As we’ve mentioned before, the first formal Russian font (as well as the alphabet) was established in the early 18th century under Peter the Great’s reign. Since then and up until 1918 it contained 35 letters, four of which are missing today:
I i – dotted i
Ѳ ѳ – fita
Ѵ ѵ – izhitsa
Ѣ ѣ – yat
Shortly after the Russian Revolution, they were dropped from the alphabet. This was done in order to simplify and modernize it by removing redundant letters. Later on, however, two new characters secured a spot in the alphabet – Й й and Ё ё, which is why it currently has 33 letters. Some of the removed ones stood for the same sound as others, and the only reason why both were still in use was tradition.
For example, take the и that we know today and the dotted i. Phonetically, they were equal, but in text they were used in different ways: i was written only before vowels. For example, the name Юлия (Yulia) would look like Юлiя.
Izhitsa’s fate was almost identical. This letter also stood for the same sound as i and и. Yep, three letters for one sound! The explanation lies in the way the Cyrillic alphabet came to be.
The thing is, Russian writing and the Orthodox church went hand in hand. For a long time, it was members of the clergy who created books. The Russian Orthodox church was influenced by that of Greece, including the writing system. So, the letter izhitsa was borrowed from the Greek alphabet and used in words related to Christianity. For example, in the name of the ultimate authority in matters of religion, синод (synod) – “сѵнодъ.”
Fita also came from the Greek alphabet and was used in names like Ѳома (Foma, as opposed to modern Фома) and church-related terms like анаѳема (now анафема – meaning "anathema"). Since ф was already a part of the alphabet, again, there was no real need for fita – one of them had to go!
The most confusing letter, however, was yat. Initially, it stood for a sound between и and э. Now it can only be heard in certain local dialects. But the problem with it didn’t lie in pronunciation. The rules for when to write ѣ and when to write e were rather confusing. For example, it was used in the name Alexey – Алексѣй, but not in Andrei – Андрей. Only well-educated people knew the difference and could use yat correctly, which is why it was a certain marker of one’s literacy. Basically, it only complicated things, so it was time to say goodbye to it, too.
See our story on Medieval Russian manuscripts to dig even deeper into the history of written word in Russia and learn more about peculiar Russian letters here.
