Ve (Cyrillic)

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Heading=Cyrillic letter Ve


uuc=0412|ulc=0432|numeral=2

Ve (В, в) is the third letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the sound IPA|/v/. It is shaped exactly like a capital Latin letter B but is pronounced differently.

This letter and б are derived from Greek Beta (Β, β), which, evidently, already represented IPA|/v/ in Greek by the time the Cyrillic alphabet was created. The old name for в was "Vedi" and it had numerical value of two in the old system of Cyrillic numerals. It looks like the capital letter "B" of the Latin alphabet.

In Russian, its phonemic representation is similar to English IPA|/v/ except word-finally (when it is represents a voiceless IPA| [f] ) and before a palatalizing vowel when it represents IPA|/vʲ/.

In standard Ukrainian pronunciation (based on the Poltava dialect), в represents a sound like an English "W" (IPA| [w] ) when in the word final position. Because of this, it is not uncommon to see transliterations of words ending in в, end in "w".

e.g. Владислав ("Vladyslaw")

Additionally, some Ukrainians also use such pronunciation in words where the letter is directly proceeded by a consonant, while for others all occurrences of the letter в denote IPA|/w/. In Eastern Ukraine, the letter в may represent a devoiced IPA| [f] , but this is considered a Russification, as word final devoicing does not occur in standard Ukrainian.

e.g. standard Ukrainian pronunciation of the word сказав ("he said") is IPA|/skazaw/. However in Eastern Ukraine one is likely to hear the Russified IPA| [skazaf] (with final devoicing).

In the Belarusian language, the letter в only represents the sound IPA|/v/. In the word final position, or if directly proceeded by a consonant it mutates to the letter Ў, a unique Belarusian letter representing the sound IPA|/w/.e.g. the Belarusian noun 'language' is мова ("mova"), but the adjectival form is моўный ("mownyy"), and the genitive plural of the noun (formed by removing the final а) is моў ("mow").

In Serbian, the letter в only represents the sound /v/.

Code positions

Its HTML entities are: В or В for capital and в or в for small letter.

ee also

*Be (Cyrillic)
*Beta (letter)
*B
*V
*W