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A letter of the Russian alphabet recognized in 1784. Birthday of the letter E

Ё, ё is the 7th letter of the Russian and Belarusian alphabets and the 9th letter of the Rusyn alphabet. It is also used in a number of non-Slavic alphabets based on the civil Cyrillic alphabet (for example, Mongolian, Kyrgyz, Udmurt and Chuvash).

If possible, it means the softness of the consonants, being after them, and the sound [o]; in all other cases it sounds like . In native Russian words (in addition to words with the prefixes three- and four-), it is always under stress. Cases of unstressed use are rare, mainly borrowed words - for example, Königsberg surfers, Difficult words- loess-like or words with prefixes three- and four- - for example, four-part. Here the letter is phonetically equivalent to the unstressed “e”, “i”, “ya” or has a side stress, but can also reflect characteristics written in the original language.

In the Russian language (i.e., in Russian writing), the letter “е” stands, first of all, where the sound [(j)o] comes from [(j)e], this explains the form derived from “e” letters (borrowed from Western scripts). In Russian writing, unlike Belarusian, according to the rules for using letters, placing dots above the “е” is optional.

In other Slavic Cyrillic alphabet there is no letter “ё”. To indicate the corresponding sounds in writing in the Ukrainian and Bulgarian languages, they write “yo” after consonants and in other cases, “yo”. Serbian writing (and the Macedonian one based on it) generally does not have special letters for iotated vowels and/or softening the preceding consonant, since to distinguish syllables with a hard and soft consonant they use different consonants, and not different vowel letters, and iot is always written a separate letter.

In the Church and Old Church Slavonic alphabets there is no letter equivalent to “е”, since there are no such combinations of sounds; Russian “yokanye” is a common mistake when reading Church Slavonic texts.

Superscript element and its name

There is no generally accepted official term for the extension element present in the letter “e”. In traditional linguistics and pedagogy, the word “colon” was used, but most often in a hundred recent years used a less formal expression - “two dots”, or generally tried to avoid mentioning this element separately.

It is considered incorrect to use foreign language terms (dialytics, diaresis, trema or umlaut) in this situation, since they relate to diacritics and denote, first of all, a specific phonetic function.

Historical aspects

Introduction of Yo into use

For a long time, the sound combination (and after soft consonants - [o]), which appeared in Russian pronunciation, was not expressed in writing in any way. WITH mid-18th century V. they were designated by the letters IO, located under a common cap. But such a designation was cumbersome and was rarely used. The following variants were used: the signs o, iô, ьо, іо, ió.

In 1783, instead of the existing options, they proposed the letter “e”, borrowing from French, where it has a different meaning. However, it was first used in print only 12 years later (in 1795). The influence of the Swedish alphabet was also assumed.

In 1783, on November 29 (according to the old style - November 18) at the home of the head of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Princess E. R. Dashkova, one of the first meetings of the newly formed Russian Academy, where Fonvizin D.I., Knyazhnin Ya.B., Derzhavin G.R., Lepyokhin I.I., Metropolitan Gabriel and others were present. They discussed the draft full version explanatory dictionary(Slavic-Russian), subsequently - the famous 6-volume Dictionary of the Russian Academy.

The academicians were about to go home, like E.R. Dashkova asked if any of them could write the word “Christmas tree.” The learned men thought that the princess was joking, but she wrote the word “yolk”, which she had pronounced, and asked the question: “Is it legal to represent one sound with two letters?” She also noted: “These reprimands have already been introduced by custom, which, when it does not contradict common sense, should be followed in every possible way.” Ekaterina Dashkova suggested using the “newborn” letter “e” “to express words and reprimands, with this consent, beginning as matiory, iolka, iozh, iol.”

She turned out to be convincing in her arguments, and Gabriel, Metropolitan of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, who is a member of the Academy of Sciences, was asked to evaluate the rationality of introducing a new letter. So, in 1784, on November 18, the official recognition of the letter “e” took place.

The princess's innovative idea was supported by a number of leading cultural figures of that period, incl. and Derzhavin, who was the first to use “ё” for personal correspondence. And the first printed publication in which the appearance of the letter “е” was noticed was in 1795 the book “And My Trinkets” by I. Dmitriev, published by the Moscow University Printing House of H. A. Claudia and H. Riediger (in this printing house since 1788 published the newspaper “Moskovskie Vedomosti”, and it was located on the site of the present building of the Central Telegraph).

The first word printed with the letter “е” became “everything”, then “vasilyochik”, “stump”, “light”, “immortal”. For the first time, a surname with this letter (“Potemkin”) was printed by G. R. Derzhavin in 1798.

The letter “e” became famous thanks to N.M. Karamzin, so until recently he was considered its author, until the story outlined above received wide publicity. In 1796, in the 1st book of the anthology of poems “Aonids”, published by Karamzin, who came out of the same university printing house, the words “dawn”, “moth”, “eagle”, “tears” were printed with the letter “e”. ", and the 1st verb is "flowed".

It’s just not clear whether this was Karamzin’s personal idea or the initiative of some employee of the publishing house. It should be noted that Karamzin scientific works(for example, in the famous “History of the Russian State” (1816-1829)) did not use the letter “ё”.

Distribution issues

Although the letter “е” was proposed to be introduced in 1783, and was used in print in 1795, for a long time it was not considered a separate letter and was not officially introduced into the alphabet. This is very typical for newly introduced letters: the status of the symbol “th” was the same; it (in comparison with “e”) became mandatory for use back in 1735. In his “Russian Spelling”, Academician J. K. Grot noted, that both of these letters “should also occupy a place in the alphabet,” but this is also long time remained only a good wish.

In the XVIII-XIX centuries. An obstacle to the spread of the letter “е” was the then attitude towards such a “yocking” pronunciation as petty-bourgeois speech, the dialect of the “vile rabble,” while the “yokking” “church” pronunciation was considered more noble, intelligent and cultural (with a “yocking” "Fought, for example, V.K. Trediakovsky and A.P. Sumarokov).

12/23/1917 (01/05/1918) a decree was published (undated) signed by the Soviet People's Commissar of Education A.V. Lunacharsky, who introduced reformed spelling as mandatory, it said, among other things: “To recognize the use of the letter “е” as desirable, but not mandatory. "

Thus, the letters “ё” and “й” formally entered the alphabet (having received serial numbers) only in Soviet times (if you do not take into account the “New ABC” (1875) by Leo Tolstoy, where there was the letter “ё" between " e" and yatem, in 31st place).

On December 24, 1942, the use of the letter “e” by order of the People’s Commissar of Education of the RSFSR was introduced into compulsory school practice, and since then (sometimes, however, they remember 1943 and even 1956, when spelling normative rules were first published) it is considered officially included in the Russian alphabet .

The next 10 years scientific and fiction was published with almost complete use of the letter “е”, and then the publishers returned to the old practice: using the letter only when absolutely necessary.

There is a legend that Joseph Stalin influenced the popularization of the letter “ё”. It says that in 1942, on December 6, I.V. An order was brought to Stalin for signature, where the names of a number of generals were printed not with the letter “ё”, but with “e”. Stalin was angry, and the next day all the articles in the Pravda newspaper suddenly appeared with the letter “e”.

On July 9, 2007, Russian Minister of Culture A. S. Sokolov, giving an interview to the Mayak radio station, expressed his opinion on the need for writing use the letter "ё".

Basic rules for using the letter “ё”

Legislative acts

On December 24, 1942, the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR V.P. Potemkin, by order No. 1825, introduced the letter “Ё,ё” into mandatory practice. Shortly before the order was issued, an incident occurred when Stalin treated rudely the manager of the Council of People's Commissars, Ya. Chadayev, because on December 6 (or 5), 1942, he brought him a decree for signature, where the names of a number of generals were printed without the letter “e”.

Chadayev informed the editor of Pravda that the leader wanted to see “ё” in print. Thus, already on December 7, 1942, the newspaper issue suddenly came out with this letter in all articles.

Federal Law No. 53-FZ “On state language Russian Federation» dated 06/01/2005 in part 3 of Art. 1 states that when using Russian modern literary language As a state government, the Government of the Russian Federation determines the procedure for approving the rules and norms of Russian punctuation and spelling.

The Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On the procedure for approving the norms of the modern Russian literary language when used as the state language of the Russian Federation, the rules of Russian spelling and punctuation” dated November 23, 2006 No. 714 establishes that, based on the recommendations given by the Interdepartmental Commission on the Russian Language, a list reference books, grammars and dictionaries, which contain the norms of the modern Russian literary language, when it is used in the Russian Federation as the state language, as well as the rules of Russian punctuation and spelling, are approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.

Letter No. AF-159/03 dated 05/03/2007 “On the decisions of the Interdepartmental Commission on the Russian Language” of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation prescribes writing the letter “e” in case of probability of misreading words, for example, in proper names, since in In this case, ignoring the letter “е” violates the requirements of the Federal Law “On the State Language of the Russian Federation.”

According to the current rules of Russian punctuation and spelling, the letter ё is used selectively in texts during normal printing. But, at the request of the editor or author, any book can be printed using the letter e sequentially.

The sound of "Yo"

The letter "ё" is used:

To convey the stressed vowel [o] and at the same time indicate the softness of the previous consonant: youth, comb, crawl, oats, lying, during the day, honey, dog, everything, trudged, Fedor, aunt (after g, k, x this is only used for borrowing : Höglund, Goethe, liqueur, Cologne, the only exception Russian word weave, weave, weave, weave with derivatives, and formed in Russian from the borrowed word panicer);

To convey the accent [o] after hissing words: silk, zhzhem, click, damn (in this position, the conditions for choosing between writing with “o” or with “e” are set by a rather complex system of lists of exception words and rules);

To convey the combination of [j] and the percussive sound [o]:

At the beginning of the words: container, hedgehog, Christmas tree;

After consonants (a separating sign is used): volume, viet, linen.

After the vowel letters: her, loan, striker, tip, spit, forges;

In native Russian words it is only possible percussion sound“е” (even if the stress is collateral: loess-like, four-story, three-seater,); if, during word formation or inflection, the stress moves to another syllable, then “е” will be replaced by “e” (takes - will choose, honey - honey - on honey, about what - nothing (but: about nothing )).

Along with the letter “е” in borrowings, the same sound meaning can be conveyed after consonants - the combination ё and in other cases - yo. Also in borrowings “ё” can be an unstressed vowel.

Yo and E

Officially, since 1956, the “Rules of Russian Spelling and Punctuation” define the cases when “ё” is used in writing:

"1. When it is necessary to prevent incorrect reading and understanding of a word, for example: we recognize as opposed to learn; everything is different from everything; bucket as opposed to bucket; perfect (participle) as opposed to perfect (adjective), etc.

2. When you need to indicate the pronunciation of a little-known word, for example: Olekma river.

3. In special texts: primers, school textbooks of the Russian language, spelling textbooks, etc., as well as in dictionaries to indicate the place of stress and correct pronunciation
Note. In foreign words, at the beginning of words and after vowels, instead of the letter ё, yo is written, for example; iodine, district, major."

Section 5 regulates these issues in more detail. new edition of these rules (published in 2006 and approved by the Orthographic Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences):

“The use of the letter ё can be consistent and selective.
Consistent use of the letter ё is mandatory in the following types of printed texts:

a) in texts with sequentially placed accent marks;

b) in books addressed to young children;

c) in educational texts for primary schoolchildren and foreigners studying the Russian language.

Note 1. The sequential use of ё is adopted for the illustrative part of these rules.

Note 3. In dictionaries, words with the letter e are placed in the general alphabet with the letter e, for example: barely, unctuous, fir-tree, spruce, elozit, fir-tree, fir-tree, spruce; to have fun, to have fun, gaiety, cheerful, fun.

In ordinary printed texts, the letter е is used selectively. It is recommended to use it in the following cases.

1. To prevent incorrect identification of a word, for example: everything, sky, summer, perfect (in contrast to the words everything, sky, summer, perfect), including to indicate the place of stress in the word, for example: bucket, we recognize (unlike a bucket, let's find out).

2. To indicate the correct pronunciation of a word - either rare, not well known, or having a common incorrect pronunciation, e.g.: gyozy, surfing, fleur, harder, lye, including to indicate the correct stress, e.g.: fable, brought, carried away , convicted, newborn, spy.

3. B proper names- surnames, geographical names, for example: Konenkov, Neyolova, Catherine Deneuve, Schrödinger, Dezhnev, Koshelev, Chebyshev, Veshenskaya, Olekma.”

“Yo”, “yo” and “yo” in borrowed words and the transfer of foreign proper names

The letter “е” is often used to convey the sounds [ø] and [œ] (for example, denoted by the letter “ö”) in foreign names and words.

In borrowed words, the letter combinations “jo” or “yo” are usually used to record combinations of phonemes such as /jo/:

After consonants, at the same time softening them (“broth”, “battalion”, “mignon”, “guillotine”, “senor”, “champignon”, “pavilion”, “fjord”, “companion”, etc.) - in Romance languages usually in places after palatalized [n] and [l] “о” is written.

At the beginning of words ("iota", "iodine", "yogurt", "yoga", "York", etc.) or after vowels ("district", "coyote", "meiosis", "major", etc.) spelled “yo”;

However, in recent decades, “ё” has been increasingly used in these cases. It has already become a normative element in the systems of transferring titles and names (transliteration sense) from a number of Asian languages (for example, the Kontsevich system for the Korean language and the Polivanov system for the Japanese language): Yoshihito, Shogun, Kim Yongnam.

In European borrowings, the sound is conveyed by the letter “е” very rarely; it is most often found in words from the languages of Scandinavia (Jörmungand, Jötun), but, as a rule, it exists along with the usual transmission through “yo” (for example, Jörmungand) and is often considered non-normative.

“Ё” in borrowed words is often unstressed and in this position its pronunciation is indistinguishable from the letters “I”, “i” or “e” (Erdős, shogunate, etc.), i.e., its original clarity is lost and it sometimes turns into just an indication of a certain pronunciation in the source language.

Consequences of not using the letter “ё”

The slowness of the entry of the letter “е” into the practice of writing (which, by the way, never fully took place) is explained by its inconvenient form for cursive writing, which contradicts its main principle - the unity (without tearing the pen from the sheet of paper) of the style, as well as the technical difficulties of technology publishing houses of pre-computer times.

In addition, people with last names with the letter “е” often have difficulties, sometimes insurmountable, when preparing various documents, since some workers are irresponsible when writing this letter. This problem became especially acute after the introduction of the Unified State Examination system, when there is a danger of differences in the spelling of the name in the passport and in the Certificate of Unified State Examination results.

The habitual optionality of use led to the erroneous reading of a number of words, which gradually became generally accepted. This process affected everything: both a huge number of personal names and numerous common nouns.

Stable ambiguity is caused by words written without the letter e such as: piece of iron, everything, flax, let's take a break, blowjob (will fly by without hitting you), perfect, planted, in summer, recognize, palate, tapeworm, admits, etc. are increasingly used erroneous pronunciation (without ё) and shifting stress in the words beet, newborn, etc.

"e" turns into "e"

The ambiguity contributed to the fact that sometimes the letter “е” began to be used in writing (and, naturally, read [`o]) in those words where it should not be. For example, instead of the word “grenadier” - “grenadier”, and instead of the word “scam” - “scam”, also instead of the word “guardianship” - “guardianship”, and instead of the word “being” - “being”, etc. Sometimes such incorrect pronunciation and spelling become common.

Thus, the famous chess player Alexander Alekhine, world champion, was, in fact, Alekhine and was very indignant if his last name was pronounced and spelled incorrectly. His surname belongs to the noble family of Alekhins and is not derived from the familiar variable “Alyokha” from the name Alexey.

In those positions where it is necessary to be not ё, but е, it is recommended to place an accent in order to prevent incorrect recognition of words (everyone, takes) or erroneous pronunciation (grenadier, scam, Croesus, stout, Olesha).

Due to the spelling of words without e in the 20s and 30s. XX century many mistakes arose in the pronunciation of those words that people learned from newspapers and books, and not from colloquial speech: musketeer, youth, driver (these words said “e” instead of “e”).

Orthoepy: the emergence of new variants

Due to the optional use of the letter “е”, words have appeared in the Russian language that allow the possibility of being written with both the letter “e” and “е”, and the corresponding pronunciation. For example, faded and faded, maneuver and maneuver, whitish and whitish, bile and bile, etc.

Constantly similar options appear in language due to the action of contradictory analogies. For example, the word nadsekshiy has variants of pronunciation with e/e due to the double motivation: notch/notch. The use or non-use of the letter “ё” does not matter here. But, developing naturally, a literary language, as a rule, tends to eliminate variants: either one of them will become non-literary, incorrect (golo[l`o]ditsa, iz[d`e]vka), or different meanings will acquire pronunciation options (is[t`o]kshiy - is[t`e]kshiy).

It is preferably pronounced not “glider”, but “glider” (stressed 1st syllable), since the following trends exist in the Russian language: in the names of mechanisms, machines, and various devices, stress is preferable on the 1st syllable, or more precisely, on the penultimate one , i.e., glider, trireme, glider, tanker, and on the latter - when indicated actor: combine operator, driver, watchman.

Inconsistency in the use of the letter “е” is an artificial rather than a natural factor. And it helps to slow down the natural development of the language, giving rise to and maintaining pronunciation options that are not determined by intralingual reasons.

The history of the letter Yo in the Russian language goes back more than two centuries. Its status was officially established by law back in 1784. At the end of the 19th century, during the period of rapid development of printing, it began to be replaced from the text by the letter E.

In 1917, the use of Yo was recognized as desirable, but not mandatory.
In 1942, the law introduced the mandatory use of the letter in the school curriculum.
In 1956, the letter was again recognized as “optional”.

Now that people type more often than write by hand, Yo's unpopularity is reflected even by her disadvantage on the computer keyboard.

The use of the letter E is not widespread today, and its writing in documents sometimes causes bureaucratic disputes and delays.

What law regulates the order of writing E and E in documents?

Federal Law N 53-FZ “On the State Language of the Russian Federation” obliges officials to comply with the rules of the modern Russian language in terms of spelling and punctuation when filling out official papers.

Basic provisions of the Federal Law on the status of judges in more detail

In 2012, the state issued a law on the spelling of the letters E and E in official documents -.

The law reports numerous requests regarding the preparation of personal identity documents, marriage or divorce registration certificates, education diplomas and other documents regarding the spelling of the letter E in them.

The Ministry explains that the order in which these letters are written in documents does not differ from the order in which they are written in other texts, since the laws of the Russian language are the same. At the same time, writing Yo in proper names is mandatory according to the rules. The reasons are below.

Read also the Federal Law on notaries in the new edition

Rules for writing the letters E and E

The order of use of the letter E in Russian writing is regulated by the 10th paragraph of the Rules of Russian Spelling and Punctuation.

Writing the letter E is mandatory in the following cases:

Without E, the word may be misread and perceived:
- Chalk - chalk, donkey - donkey, sky - sky;
The word is uncommon, little known:
- Geographical names, highly specialized terms;
When writing words with “Ё” in printed educational materials for children, dictionaries and specialized literature.

In 2007, the Russian Ministry of Education and Science released decisions taken by the Interdepartmental Commission on the Russian Language. The document serves as a normative source regarding the use of the letter E in written Russian speech. The letter consists of 2 parts:

Preambles, outlining the theses of the history of the origin and practice of using the letter, the conclusions of scientists about its necessity, examples of problems arising in connection with its replacement with “e” and other aspects;
Explanations, in which the commission, referring to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 714 of 2006. Normative act states that the Russian Ministry of Education, when resolving issues related to the regulation of the norms of the modern literary language and the rules of Russian spelling and punctuation, should be based on the recommendations developed by the interdepartmental commission on the Russian language.

Based on the delegated powers, the Commission decided in a Letter that writing the letter E is mandatory. Ignoring the requirements is characterized as a violation of the provisions of Law No. 53-FZ on the state language of the Russian Federation.

The recommendation is addressed to printed publications, employees government agencies and departments executive power, especially to persons who deal with the personal data of citizens, their registration, filling out and issuing documents.

Spelling of E and Yo in the last name and first name according to the law

The issue of writing E and E in documents is relevant for approximately 3 - 4% of the Russian population: Artyomov, Alen, Semyonov, Fedorov and many other lucky people with a first name, surname or patronymic containing the letter E.

Officials, when preparing important documents identifying the identities of citizens, consider it unnecessary to use the letter “e”. At the same time, when accepting or processing documents of a person with a “problematic” first or last name, they strive to refuse service and convince the person of the need to replace the documents.

Problems appear when applying for a foreign passport in the process of writing proper names in Latin. Much more often disputes with officials arise in situations when a citizen’s surname, first name, and place of birth are written Y in some documents, and E in others. There are even situations when members of the same family have surnames written differently in personal documents.

Differences in the spelling of first and last names with Ё lead to difficulties:

In determining a person's personality;
When filing a divorce;
Submitting papers to government agencies and the Pension Fund for receiving benefits, maternity capital and etc.;
Carrying out legal actions related to financial liability: certification of documents relating to inheritance, conducting financial transactions.

Proper names (surnames, first names, patronymics, geographical names, names of organizations and enterprises) refer specifically to the first case indicated in the rules, therefore, according to the law:

The use of the letter “Ё” in proper names is mandatory.

When completing documents, pay the operator’s attention to the correct spelling of your personal data! All citizens, not only those with the problematic “Y”, should carefully check the papers when completing and receiving them. In legal matters, every little detail matters.

When is it necessary to replace documents because of the letters E, E?

In 2009, a situation resonated in Russia when a judge Supreme Court Retired Russian Federation faced the “E and E problem” when applying to the Pension Fund. Then the head of the personnel department of the RF Armed Forces wrote a letter to the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation with the position that there are no discrepancies in this particular surname, since spelling with an E does not distort the essence. Then many citizens perceived it as a decree or instruction. However, the letter does not legal force and is explanatory in nature for a specific (indicative) case.

As a result of studying the laws and regulations presented in this article, you may get the impression that they contradict each other. Let's summarize by dotting the e's:

When in some documents there is E in the first or last name, and in others - E, this is not the citizen’s fault;
When a person’s other data matches, there can be no grounds for refusing to accept papers or perform certain legal actions. There is also no need to replace documents.

Also, employees of executive authorities, when preparing documents and entering personal data of citizens into databases and registers, are required to write the letter E in proper names and all official papers.

Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova

Monument to the letter E

Letter of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated July 20, 2009 No. IK-971/03, recommending the use of the letter E in textbooks

On November 29 (November 18, old style), 1783, in the house of the director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, one of the first meetings of the newly created Russian Academy took place, which was attended by G. R. Derzhavin, D. I. Fonvizin, I. I. Lepyokhin, Ya. B. Knyazhnin, Metropolitan Gabriel and others. The project of a complete explanatory Slavic-Russian dictionary, the later famous 6-volume “Dictionary of the Russian Academy”, was discussed. The academicians were about to go home when Ekaterina Romanovna asked those present if anyone could write the word “Christmas tree”. The academics decided that the princess was joking, but she, having written the word “Iolka” she had spoken, asked: “Is it legal to represent one sound with two letters?” Noting that “these reprimands have already been introduced by custom, which, when it does not contradict common sense, should be followed in every possible way,” Dashkova proposed using the new letter “e” “to express words and reprimands, with this consent, beginning as matіoryy, іolka, іож , іol". Dashkova’s arguments seemed convincing, and the feasibility of introducing a new letter was asked to be assessed by Metropolitan Gabriel of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, a member of the Academy of Sciences. On November 18, 1784, the letter “е” received official recognition.

After this, the letter E for 12 years occasionally appeared only in handwritten form and, in particular, in the letters of G.R. Derzhavin. Replicating it printing press took place in 1795 at the Moscow University Printing House with H. Ridiger and H. A. Claudia during the publication of the book “And My Trinkets” by Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev, a poet, fabulist, chief prosecutor of the Senate, and then Minister of Justice. This printing house, in which, by the way, the newspaper “Moskovskie Vedomosti” was printed since 1788, was located on the site of the current Central Telegraph. The first word printed with the letter E was the word “everything”. Then came the words: light, stump, immortal, cornflower. In 1796, in the same printing house, N.M. Karamzin in his first book “Aonid” with the letter E prints: dawn, eagle, moth, tears and the first verb with E “flowed”. Then, in 1797, there was the first annoying typo in a word with E. The proofreader didn’t notice, and the edition was published with “garnished” instead of “faceted.” And in 1798, G.R. Derzhavin used the first surname with the letter E - Potemkin. These are Yo’s first steps through the pages of books.

The spread of the letter “е” in the 18th-19th centuries was also hampered by the then attitude towards the “fucking” pronunciation as bourgeois, the speech of the “vile rabble”, while the “church” “fucking” reprimand was considered more cultured and noble.

Formally, the letter “ё”, like “y”, entered the alphabet (and received serial numbers) only in Soviet time. The decree signed by the Soviet People's Commissar for Education A.V. Lunacharsky read: “Recognize the use of the letter “e” as desirable, but not obligatory.” And on December 24, 1942, by order people's commissar Education of the RSFSR Vladimir Petrovich Potemkin introduced the mandatory use of the letter “ё” in school practice, and from that time on. it is officially considered part of the Russian alphabet. The next 14 years of artistic and scientific literature came out with almost complete use of the letter “ё”, but in 1956, on Khrushchev’s initiative, new, somewhat simplified spelling rules were introduced, and the letter “ё” again became optional.

Nowadays, the question of using “е” has become the subject of scientific battles, and the patriotic part of the Russian intelligentsia selflessly defends the obligatory nature of its use. In 2005, a monument was even erected to the letter “e” in Ulyanovsk.

In accordance with the Letter of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated 05/03/2007 No. AF-159/03 “On the decisions of the Interdepartmental Commission on the Russian Language”, it is required to write the letter “ё” in cases where the word may be misread, for example, in names own, since ignoring the letter “е” in this case is a violation of the Federal Law “On the State Language of the Russian Federation.” According to current rules Russian spelling and punctuation, in ordinary printed texts the letter ё is used selectively. However, at the request of the author or editor, any book can be printed sequentially with the letter “е”.

At the end of 1783, the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, the favorite of Empress Catherine II, gathered academicians of literature, including prominent writers Gavrila Derzhavin and Denis Fonvizin. The princess asked the learned men if they knew how to spell the word “Christmas tree.” After a short brainstorming, the academics decided that it should be written “yulka”. But to Dashkova’s next question, is it legal to represent one sound with two letters? pundits couldn't find anything to answer. Approaching the board, the princess erased the “i” and “o”, writing the letter “e” instead. Since then, academicians began to use the letter “e” in correspondence with the princess. The letter came to the people only in 1797 through the efforts of Nikolai Karamzin, who used it in his almanac “Aonids”.

Ekaterina Dashkova was born in 1744 into a family of Moscow boyars. Her father Roman Vorontsov became fabulously rich during the time of Catherine I and even received the nickname “Roman - a big pocket.” Dashkova was one of the most educated women of her time, capable of arguing with philosophers and encyclopedists on equal terms. She was considered the closest friend of Catherine II. True, on the night when the queen overthrew her husband Peter III, Dashkova overslept. Ekaterina could not forgive Dashkova for this, and the friendship fell apart.

The letter “ё” became widely known thanks to the famous historian Karamzin. In the first book of his poetic almanac "Aonids" with the letter "ё" the words "dawn", "eagle", "moth" and "tears", as well as the verb "flowed", were printed. In this regard, Karamzin was considered the author of the letter “ё”... And of all thirty-three letters of the Russian alphabet, not a single one caused as much controversy as the letter “Ё”...

On November 29, 1783, in the house of the director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, one of the first meetings of the newly created Russian Academy took place, which was attended by G. R. Derzhavin, D. I. Fonvizin, I. I. Lepyokhin, Ya. B. Knyazhnin , Metropolitan Gabriel and others. The project of a complete explanatory Slavic-Russian dictionary, the later famous 6-volume “Dictionary of the Russian Academy”, was discussed.

The academicians were about to go home when Ekaterina Romanovna asked those present if anyone could write the word “Christmas tree”. The academics decided that the princess was joking, but she, having written the word “Iolka” she had spoken, asked: “Is it legal to represent one sound with two letters?” Noting that “these reprimands have already been introduced by custom, which, when it does not contradict common sense, should be followed in every possible way,” Dashkova proposed using the new letter “e” “to express words and reprimands, with this consent, beginning as matіoryy, іolka, іож , іol".

Dashkova’s arguments seemed convincing, and the feasibility of introducing a new letter was asked to be assessed by Metropolitan Gabriel of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, a member of the Academy of Sciences. On November 18, 1784, the letter “е” received official recognition.

After this, the letter E for 12 years occasionally appeared only in handwritten form and, in particular, in the letters of G.R. Derzhavin. It was replicated on a printing press in 1795 at the Moscow University Printing House by H. Riediger and H. A. Claudia during the publication of the book “And My Trinkets” by Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev, a poet, fabulist, chief prosecutor of the Senate, and then Minister of Justice. This printing house, in which, by the way, the newspaper “Moskovskie Vedomosti” was printed since 1788, was located on the site of the current Central Telegraph.

The first word printed with the letter E was the word “everything”. Then came the words: light, stump, immortal, cornflower. In 1796, in the same printing house, N.M. Karamzin in his first book “Aonid” with the letter E prints: dawn, eagle, moth, tears and the first verb with E “flowed”. Then in 1797 - the first annoying typo in a word with E. The proofreader did not notice, and the edition was published with “garnished” instead of “faceted”. And in 1798, G.R. Derzhavin used the first surname with the letter E - Potemkin. These are Yo’s first steps through the pages of books.

The spread of the letter “ё” in the 18th-19th centuries was also hampered by the then attitude towards the “yocking” pronunciation as bourgeois, the speech of the “vile rabble”, while the “church” “yocking” pronunciation was considered more cultured and noble.
Formally, the letter “ё”, like “y”, entered the alphabet (and received serial numbers) only in Soviet times.

The decree signed by the Soviet People's Commissar for Education A.V. Lunacharsky read: “Recognize the use of the letter e as desirable, but not obligatory.” And on December 24, 1942, by order of the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR Vladimir Petrovich Potemkin, the mandatory use of the letter “e” in school practice was introduced, and from that time on. it is officially considered part of the Russian alphabet.

For the next 14 years, fiction and scientific literature were published with almost complete use of the letter “ё”, but in 1956, on Khrushchev’s initiative, new, somewhat simplified spelling rules were introduced, and the letter “ё” again became optional.

According to the current rules of Russian spelling and punctuation, in ordinary printed texts the letter ё is used selectively. However, at the request of the author or editor, any book can be printed sequentially with the letter “е”.

Myths about the letter E

The problem with the letter e is this: the vast majority of those who talk about it or defend it know very little about it and about the language as a whole. This fact itself, naturally, negatively affects her reputation. Due to the fact that the quality of the argumentation of its supporters is close to zero, fighting it is a piece of cake. Arguments about the sacred seventh place in the alphabet can only work to prove the insanity of their supporter, but not in favor of using the letter e itself.

1. The letter e has always existed, but now enemies are fighting it

This is the most common myth, it is completely unclear where it came from. It seems that people say this because no one will check, but the reference to tradition looks convincing. In reality, the prevalence of the letter е has only grown throughout its history (except for a small deviation, when in the 1940s, it seems, there was a directive on its mandatory use, and then everyone gave up on it).

You need to understand that once upon a time there was not only the letter ё, but even such a sound. In the Church Slavonic language, those words that we pronounce with е are pronounced with е (“brothers and sisters!”), and in general the pair o - e (ѣ) stands in the series a - ya, ou - yu and y - and (ï) (see, for example, “Abridged practical Slavic grammar with systematic Slavic and Russian examples, collections and dictionaries”, Moscow, 1893). Yes, there is no letter e in Church Slavonic either.

The occasional appearance in print at the end of the 18th and 19th centuries of the symbol ё was a response to the appearance of a new sound in speech. But official status I received it after the revolution. In a Russian language textbook published in 1911 we read: “E is written in words when this sound is pronounced like yo: ice, dark, light.” It’s not even written “like yo”, it’s written “like yo”. And in the alphabet there is no e: after e comes z. It’s not for me to judge, but I believe that the letter e at that time looked as outlandish in books as the ruble sign looks today.

Letter E - entrance to the store - in Moscow

2. Without it, it is impossible to distinguish between everything and everyone

This, of course, is not entirely a myth, but there is so much misunderstanding around this situation that it should be examined separately.

Let's start with the fact that the words were all written with different letters and without any е, so that their indistinguishability today must be blamed on the language reform, during which yati was abolished, and not at all on the practical unusability of е. Wherein modern rules The Russian language requires writing two dots in cases of possible discrepancies, therefore the non-use of е where “everyone” is read without it is a spelling error.

It is clear that the situation can also be the opposite, when you need to suggest that in a certain case it is e that is read. But this problem cannot be overcome by requiring the mandatory use of e.

Memorial sign to the letter E in Perm (on the territory of the Remputmash motor-locomotive repair plant)

3. Numerous examples of reading difficulties prove the need for

When fighting for the letter e, a set of pairs of words are constantly presented, most of which are some kind of unimaginable crap. It feels like these words were specially invented to protect the letter e. What the hell is this bucket, what kind of fable is this? Before you started collecting examples, had you seen or heard these words somewhere?
And, I repeat, in cases where both words can be used equally, spelling rules require the use of ё.

For example, in “The Book about Letters” by Gordon, published by the ArtLebedev Publishing House, the word “learn” does not have dots over it, which is why it naturally reads “let’s find out.” This is a spelling error.

The very fact that to prove your point of view you need to collect examples bit by bit, most of which are completely unconvincing, it seems to me, only proves that the problem has been made up. There are no fewer examples with unspecified stress, but no one fights for the placement of stress.
There would be much more practical benefit if the word healthy was written “zdarova”, because you want to read “great” with the emphasis on the first syllable. But for some reason no one is fighting for this!

4. Due to inconsistency in the use of ё, the surname Montesquieu is misspelled

We also spell the surname Jackson “incorrectly”: in English it is pronounced much closer to Chaksn. The very idea of the transfer foreign pronunciation in Russian letters, it is obvious to everyone, it is a failure, but when it is necessary to defend the letter ё, as I already said, no one pays attention to the quality of the argumentation.

The topic of conveying foreign names and titles by means of Russian graphics generally lies beyond the topic of the letter e and is comprehensively covered in the corresponding reference book by R. Gilyarevsky and B. Starostin.

By the way, the sound at the end of Montesquieu is midway between e and e, so in this situation, even if the task is to accurately convey the sound, the choice of e is obvious. And “Pasteur” is completely nonsense; There is no smell of iotation or softening, so “Pastor” is much better suited for transmitting sounds.

5. Poor e is not a letter

The letter е is often sympathized with due to its unfair non-inclusion in the alphabet. The conclusion that it is not in the alphabet is apparently made from the fact that it is not used in house numbering and lists.

In fact, of course, it is in the alphabet, otherwise the rules of the Russian language could not possibly require its use in some cases. In lists, it is not used in the same way as th, due to its similarity with its neighbor. It's just inconvenient. In some cases, it is advisable to also exclude Z and O due to the similarity with the numbers 3 and 0. It’s just that, of all these letters, e is closest to the beginning of the alphabet, and therefore its “dropout” is noticeable most often.

By the way, only 12 letters of the alphabet are used in license plates.
The situation in pre-revolutionary spelling was completely different: there was no letter e in the alphabet. It was just a symbol that some publishers used to show off. Here Zhenya in another note puts it in a quote from a book published in 1908. It wasn't in the book itself. Why was the quote distorted? In the pre-revolutionary text it looks completely ridiculous.

In any case, fighting for the letter e is the same nonsense as fighting against it. If you like it, write it; if you don’t like it, don’t write it. I like writing because I don't see any reason not to write it. And a Russian-speaking person must be able to read both ways.

compilation based on RuNet materials - Fox

A few facts

The letter E is in the sacred, “lucky” 7th place in the alphabet.
There are about 12,500 words in the Russian language with Ё. Of these, about 150 begin with Ё and about 300 end with Ё.
The frequency of occurrence of E is 1% of the text. That is, for every thousand characters of text there are an average of ten yoshkas.
In Russian surnames, Yo occurs in approximately two cases out of a hundred.
There are words in our language with two and even three letters E: “three-star”, “four-vector”, “Boryolekh” (a river in Yakutia), “Boryogesh” and “Kögelyon” ( male names in Altai).
More than 300 surnames differ only in the presence of E or E. For example, Lezhnev - Lezhnev, Demina - Demina.
In the Russian language there are 12 male and 5 female names, in full forms of which E is present. These are Aksyon, Artyom, Nefed, Parmen, Peter, Rorik, Savel, Seliverst, Semyon, Fedor, Yarem; Alena, Klena, Matryona, Thekla, Flena.
In Ulyanovsk, hometown"yofikator" Nikolai Karamzin, there is a monument to the letter E.
In Russia, there is an official Union of Eficators of Russia, which is engaged in the fight for the rights of “de-energized” words. Thanks to their vigorous activity to besiege the State Duma, now all Duma documents (including laws) are completely “eified.” Yo - at the suggestion of the Chairman of the Union Viktor Chumakov - appeared in the newspapers “Versiya”, “Slovo”, “Gudok”, “Arguments and Facts”, etc., in television credits and in books.
Russian programmers created a jetator - computer program, which automatically places dotted letters in the text. And the artists came up with the copyright - an icon for marking official publications.

Holidays, events, people.

Holidays
Albania Liberation Day.
International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

Events
1783 - at a meeting of the Russian Academy, Dashkova proposed the letter “Y” for use.
1812 - Emperor Napoleon I abandoned his army in Russia and, together with the guard, went abroad. After his departure french army quickly decomposed and the retreat turned into a flight with monstrous losses.
1830 - the beginning of the Polish national liberation uprising.
1907 - November 16th, old style chapter Russian government Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin spoke to III State The Duma with the reform program, linking their beginning with the adoption by the Duma of laws on peasant reform. The Duma also adopted for discussion a law on universal primary education, the introduction of which began locally in 1910.
1941 — Soviet army liberated Rostov-on-Don. This city became the first regional center in the history of the Great Patriotic War that was liberated from Nazi troops. The Germans ruled Rostov for only a week. They occupied the city for the second time on July 27, 1942 and held it until February 14, 1943. Rostov was among the 10 most war-damaged cities in the USSR.
1945 - The Constituent Assembly proclaimed the creation of the Federal People's Republic Yugoslavia (FPRY).
1947 — General Assembly The UN adopted a plan to divide Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.

People
1920 - Yegor Ligachev, Russian politician, was born.
1966 - Evgeny Mironov was born, Russian actor theater and cinema, National artist Russia, laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation.

Help "Crossroads"
On November 29 (November 18, old style), 1783, in the house of the director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, one of the first meetings of the newly created Russian Academy took place, which was attended by G. R. Derzhavin, D. I. Fonvizin, I. Metropolitan Gabriel etc. The project of a complete explanatory Slavic-Russian dictionary was discussed. The academicians were about to go home when Ekaterina Romanovna asked those present if anyone could write the word “Christmas tree”. The academics decided that the princess was joking, but she, having written the word “Iolka” she had spoken, asked: “Is it legal to represent one sound with two letters?” Dashkova proposed using the new letter “е” “to express words and reprimands, with this consent, beginning as matioryy, іolka, іож, іол.” Dashkova’s arguments seemed convincing, and the feasibility of introducing a new letter was asked to be assessed by Metropolitan Gabriel of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, a member of the Academy of Sciences. In 1784, the letter “е” received official recognition.

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