Indeed, many people think so. The opinion is that in most cases a native speaker knows that it is necessary to pronounce ё, even if it is written e - for example, Christmas tree, Goethe. It is suggested to use it only in textbooks for children and foreigners, as well as in cases where a distinction of meaning is required (honey, not mead, for example), and in words new to the speaker - exoticisms, toponyms and other proper names (shogun, Tromsø).
Artemy Lebedev expressed this opinion excellently here: . Well, if you need more authoritative sources, then here is Reformatsky:
In Old Church Slavonic there was neither the letter ё nor the corresponding sound. Much later in Pushkin you will find:
In the languor of hopeless sadness<...>
Later, by the 16th century, the sound [(j)e] in certain word positions became [(j)o]. At first this sound was recorded as io (and in a bunch of other ways). Then Princess Dashkova suggested that the learned men use the letter e. Thus, the letter е is used where there used to be an е (and in very rare cases ѣ - stars). It is not surprising that she looks almost like her.
Immediately after its first use in print in 1795, the letter, of course, gained supporters and opponents. Y.K. Grotto proposed introducing it into the alphabet. The opponents were mainly conservatives and purists - they complained that only the philistines and the mob pronounce it, and preferred the traditional Church Slavonic pronunciation (the passage from Pushkin quoted above is just an example of this - the old pronunciation in this case “enhances” the style of the poem). Thus, one of the main apologists of the old style, A.S., Shishkov wrote:
Many words in it are printed with two dots above the letter e, like how you live, lie, lie, sing, and so on. Although everyone really speaks like this, that is, they pronounce the letter e like іо or е, but this pronunciation is common, never typical of the spelling and purity of the language. This invention, to put two dots over the letter e, has entered modern times to the complete deterioration of the language. It has spread to such an extent that they even write stars, nests, you lie, etc., when it is not written otherwise and even those speaking purely do not say, like nests, star, you lie, or in common parlance you lie, but you never lie, which is impossible to pronounce. Nowhere in Russian books (except for some current ones), nor in any former writer, will we find this newly manifested e.
Among other (more reasonable) arguments against ё was this: we say [vada], but we write water. Writing e, although it widens the gap between the spelling of a word and its pronunciation, at the same time preserves traditional spelling. Yes, in English there were also projects () to introduce phonetic spelling - one letter for one sound, but they are utopian
Thus, over more than two centuries of its existence, the letter е entered the alphabet, after overcoming some technical obstacles (where to get the letters?) began to be used in printing everywhere (this was done in 1942), but very quickly the “mandatory” use turned into "desirable". And finally, according to modern rules, the letter ё should be used in cases where the word could otherwise be misread.
As the owner of a “false E” in my name, I can say the following.
This letter is additional, auxiliary. In the Russian language of the most ancient era, the phoneme<о>did not appear after soft consonants. In other words, our ancestors once pronounced, for example, the word dog not the way we say it now - [p'os], but [p'es], the word honey is not [m'od], but [m'ed ]. That’s why they simply didn’t need the letter ё!
And then a very important change occurred in the phonetics of the Old Russian language, which linguists call the “transition from e to o” (more precisely, the transition of the sound [e] to the sound [o]). The essence of this process is this: in the stressed position after soft consonants (let’s not forget that all sibilants were soft at that time) at the end of the word and before hard consonants, the sound [e] changed to [o]. This is how the modern pronunciation arose [m’od] (honey), [p’os] (dog), [vs’o] (everything). But before soft consonants, the sound [e] did not turn into [o], but remained unchanged, this explains the relationship, for example, [s'ol]a - [s'el']skiy (sela - rural): before a hard consonant [l] the sound [e] turned into [o], but before the soft [l'] it did not.
In an article from 1937, A. A. Reformatsky wrote: “Is there a letter e in the Russian alphabet? No. There is only the diacritic sign “umlaut” or “trema” (two dots above the letter), which is used to avoid possible misunderstandings...”
Therefore, this letter is seen by many as optional, “ugly”, and unusual. Plus it creates confusion in documents and interferes with printing. It is rarely used in newspapers and not always in books, which is why it seems strange and even “childish”.
Answered by Yesenia Pavlotski, linguist-morphologist, expert at the Institute of Philology, Mass Information and Psychology of Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University.
We should start with the fact that the letter e in a language there is a special status of a sign, the strict obligatory use of which is limited. No other letter of our alphabet enjoys such a “privilege.” It's hard to imagine that we could write or not write a, t or at, if we so want. But here's the word before you hedgehog- same as hedgehog. The result is a “stereo picture”: a hedgehog is a hedgehog, and in our minds this is the same word.
Many people have a question: if there is no difference, if the use of a letter is not mandatory, then why is such a sign needed at all? Who needed to enter it and why?
So, in order. In understanding language as a system, treating it as a historical phenomenon will greatly help. When we read a textbook on the history of Russia, we are carried back into the past by exciting stories of fierce battles and great achievements. But believe me, the textbook on the grammar of the Old Russian language knows stories no less exciting than the Battle of the Ice, the Battle of Kursk and the collapse of the USSR. What are the first, second and third palatalizations worth, the development of intersyllabic synharmonism and the great fall of the reduced ones. If you get acquainted with the history of the language, you will never again think that someone forcibly changes it, spoils it, introduces something into it, takes something out of it, and all for the sake of some bad people in order to confuse all the other good people.Appearance of the sign e was the result of a global transformation in the Old Russian language - the transition<е>V<о>(transition of sound [e] to sound [o]). You can read more about this process in any historical grammar textbook. (He writes in great detail about the prerequisites and the phenomenon itself. V.V. Kolesov.) Most often, the following example is given for understanding: before the transition<е>V<о>word honey pronounced like [ m´ed], and then they began to pronounce it the way we hear it today - [ Maud]. (The sign in the transcription indicates the softness of the consonant.) So, the phonetic phenomenon was formed, but there was no expression for it, but the appearance of a special sign, of course, was inevitable. In the 18th century, a combination appeared for this purpose io— miod, however, he was not destined to take root, like other options - o, ё, їô, ió, io.
Denotation of one sound by two letters io the director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences questioned E.R. Dashkova. And, despite the fact that the replacement she proposed e those offered later could come ö, ø, ε, ę, ē, ĕ , it is this letter that we know today as part of our alphabet. The search for another form of sound designation was natural: the fact is that the outline e requires three broken actions, and in this e is also unique - not a single letter of our alphabet consists of three separate characters, the writing of which is limited by cursive. Write a word with a pen, in the middle of which there will be e- you will track what you need to write e, stop, return your hand back, put one point and then the second. All this, of course, is not very convenient.But e throughout its history it has been objectionable not only for this. Its spread in the 18th - 19th centuries was blocked by the attitude towards pronunciation with e as ignoble, philistine. Pronunciation with e instead of e was considered something like ours don't call instead of calls— emphasized belonging to an approved group of native speakers. Pronunciation with e was considered common, denigrating the language. President of the Russian Academy A. S. Shishkov wrote that writing “stars” instead of “star” is a complete corruption of the language.
There is an opinion (and you can check its validity yourself) that the text with e is much more difficult to read than the same text with e. Perhaps, due to the optional use of this letter and its ambiguous status, we have not been able to properly get used to its appearance and return to it not only when writing - with our hands, but also when reading - with our eyes, as if “stuttering”.
Well, in the end, e they even refuse to be a full-fledged letter. So, A.A. Reformed writes that there is only a special icon umlaut(two dots) above the letter e, which is an opportunity to avoid discrepancies - but not an independent letter e.
So, we have already found out that the path is e difficult, unenviable fate. It remains to understand the main thing: are there cases when the norm establishes its obligatory nature. Yes, there are such cases.
Firstly, e required in special texts: primers, school textbooks for native Russian speakers and foreigners, as well as dictionaries. It is necessary for learning the language.
Secondly, e is required to indicate the correct pronunciation in cases where the word is new, little-known, or vice versa - characterized by widespread erroneous pronunciation, like words *convicted, *newborn. Letter e, which, as a rule, indicates the place of stress, also helps indicate the norm - convict, newborn.And thirdly, you will agree that there is a difference between let's take a break we, or still let's take a break. In some cases e has a meaningful function - All And All, perfect And perfect.
Also e required in proper names.
In all other cases, use e optional and determined by the choice of the author of the text.
) an article by candidate of philological sciences N. ESKOVA “About the letter E” was published. What has changed during this time? Has the letter E been given back its right to exist?
Science and life // Illustrations
Science and life // Illustrations
M. Svetlanov (Sevastopol).
IN primary school They teach that there are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet, including the letter ё. The press uses an alphabet of 32 letters: the letter e is not in it. I write my works with the letter e, the publishing house assigns a junior editor to scrape out my dots over the e, and not only in words of general vocabulary (honey, came, bee), but also in words of special vocabulary, which include names and surnames of people, geographical names, terms from various fields of science and technology. I am writing about the settlement of the Kirov region Falenki, and the publishing house is filming it, it turns out Falenki is the first association with felt boots, while the name of the settlement comes from the plural of the word denoting the descendants of a person named Falya. This is a shortened form of such male Orthodox names as Aifal, Fal, Falaloy and female Euphalia. The grandson of a person with this name is called Falenok, and several grandchildren are collectively called Falenki.
About three percent of modern Russian surnames contain the letter ё. Until recently, in legal practice, e and ё were considered as one letter, and Fedor, Peter, Kiselev, Demin were written in passports. Many people have had difficulties as a result of this. In official institutions, where they were required to give their last name, they said: Alekshin, Panchekhin, but they were told that they were not on the lists: there were Alekshin and Panchekhin - “and these are completely different surnames!” It turns out that for the writer it was one surname, but for the reader it was two different ones.
The well-known textbook by Alexander Alexandrovich Reformatsky, “Introduction to Linguistics,” which has gone through many editions, will help us understand the current situation. Reformatsky, who unfortunately has already left us, answered all complex questions briefly and clearly.
“After the reform of 1917, the Russian alphabet consists of 33 letters (including the letter ё, which is not fully legalized, but is necessary for the correct display of the Russian language in writing, which was well understood by philologists back in the 18th century, proposing to introduce the letter io, which was later replaced by Karamzin sign e).
Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1765-1826) was born in Simbirsk. In 1845, a monument to him was erected in Karamzinsky Park in his hometown. And not far from Karamzinsky Square, on September 4, 2005, a memorial sign was erected to the letter e, since Karamzin was one of the first to introduce this letter into Russian texts.
Another memorial sign to the letter e was placed in Perm, on the territory of one of the factories, where a corner of cultural recreation was created by enthusiasts.
Finally, the third sign is used very cleverly on Smolenskaya Square in Moscow. The entrance to the company store with the pretentious name “Furniture” is designed in the form of a huge letter e.
From the textbook by A. A. Reformatsky we learn additional information. “The letters e - e, a - ya, o - ё, u - yu, y - and indicate five vowel phonemes, and the double set of letters (10 letters for five phonemes) is explained ... by a graphic device for designating a hard and soft syllable, so how in the Russian alphabet there are no special letters for hard and soft consonants; Thus, the combinations of letters ta - tya, tu - tyu show not differences in vowels, but differences in consonants: hard (in the spellings ta, tu) or soft (in the spellings tya, tyu).”
If we write without the letter ё, the pairing of vowels is violated: the pair o - ё turns into o - e, although e is occupied in the pair e - e. Thus, the entire system is destroyed.
Some people object: we mean that e in some cases should be read as ё. But the reader does not always guess what the writer wanted to say. This means that by making the writer’s job easier (not to dot the e’s), we complicate the reproduction of what is written by those to whom it is addressed.
We cannot always guess whether the writer had in mind such differences as you know or recognize, saddles or saddles, case or case.
Spelling, as a set of norms for practical writing, in some cases reflects not the modern, but the past state of our language. This applies to writing е after sibilants. In the old days they wrote: go, lie, millet, bees, wives, and this corresponded to the pronunciation of that time. But the language is changing. The phoneme e under stress after soft consonants and sibilants turned into the phoneme o: went, lying, millet, bees, wives, goat, carried. If we don't dot the e's, we go back
to the past. This can be done for stylistic purposes or to maintain rhyme, but not always. For example, in Ivan Andreevich Krylov’s fable “Swan, Pike and Cancer” there should not be an e in the word “won’t work” at the beginning, because it rhymes with the word “no”: “When there is no agreement among comrades - / Things don’t go well for them will work,” but in the textbook for 2nd grade it is printed: “will not work” (Native speech. - M., 2004).
The spelling after hissing words under the stress o correctly reflects the current state of the Russian language: suture, sword, cloak, circle, rustle. Verbs and nouns that sound the same are written differently: He set fire to the brushwood. Someone committed arson. She got burned. He scorched her with his gaze.
In the 50-60s of the 20th century, at meetings of the Spelling Commission of the Academy of Sciences, the question of the mandatory writing of the letter e was repeatedly raised. The chairman of the commission, academician Viktor Vladimirovich Vinogradov, approached the introduction of this rule very carefully, turning to the poetry of the 19th century.
Let us recall that the literary Russian language developed on the basis of the business Russian language, which included vernacular elements, and the Church Slavonic language. They were closely related, but different languages. It was the Church Slavonic elements that gave the literary Russian language a special expressiveness and elation. But there was no e in Church Slavonic.
Viktor Vladimirovich’s argument was: “We don’t know how the poets of the past heard their poems, whether they meant forms with e or with e.” Let’s show this with several examples from A. S. Pushkin’s poem “Poltava”:
On the hills the guns, hushed,
They stopped their hungry roar (not roar!).
We are pressing the Swedes, army after army;
The glory of their banners is darkening,
And fight God with grace
Our every step is captured.
In the time of Pushkin, apparently, the banner was sounded here and sealed. But this, as A. A. Reformatsky said, is the past state of our language. If a modern reader or reciter says the banners and is imprinted, it will only make the text more understandable to the modern listener. Apparently the same applies to the following passage from the same poem:
In the fire, under the red-hot hail,
Reflected by a living wall,
Above the fallen system there is a fresh system
He closes his bayonets.
Our contemporaries prefer to pronounce incandescent, reflected. Heated, reflected forms give the text emotional tension and sublimity.
I believe that with such a dual possibility of reading the same words, through e or through ё, the writer must be all the more precise when indicating how they should be pronounced.
Writing without e gave rise in the 20-30s of the 20th century to a lot of pronunciation errors in those words that people learned not from oral speech, but from books and newspapers: driver, youth, musketeer. The opposite phenomenon was also observed: a scam instead of a scam, a grenadier instead of a grenadier. Until now, no one knows how to pronounce it: glider or glider. And although many normalizers insist on the pronunciation glider, the majority of people say glider, and here's why.
There are many borrowed words in the Russian language that end in -er and -er. Most often these are English or French words, and sometimes they are in both English and French. But the stress in French words is usually at the end, while in English it tends to be at the beginning of the word. Naturally, who knows English language, puts the emphasis in these words in the English manner, and those who studied French put the emphasis on the end. But there are words represented in both languages, for example, reporter, pioneer, and the Russian language is not a warehouse of foreign language material. It has its own system that adapts foreign language elements to its norms.
So, in the Russian language the following trends have developed: in the names of cars, mechanisms, and various devices, it is preferable to stress on the first syllable, or rather, the penultimate one, that is, trireme, glider, tanker, glider, and in the designation of the character - on the last one: driver, watchman, combine operator. V. Mayakovsky in one of his poems even called the nightingale a triller - producing trills.
A number of words end in an unconditional stressed -er: gondolier, grenadier, officer, chamberlain, terrier, Templar, interior.
Here we come to special vocabulary, because among the terms just listed there are many technical ones. The ease of entry into the Russian language of such words as plug, toggle, bumper, bay window, weather vane, of course, was facilitated by the long previous use in it of such foreign names and surnames as Walter, Schuster, Wasser, Schroeder, Loter, Luther, as well as Orthodox names such as Nester, Siver, Yosper, and the ease of occurrence of words like breter, filler - forms of names in -er: Alfer, Panfer.
A great difficulty for Russian spelling is presented by surnames containing o or e after sibilants. On the one hand, they can have different spellings: Borschev and Borschov, Khrushchev and Khrushchov, Porkhachev and Porkhachov, Plechev and Plechov, Surguchev and Surguchov, Polyashev and Polyashov, Sayushev and Sayushov, Ryzhev and Ryzhov. As you know, the letter ё implicitly communicates that emphasis should be placed on it. On the other hand, if in such surnames the e is not dotted, this provokes an incorrect emphasis, and therefore a distortion of the surname. For example, the well-known surname Svishchev, if written with an e, turns into Svyshchev, Rybachev - into Rybachev, Purgashev - into Purgashev, Bulychev - into Bulychev, Gavryusev - into Gavryusev or Gavryusev, Gubarev - into Gubarev, Dozhdev - into Dozhdev, etc. d.
This problem arose with Sergei Ivanovich Ozhegov when he, together with Ruben Ivanovich Avanesov, discussed the formulation of the rules regarding the writing of the letter e. Ozhegov objected to Ozhegov’s proposal to unify the spelling of all surnames, where under the accent after the hissing ones one hears about, such as Borshchov, Khrushchev, Ryzhov, Avanesov, citing the legal side of surnames as special words that distinguish members of one family from people belonging to another family. If all the surnames like Mordashev, Rogachev, Guzhev, Treshchev are replaced by Mordashov, Rogachov, Guzhov, Treshchov, won’t there be chaos in legal practice when members of different families find themselves contending for an inheritance, the same apartment, etc. But what should legal authorities do if a person says Sharashov in some documents, and Sharashev in others? If Sharashev and Sharashev, this is still understandable, but Sharashov?
During the war, on December 24, 1942, by order of the People's Commissar of Education V.P. Potemkin, the mandatory use of the letter e was introduced. Perhaps this was due to the need to accurately convey geographical names, first names and surnames in reports of the Soviet Information Bureau, as well as on field maps, in military orders, etc. But the importance of such writing was not properly explained, and the schoolchildren who were primarily affected were very reluctant to dot the e, especially since the absence of these dots entailed a lower grade. Together with the students, teachers and press workers, who also had more work, objected. So gradually this order was “forgotten”, and the inferiority of Russian writing triumphed.
A counter-question arises: should we in the 21st century preserve the norms of the 18th-19th centuries? Yes, there will be a lot of withdrawal. But if a circular is sent to all “writing” authorities that o under stress after sibilants in place of the previous e (or e) will be considered the new norm and that new spellings should be considered identical to the old ones, then, perhaps, in a generation we will come to a single spelling of Lychov , Borshchov, etc.
In the meantime, there is no such decree, it is necessary to carefully monitor the dotting of the letter e in all necessary cases. The State Traffic Inspectorate has started writing the letter e on driver’s licenses, but the Pension Fund has so far refrained from doing so. The Central Election Commission writes e instead of e in surnames.
The Decree of the Ministry of Education and Science of May 3, 2007 No. AF-159/03 prescribes writing the letter e in proper names indisputably and obligatory. The same is stated in the Law on the State Language of the Russian Federation of June 1
2006 No. 714.
But in many printed publications this is still not observed due to, as the editor of the magazine “National Education” Viktor Trofimovich Chumakov spoke about it, negligence and laziness. “What kind of dubious economy is this,” he declares in the book “Yo in Your Name” (M., 2004), “not to put it in the surnames of many of our famous Shmelevs?” Referring to a statement by Tver University professor V.M. Vorobyov, V.T. Chumakov writes that one correspondence student during an exam called the 19th century poet and publicist Nikolai Platonovich Ogarev - Ogarev, “because that’s what it’s written everywhere” (! ).
Despite the fact that several government regulations have been adopted confirming the need to compulsorily write е at least in proper names, most printed publications are published without е.
The following is surprising: for fifty years legal services have been writing first and last names without e in passports and other documents, and now they demand that the “owners” of the documents prove to them that the surnames Seleznev and Seleznev are identical, that Semyon and Semyon are one and the same same name. And if a person does not know what to object, he is sent to court to prove that he is he.
In the meantime, at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, I daily issue certificates to our citizens, whose names and surnames are written differently in different documents, that Fedor and Fedor are the same name, that Burenkin and Burenkin are the same surname, that the surnames Bokarev and Bokarev, Parfenova and Parfenova are identical, etc.
Wikipedia article
Ё, ё - the 7th letter of the Russian and Belarusian and the 9th letter of the Rusyn alphabets. Also used in some non-Slavic alphabets based on the civil Cyrillic alphabet (for example, Kyrgyz, Mongolian, Chuvash and Udmurt).
In the Old and Church Slavonic alphabet there is no letter similar to “е” due to the lack of corresponding combinations of sounds; Russian “yokanye” is a common mistake when reading Church Slavonic text.
In 1783, instead of the existing variants, the letter “е” was proposed, borrowed from French, where it has a different meaning. In print, however, it was first used only twelve years later (in 1795). The influence of the Swedish alphabet has been suggested.
The spread of the letter “е” in the 18th-19th centuries was also hampered by the then attitude towards the “yocky” pronunciation as bourgeois, the speech of the “vile rabble,” while the “church” “yokkay” pronunciation was considered more cultured, noble and intelligent (among those who fought against “ "yokan" were, for example, A. P. Sumarokov and V. K. Trediakovsky
What do you know about the letter e? (shkolazhizni.ru)
The letter E is the youngest in the Russian alphabet. It was invented in 1783 by Ekaterina Dashkova, an associate of Catherine II, princess and head of the Imperial Russian Academy.
The letter e must die (nesusvet.narod.ru)
... in my opinion, the letter E is completely alien to the Russian language and must die
The letter was stolen from the French.
So if the letter E is a Gallicism, then when, by whom and why was it introduced into Russian?
The letter E is the result of the arbitrariness of one person, Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin. Publishing his articles in magazines, Karamzin, for the sake of external effect (or, as they would now say, “for show off”) in 1797, used the European umlaut, the Latin “e” with two dots, in the Russian-language text. There were many disputes, but there were even more imitators, and the letter E quietly made its way into the Russian language, but did not make it into the alphabet.
Sergey Gogin. Sacred letter of the alphabet (Russian magazine - russ.ru)
Despite the sacred seventh place that the letter “ё” occupies in the Russian alphabet, it is subject to the greatest discrimination in the modern press. With the exception of literature for children, “ё” has practically disappeared from texts in Russian.
Encyclopedias indicate that the letter “e” was introduced into circulation by the historian and writer Nikolai Karamzin, a native of Simbirsk (this is the historical name of Ulyanovsk). Karamzin published the poetic almanac “Aonids”, where in 1797 in Ivan Dmitriev’s poem “Experienced Solomon’s Wisdom, or Thoughts Selected from Ecclesiastes” for the first time in the word “tears” on page 186 the letter “e” appears in its current style. In this case, the editor in a footnote on this page states: “A letter with two dots replaces “io”.”
Mortal letter of the alphabet (01/06/2012, rosbalt.ru)
In 1917, the commission for the reform of Russian spelling proposed to abolish “fitu” (ѳ), “yat” (ѣ), “izhitsa” (ѵ), “and” (і), in addition, to limit the use of a hard sign and “recognize the use of desirable letters "e". In 1918, all these points were included in the “Decree on the Introduction of a New Spelling” - all except the last one... The letter “e” plunged into lethargy. They forgot about her.
The abandonment of the letter "е" can be explained by the desire to reduce the cost of typesetting and the fact that letters with diacritics make cursive writing and continuity of writing difficult.
By uprooting the letter “е” from the texts, we have complicated and at the same time impoverished our language.
Firstly, we distorted the sound of many words (the letter "е" indicated correct placement accents).
Secondly, we have made it difficult to understand the Russian language. The texts became rough. To understand the semantic confusion, the reader must re-read the sentence, the entire paragraph, and sometimes even look for additional information. Often confusion arises from combining the words "all" and "all".
And the names of Russian celebrities today do not sound the same as before. The Soviet chess player was always Alekhine, and Fet and Roerich were, after all, Fet and Roerich.
The rules of Russian spelling ("Complete academic reference book edited by Lopatin", 2006) indicate that the letter "ё" is mandatory only "in books addressed to children younger age", and in "educational texts for schoolchildren junior classes and foreigners studying the Russian language." Otherwise, the letter "ё" can be used "at the request of the author or editor."
The letter “Y” has marked its serious age (11/30/2011, news.yandex.ru)
Russia celebrated the Day of the letter “Y”. The history of the seventh letter of the Russian alphabet began on November 29, 1783. That day, one of the first meetings of the Academy of Russian Literature took place with the participation of Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, writer Denis Fonvizin and poet Gabriel Derzhavin.
Prokhorov will patent 10 trademarks starting with the letter “Y” (Yandex News, 4.4.2012)
Mikhail Prokhorov's Yo-auto company filed 12 applications to Rospatent to register trademarks containing the letter "Yo"
By historical standards, the letter “ё” entered the Russian alphabet recently - 234 years ago. Its appearance in speech and writing was accompanied by long disputes and protests: the population of the country did not want to get used to the innovation and believed that pronouncing the word through “e” was the lot of common people. How the letter “е” won its place in the alphabet and became entrenched in Russian speech, the site told linguist Alexey Zolotov.
New letter
The birthday of the letter “е” is considered to be November 29, 1783. That day, the favorite of Catherine II, Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, who headed the Russian Academy of Sciences, held a meeting of academicians of literature. Among those present were the poet Gavrila Derzhavin and the writer Denis Fonvizin.
A new letter appeared in the new alphabet with light hand Princess Dashkova. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
When the meeting was already coming to an end, the princess asked the academicians if any of them could write a simple word on the board - “Christmas tree”? The learned men looked at each other in bewilderment, deciding that she was joking. Then Dashkova herself chalked out the word spoken to her: “iolka” - and noticed that it was wrong to represent one sound with two letters at once. Instead of combining two letters - “io” - she suggested using their combined version: “e”. And so that people do not confuse the new letter with “i”, Dashkova placed two dots above the new symbol.
At first, academicians doubted the feasibility of such an innovation, but then agreed with the princess’s arguments. Since then, they began to use “е” in correspondence, but the population was still far from accepting the new letter.
"The Sign of Commoners"
Ordinary people began to use “е” in writing only at the very end of the 18th century. In 1795, a type for a new letter was created at the printing house at Moscow University and immediately began to be used for printing documents. The first word printed with the letter “е” was the word “everything”. It was followed by “light”, “stump”, “cornflower” and others. A year later, Nikolai Karamzin picked up the baton: in his almanac “Aonids” he published the words “dawn”, “eagle”, “moth”, “tears” and the verb “flowed”. Thanks to the writer, the letter “went to the people”: at first Karamzin was even considered its author. And two years later, Derzhavin first wrote his last name with the letter “e” - Potemkin.
Despite the fact that the letter began to appear in printed publications, the majority of the population did not want to accept it. “It was believed that noble and cultured people should speak “in the church way” - only through “e,” explains the linguist. - And “yokanie” was a sign of common people, “the vile rabble.” Among the opponents of the new letter were the writers Sumarokov and Trediakovsky, who never began to write “ё”. The fight against “yokan” lasted until the middle of the 19th century.
The mandatory use of the letter “е” was introduced only in 1942 by order of the People’s Commissariat of Education of the RSFSR. Only then did it fully enter the Russian alphabet. During the Khrushchev era, the use of the letter became optional due to the simplification of spelling rules. The situation remained unchanged until 2007, when the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation ordered the use of the letter “ё” in cases where it was necessary.
When should you write "ё"?
Currently, the rules for using “ё” are simple. In ordinary texts it is used at the request of the author, with some exceptions. “You need to write the letter “е” in proper names, if it is there,” says Zolotov. - For example, if we are talking about a person whose name is Alexey Korolev, his last name should be written only with an “e”. Using “e” in this case would be a mistake. The second point: “е” is written in words where the meaning depends on the spelling of one letter. For example, as in the pair of words “flight - flight”. The first word is derived from “fly”, and the second from “weed”. Just one letter, but what a different meaning!”Now in the Russian language there are about 12.5 thousand words with “е”, of which 150 words begin with this letter and about 300 words end with this letter. In writing, it is found in only 1% of all texts, but surveys and studies confirm that people are not ready to give up the letter “е”. The majority of the population votes to preserve “е” in the Russian alphabet, and in Ulyanovsk there is even a monument to the letter.
“The letter “е” adds emotional coloring to speech,” Alexey Zolotov is sure. - Take, for example, the popular exclamation “yo-my” or the phrase “my heart skipped a beat.” So “joka” to your health!”
