Yus

For other uses, see YUS.

Cyrillic letter Yus
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
А А́ А̀ А̂ А̄ Ӓ Б В Г Ґ Д Ђ Ѓ Е Е́ Ѐ Е̄ Е̂ Ё Є Ж З З́ Ѕ И І Ї Ꙇ И́ Ѝ И̂ Ӣ Й Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О О́ О̀ О̂ Ō Ӧ П Р С С́ Т Ћ Ќ У У́ У̀ У̂ Ӯ Ў Ӱ Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш Щ Ꙏ Ъ Ъ̀ Ы Ы́ Ь Ѣ Э Э́ Ю Ю́ Ю̀ Я Я́ Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
Ӑ А̊ А̃ Ӓ̄ Ӕ Ә Ә́ Ә̃ Ӛ В̌ Ԝ Г̑ Г̇ Г̣ Г̌ Г̂ Г̆ Г̈ г̊ Ҕ Ғ Ӻ Ғ̌ ғ̊ Ӷ Д́ Д̌ Д̈ Д̣ Д̆ Ӗ Е̃ Ё̄ Є̈ Ԑ Ԑ̈ Җ Ӝ Ӂ Ж̣ Ҙ Ӟ З̌ З̣ З̆ Ӡ И̃ Ӥ Ҋ Қ Ӄ Ҡ Ҟ Ҝ К̣ к̊ қ̊ Ԛ ᴫ Л́ Ӆ Ԯ Ԓ Л̈ Ӎ ᵸ Н́ Ӊ Ң Ԩ Ӈ Ҥ О̆ О̃ Ӧ̄ Ө Ө̄ Ө́ Ө̆ Ӫ Ԥ П̈ Ҏ Р̌ С̌ Ҫ С̣ С̱ Т́ Т̈ Т̌ Т̇ Т̣ Ҭ Ᲊ У̃ Ӳ У̊ Ӱ̄ Ұ Ү Ү́ Х̣ Х̱ Х̮ Х̑ Х̌ Ҳ Ӽ х̊ Ӿ ӿ̊ Һ Һ̈ Ԧ Ц̌ Ц̈ Ҵ Ҷ Ҷ̣ Ӵ Ӌ Ҹ Ч̇ Ч̣ Ҽ Ҿ Ш̣ ꚜ Ы̆ Ы̄ Ӹ ꚝ Ҍ Ҩ Э̆ Э̄ Э̇ Ӭ Ӭ́ Ӭ̄ Ю̆ Ю̈ Ю̄ Я̆ Я̄ Я̈ Ӏ ʼ ˮ
Archaic or unused letters
А̨ Б̀ Б̣ Б̱ В̀ Г̀ Г̧ Г̄ Г̓ Г̆ Ҕ̀ Ҕ̆ Ԁ Д̓ Д̀ Д̨ Ԃ Ꚁ Ꙣ Е̇ Е̨ Ж̀ Ж̑ Ꙃ Ꙅ Џ̆ Ꚅ Ꚅ̆ Ꙁ З̀ З̑ Ԅ Ԇ Ꚉ Ԫ Ꚃ Ꚕ І̂ І̣ І̨ Ј̵ Ј̃ Ꙉ К̓ К̀ К̆ Ӄ̆ К̑ К̇ К̈ К̄ Ԟ К̂ Л̀ Ԡ Ꙥ Ԉ Л̑ Л̇ Ԕ М̀ М̃ Ꙧ Н̀ Н̄ Н̧ Н̃ Ԋ Ԣ Н̡ Ѻ Ꙩ Ꙫ Ꙭ ꙮ Ꚙ Ꚛ П̓ П̀ П́ Ҧ П̧ П̑ Ҁ Ԛ̆ Р́ Р̀ Р̃ Ԗ С̀ С̈ Ԍ Ҫ̓ Т̓ Т̀ Ԏ Т̑ Ꚋ Т̧ Ꚍ Ꚍ̆ Ѹ Ꙋ У̇ У̨ ꙋ́ Ф̑ Ф̓ Х́ Х̀ Х̆ Х̇ Х̧ Х̾ Х̓ һ̱ Ѡ Ꙍ Ѽ Ѿ Ꙡ Ц̀ Ц́ Ц̓ Ꚏ Ꚏ̆ Ꚑ Ч́ Ч̀ Ч̆ Ч̑ Ч̓ Ԭ Ꚓ Ꚇ Ꚇ̆ Ҽ̆ Ш̀ Ш̆ Ш̑ Щ̆ Ꚗ Ꚗ̆ Ъ̄ Ъ̈ Ъ̈̄ Ꙑ Ы̂ Ы̃ Ѣ́ Ѣ̈ Ѣ̆ Ꙓ Э̨ Э̂ Ꙕ Ю̂ Ꙗ Я̈ Я̂ Я̨ Ԙ Ѥ Ѧ Ꙙ Ѫ Ꙛ Ѩ Ꙝ Ѭ Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ Ѷ Ꙟ
List of Cyrillic letters List of Cyrillic multigraphs

The beard tax token from 1705 contained Ѧ

Little yus (Ѧ ѧ) and big yus (Ѫ ѫ), or jus, are letters of the Cyrillic script representing two Common Slavonic nasal vowels in the early Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabets. Each can occur in iotified form (Ѩ ѩ, Ѭ ѭ), formed as ligatures with the decimal i (І). Other yus letters are blended yus (Ꙛ ꙛ), closed little yus (Ꙙ ꙙ) and iotified closed little yus (Ꙝ ꙝ).

Cyrillic little yus (left) and big yus (right); normal forms (above) and iotified (below)

Handwritten little yus

Phonetically, little yus represents a nasalized front vowel, possibly [ɛ̃], while big yus represents a nasalized back vowel, such as IPA [ɔ̃]. This is also suggested by the appearance of each as a 'stacked' digraph of 'Am' and 'om' respectively.

The names of the letters do not imply capitalization, as both little and big yus exist in majuscule and minuscule variants.

The disappearance of the Yus

All modern Slavic languages that use the Cyrillic alphabet have lost the nasal vowels (at least, in their standard varieties), making Yus unnecessary.

In Bulgarian and Macedonian

Big Yus was a part of the Bulgarian alphabet until 1945. However, by that time, in the eastern dialects the back nasal was pronounced the same way as ъ [ə]. Because the language is based mainly on them, the western pronunciations were deemed unliterary and the letter was gone.

There are some Bulgarian and Macedonian dialects spoken around Thessaloniki and Kastoria in northern Greece that still preserve a nasal pronunciation: [ˈkə̃(n)de ˈɡrẽ(n)deʃ ˈmilo ˈt͡ʃẽ(n)do] ('Where are you going, dear child?').

On a visit to Razlog, in Bulgaria's Pirin Macedonia, in 1955, the Russian dialectologist Samuil Bernstein noticed that the nasal pronunciation of words like ['rã(n)ka] (hand) [ˈt͡ʃẽ(n)do] (child) could still be heard from some of the older women of the village. To the younger people this pronunciation was completely alien; they would think that the old ladies were speaking Greek!

In Russian

In Russia, the little Yus was adapted to represent the iotated /ja/ (я) in the middle or end of a word; the modern letter я is an adaptation of its cursive form of the seventeenth century, enshrined by the typographical reform of 1708. (This is also why я in Russian often corresponds to nasalized ę in Polish; cf. Russian пять; Polish pięć.)

In Polish

In Polish, which is a Slavic language written with Latin alphabet, the letter Ę ę has the phonetic value of little yus, while Ą ą has that of big yus. The iotated forms are written ię, ią, ję, ją in Polish. However, the phonemes written ę and ą are not directly descended from those represented by little and big yus, but developed after the original nasals merged in Polish and then diverged again. (Kashubian, the closest relative of Polish, uses the letter ã instead of ę.)

In Romanian

Little and big yuses can also be found in the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, used until about 1860. Little yus was used for /ja/ and big yus for /ɨ/.

Related letters and other similar characters

• Я я : Cyrillic letter Ya
• Ѣ ѣ : Cyrillic letter Yat
• Ę
• Ą

Computing codes

Character information

Preview	Ѧ		ѧ		Ѩ		ѩ
Unicode name	CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER LITTLE YUS		CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER LITTLE YUS		CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER IOTIFIED LITTLE YUS		CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER IOTIFIED LITTLE YUS
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	1126	U+0466	1127	U+0467	1128	U+0468	1129	U+0469
UTF-8	209 166	D1 A6	209 167	D1 A7	209 168	D1 A8	209 169	D1 A9
Numeric character reference	Ѧ	Ѧ	ѧ	ѧ	Ѩ	Ѩ	ѩ	ѩ

Character information

Preview	Ѫ		ѫ		Ѭ		ѭ
Unicode name	CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER BIG YUS		CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER BIG YUS		CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER IOTIFIED BIG YUS		CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER IOTIFIED BIG YUS
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	1130	U+046A	1131	U+046B	1132	U+046C	1133	U+046D
UTF-8	209 170	D1 AA	209 171	D1 AB	209 172	D1 AC	209 173	D1 AD
Numeric character reference	Ѫ	Ѫ	ѫ	ѫ	Ѭ	Ѭ	ѭ	ѭ

Character information

Preview	Ꙛ		ꙛ
Unicode name	CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER BLENDED YUS		CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER BLENDED YUS
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	42586	U+A65A	42587	U+A65B
UTF-8	234 153 154	EA 99 9A	234 153 155	EA 99 9B
Numeric character reference	Ꙛ	Ꙛ	ꙛ	ꙛ

Character information

Preview	Ꙙ		ꙙ		Ꙝ		ꙝ
Unicode name	CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER CLOSED LITTLE YUS		CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER CLOSED LITTLE YUS		CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER IOTIFIED CLOSED LITTLE YUS		CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER IOTIFIED CLOSED LITTLE YUS
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	42584	U+A658	42585	U+A659	42588	U+A65C	42589	U+A65D
UTF-8	234 153 152	EA 99 98	234 153 153	EA 99 99	234 153 156	EA 99 9C	234 153 157	EA 99 9D
Numeric character reference	Ꙙ	Ꙙ	ꙙ	ꙙ	Ꙝ	Ꙝ	ꙝ	ꙝ