Imperial Academy) and Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, a poet, publicist, and historian. By the way, in Ulyanovsk - Karamzin’s homeland - there was even a monument to this letter. Dashkova, at one of the Academy meetings, openly “pushed” the expediency of introducing this letter, but another 12 years passed before the letter appeared in print.
Strictly speaking, Karamzin’s close friend (and also a poet) Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev was the first to use it, and Karamzin sanctified it with his authority. This happened in 1795-1796. According to the widespread version, Dashkova decided on the innovation, being a lover of a fizzy drink, the famous French champagne brand Moët & Chandon. Those very notorious dots above the letter “e” are there.
Scrape out the very spirit!
Not to say that everyone followed Dashkova and Karamzin. The archaists and Old Believers did not want to give up their positions so easily. Thus, the former admiral A.S. Shishkov, who headed the society “Conversation of Lovers of Russian Literature” - a man, of course, of great civil and personal courage, but absolutely devoid of linguistic flair, went to extremes, demanding both a ban on all foreign words in the Russian language and personally erasing the hated dots in each of the books that caught my eye.
From poets to generalissimos
However, linguistic conservatism was not unique to Shishkov: Russian poets (Marina Tsvetaeva, Andrei Bely, Alexander Blok) stubbornly continued to write “zholty” and “black”. The Bolsheviks did not touch Yo, which was the last one in the pre-revolutionary alphabet, issuing a decree according to which its writing was recognized as “desirable, but not obligatory.”
This continued until the Great Patriotic War when in titles settlements Maximum accuracy was required on the maps. Stalin personally issued a decree on the widespread use of Yo. Of course, after his death there was a rollback. And today there is absolutely “confusion and vacillation.”
They want to completely destroy it!
On one of the Internet resources, Yo is contemptuously called “under-letter,” which sounds good, but, they say, looks bad. Its widespread use is called violence against the reading public.
And it’s not so bad that Y is defined on the keyboard strange place in the upper left corner. There are obvious distortions in the spelling of both proper names (Lev instead of Lev, Montesquieu instead of Montesquieu, Fet instead of Fet) and settlements (Pyongyang instead of Pyongyang, Königsberg instead of Königsberg). And what a hassle and headache for passport officers when Eremenko turns out to be Eremenko, and not only Natalia turns out to be Natalia!
Let's calmly figure it out!
We will not take the side of the “yofikators” (supporters of the widespread use of this letter) or their opponents on the issue of “writing e or ё”. Let's remember the rule of the “golden mean” and consider the basic rules for using Ё in modern written and printed texts. Moreover, linguists managed to reach a compromise and consolidate it in a special document - “Rules for Spelling and Punctuation of the Russian Language.”
Firstly, even if there is no rule about clearly fixed stress in the Russian language, unlike, say, Italian or French, there is almost always an exception to every rule, and in in this case it just touches the letter E, which is always in the stressed position.
Secondly, in books for preschoolers and textbooks for primary school students, Yo is present in mandatory– after all, children are still just learning and comprehending all the basics of linguistic wisdom and there is no need to complicate this process for them.
Thirdly, Yo will appear in manuals for foreigners learning Russian.
Fourthly, when it is not entirely clear to us which part of speech is meant, when general meaning words can be perceived erroneously (chalk or chalk, bucket or pail, all or everything, sky or palate), the spelling Ё will become a lifesaver.
Fifthly, Yo is written in geographical names, toponyms, surnames, proper names: Olekma, Veshenskaya, Neyolova, etc.
Sixthly, E is required when we are dealing with an unfamiliar, possibly borrowed word (for example, surfing). It will also help indicate the correct stress in this word. This is how you kill two birds with one stone!
Finally, seventhly, dictionaries, reference books, encyclopedias - specialized literature - are not just allowed, but required.
In general, you should gradually develop a sense of language in yourself and adhere to the following rule: if the E is not dotted and this distorts the meaning of the word, we dot it. Otherwise, we vary E and E.
In Russian writing, dotting the letter “ё” is usually optional. But there are cases when ignoring the letter “е” is a violation. Sometimes it is impossible to get by with the “shortened” spelling of this letter, as this can lead to incorrect reading of the word. Because of the two dots above the letter, or, more precisely, their absence in important documents, misunderstandings often occur. For example, those with last names with the letter “е” may have problems if their last name is indicated differently on their birth certificate or other documents than on their passport. One way or another, when working on any documents, writing texts or in personal correspondence, the question may arise: how to write the letter “e” on the keyboard? Well, it's pretty simple.
On a computer keyboard
Let's start with the fact that the letter “е” is found on most computer keyboards. True, it is easy to miss it, because it is located at some distance from all the letters. Look for the letter “е” in the upper left corner, on the same row with the numbers, under the key Esc and above the tab key Tab. On this key you will also find a wavy line or "squiggle", a "tilde" symbol (~) and a backticket symbol (`). This key is well known to fans computer games Quake and Counter-Strike.
- On some keyboards, the letter "е" is located directly next to the letter "e", on others you have to look for it next to the spacebar.
- You can always use the virtual keyboard. To do this, press: “Enter” - “All Programs” - “Standard” - “Special Features” - “Electronic Keyboard”. The letter “е” on it is located in the same place as on a standard keyboard (see above).
- If you have a MacBook, then the letter “е” on the keyboard is the “\” key (above Enter).
- If you are working on Mac OS X and do not have the Russian typographic layout, there is a universal solution. Download the Ukelele program, which allows you to set any keyboard layout. When modeling a new layout, the safest thing to do is to prefer the ready-made format and select the Russian layout (Cyrillic/Russian.keylayout). All that remains is to move the letter “е” to the upper left corner.
You can also use the so-called “dead keys” in Ukelele, which are “dummies” but change the next character entered after them. For example, you can make "y" a dead key, and the subsequent letter "o" will produce "e". This function is installed as follows: in the menu, find Keyboard -> Edit Dead Key (or press Cmd-E).
On the telephone keypad
Everything is clear with the computer - there is a special, albeit inconspicuous, place for the letter “e”. But this letter is not on the keyboard of a phone or tablet. What to do? In this case, you need to press the letter “e” and hold your finger on the key for two or three seconds - you will see an additional window with the letter “e” appear above the letter. Simply slide your finger up to select “е” for writing. 
