Be (Cyrillic)
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/%D0%90%D0%B7%D0%B1%D1%83%D0%BA%D0%B0_%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%B9%D1%86%D0%B0._%D0%91.jpg/220px-%D0%90%D0%B7%D0%B1%D1%83%D0%BA%D0%B0_%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%B9%D1%86%D0%B0._%D0%91.jpg)
Be (Б б or Ƃ, δ; italics: Б б or Ƃ, δ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It commonly represents the voiced bilabial plosive /b/, like the English pronunciation of ⟨b⟩ in "ball". It should not be confused with the Cyrillic letter Ve (В в), which is shaped like Latin capital letter B but represents the voiced labiodental fricative /v/ or the voiced bilabial fricative /β/. The Cyrillic letter Б (Be) is romanized using the Latin letter B.
History
[edit]The Cyrillic letter Be was derived from the Greek letter Beta (Β β).
In the Early Cyrillic alphabet the name of the letter Be was бѹкы (bukky/букки), meaning "letter".
In the Cyrillic numeral system, the letter Be had no numeric value because the letter Ve inherited the Greek letter Beta's numeric value.
Form
[edit]The Russian small letter б (be) is similar (but not identical) in shape to the digit 6. Its lowercase form also somewhat resembles a lowercase letter B ("b"), the letter to which it corresponds in the Latin alphabet. After all, the lowercase letter B ("b") developed from scribal alterations to the capital letter B ("B"), just as б did from scribal alterations to the capital letter В ("Ve").
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/%D0%91_Cambria.svg/120px-%D0%91_Cambria.svg.png)
In Serbian and Macedonian the italic form is allowed to vary, but the regular should look like in other languages.[1]
The cursive form of the lowercase letter Be resembles the lowercase Greek letter Delta (δ), but they are slightly different in their upper portions.
Usage
[edit]In Russian and Bulgarian, the letter Be generally represents the voiced bilabial plosive /b/, but word-finally or before a voiceless consonant, it also represents the voiceless [p]. Before a palatalizing vowel, it represents /bʲ/. In Macedonian, the letter represents the sound /b/, but if it is in the final position of the word, it is pronounced as /p/, like in леб /lɛp/ ('bread').
In Mari, it may represent either /b/ or the voiced bilabial fricative /β/.
In Serbian, the letter represents the voiced bilabial plosive /b/, regardless of the position in the word.
Related letters and other similar characters
[edit]- Β β : Greek letter Beta
- В в : Cyrillic letter Ve
- B b : Latin letter B
- Ƃ ƃ : Latin letter Ƃ
Computing codes
[edit]Preview | Б | б | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER BE | CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER BE | ||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 1041 | U+0411 | 1073 | U+0431 |
UTF-8 | 208 145 | D0 91 | 208 177 | D0 B1 |
Numeric character reference | Б |
Б |
б |
б |
Named character reference | Б | б | ||
KOI8-R and KOI8-U | 226 | E2 | 194 | C2 |
CP 855 | 163 | A3 | 162 | A2 |
Windows-1251 | 193 | C1 | 225 | E1 |
ISO-8859-5 | 177 | B1 | 209 | D1 |
Mac Cyrillic | 129 | 81 | 225 | E1 |
References
[edit]- ^ Peshikan, Mitar; Jerković, Jovan; Pižurica, Mato (1994). Pravopis srpskoga jezika. Matica Srpska. p. 42.