Yery - Definition and Overview

Yery (Ы, ы) is a letter in the Cyrillic alphabet. It represents the tense intermediate vowel /ɨ/ (SAMPA: /1/) in the Belarusian and Russian alphabets. The same sound is represented by И in the Ukrainian alphabet.

The letter Yery in several fonts

Like many Cyrillic letters, originally the letter Yery was formed from a ligature — between Yer (Ъ) and Izhe (then І) or Izhei (then Н, now И). In ancient manuscripts, it is almost without exception found as ЪІ or ЪН. Once the letters Ъ and Ь subsequently lost their values as vowels from the Slavonic language, the current form Ы evolved.

Example Usage of Yery