Not so long ago, many books, magazines and newspapers were published without the letter “е”. And they are coming out now. Adults can somehow do without this letter, having extensive reading experience. But it’s not easy for children without an “e,” and it’s not easy for teenagers either.
Major Russian dictionaries and compilers of the Russian language have never abandoned the letter “ё” and have not thrown it out of the Russian graphic system.
One must think that those who invented and approved the letter “e” were no more stupid than us.
It owes its appearance to one of the first meetings of the recently created Russian Academy, which took place on November 29, 1783 in the house of the director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova. The meeting was attended by such prominent figures of their own, as well as subsequent times, such as G. R. Derzhavin, D. I. Fonvizin, Ya. B. Knyazhnin, I. I. Lepyokhin, Metropolitan Gabriel and others.
They discussed the creation of a complete explanatory Slavic-Russian dictionary, later known as the 6-volume “Dictionary of the Russian Academy”. The meeting was already coming to an end when the owner of the house, Princess E.R. Dashkova, asked the cultural luminaries if any of them could write the word “Christmas tree.”
Those present thought that the princess was joking, but Ekaterina Romanovna wrote the word “Iolka” that she had spoken and asked: “Is it legal to represent one sound with two letters?”
The academicians were confused and agreed that there was no suitable letter to convey the sound combination that opens this word. To which the princess noted that “these reprimands have already been introduced by custom, which, when it does not contradict common sense, should be followed in every possible way,” and suggested using the new letter “e” “to express words and reprimands, with this consent, beginning as matіoryy, Yolka, Yozh.” Those gathered recognized that Princess Dashkova was right, 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.
But even after this, the letter “Y” only occasionally appeared in handwritten form for 12 years; for example, it was used when writing letters by G. R. Derzhavin.
In the poem, N.M. Karamzin was the first to use it, replacing the indigestible combination in the word “sliosis” with the letter “e”.
The debut of printing the letter “e” on a printing press took place at the Moscow University Printing House with H. Ridiger and H. A. Claudia in 1795 when publishing the book “And My Trinkets” by the poet, fabulist, Chief Prosecutor of the Senate, and then Minister of Justice Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev .
The first word printed with the letter “е” was the word “everything”. It was followed by the words: light, stump, cornflower.
In the same printing house in 1796, N.M. Karamzin in his first book “Aonid” printed with the letter “e”: dawn, eagle, moth, tears and the first verb with “e” “flowed”.
The first typo in a word with the letter “е” occurred in 1797, when, due to an oversight by a proofreader, an edition was published with the word “garnished” instead of “faceted.”
The first surname with the letter “e” - Potemkin was written in 1798 by G. R. Derzhavin.
These were the first steps of the letter “e” before it confidently walked across the pages of books, magazines and newspapers.
There was, however, a small obstacle to the spread of the letter “е” in the 18th-19th centuries. It consisted in the fact that the elite in those days treated “shitty” pronunciation as a manifestation of philistinism, the speech of the “vile rabble.” At that time, the “church” “cheeking” reprimand was considered noble and more cultural.
Formally, the letter “ё”, like “y”, entered the alphabet and received serial numbers only after the revolution, that is, when Soviet power. In the well-known Decree signed by the Soviet People's Commissar for Education A.V. Lunacharsky “On the introduction of a new spelling” in 1918, the ancient “fita”, “izhitsa” and the unloved “yat” by many were abolished, and the use of the letter “e” was proposed to be “recognized as desirable " Literally – “Recognize the use of the letter “e” as desirable, but not obligatory.”
The letter “е” received its official status during the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War. First, on December 24, 1942, the order of the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR Vladimir Petrovich Potemkin “On the introduction of the mandatory use of the letter “Y” in school practice” was issued, and then a reference dictionary of uses appeared from that time on. The letter “Yo” began to be considered officially part of the Russian alphabet.
But, alas, the current set of “Rules of Russian Spelling and Punctuation” does not make the use of this letter mandatory. There is a list of situations in which the letter “е” must be printed, for example, in books for children, in textbooks for foreign students. Be sure to write the letter “ё” in geographical names, in words that without “e” have different meanings, but sound the same, like - donkey - donkey, everything - everything and so on.
And in post-war period Fiction and scientific literature were almost always published using the letter “ё”, but in 1956 Khrushchev decided to focus on culture, and one of his initiatives was a recommendation to simplify spelling rules and make the letter “ё” optional.
In subsequent years, the use of the letter “е” became a bone of contention between the ideologists of simplification and the patriotic part of the Russian intelligentsia, which defended the obligatory nature of its use. Most scientists and cultural figures also insist on the mandatory use of the letter “ё”. Ignoring it often leads to sad oddities.
For example, the Russian nobleman in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace by the surname Levin turned into Levin. And, by the way, due to the neglect of the letter “e” worldwide famous figures the cultures that were actually Roerichs are now known as Roerichs.
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” in some ways repeats the order of the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR Vladimir Petrovich Potemkin, pointing out the mandatory use of the letter “ё” in cases , when a word may be misread, for example, in proper names, since ignoring the letter “е” in this case is a violation of the Federal Law “On state language Russian Federation».
But again, according to the current rules of Russian spelling and punctuation, in ordinary printed texts the letter ё is used at the request of the author or editor. That is, any book, magazine, newspaper can be printed both with and without the letter “е”.
But, for example, such a serious organization, which does not delve into the disputes of different linguistic movements, like Sberbank of Russia, recognizes the letter “e” as mandatory. Its service system contains all 33 letters of the Russian alphabet and each is assigned a serial number. Otherwise, it would be impossible to identify, for example, citizens Alenov, Yorokhov, Schroeder and others.
In 2005, a monument was erected to the letter “e” in Ulyanovsk. Author artist Alexander Zinin. The monument is dedicated not only to the letter “Y”, but also to the writer N.M. Karamzin, who was the first to officially use it in the Russian language.
Probably, everyone who truly loves our “great and mighty” Russian language and Russian literature is sincerely grateful to the great Russian woman, Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, for giving us all the letter “Y”.
And we can only hope that love for culture, united with common sense, will defend the letter “Y” and it will forever remain in our language.
In 1783, at a meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Princess Ekaterina Dashkova proposed replacing the existing combination “io” with a new letter “e”. Ekaterina Romanovna’s proposal was supported by other scientists and artists. On November 18, 1784, the letter “е” received official recognition.
Her further fate was difficult; she could not win a firm place for herself in the Russian alphabet. The letter first appeared in print only in 1795 in Ivan Dmitriev’s book “And My Trinkets.” A year later, “ё” became known thanks to the poetic almanac “Aonida” by Nikolai Karamzin.
Decades later, a Decree was issued signed by the Soviet People's Commissar for Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, introducing mandatory reformed spelling. It, in particular, read: “Recognize the use of the letter “e” as desirable, but not mandatory.”
There is a version that Joseph Stalin himself contributed to the strengthening of the “ё” in the press. During the war, many operations were disrupted due to confusion in names settlements, which differed only by one letter. For example, Berezino and Berezino, Chigarevo and Chigarevo. They say that even in the order that was once brought to the “leader of the peoples” for signature, the names of several generals were printed with “e” rather than “e”. Stalin was furious. And on December 24, 1942, by order of the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR Vladimir Potemkin, the mandatory use of the letter “e” was introduced. Then it somehow “fell away” again.
According to the current rules of Russian spelling and punctuation, in ordinary printed texts the letter “ё” is used selectively, at the request of the author or editor. It is imperative to write the letter “ё” in documents in cases where a word, for example, a proper name, can be misread, since ignoring the letter “ё” in this case is a violation of the Federal Law “On the State Language of the Russian Federation”.
In 2005 in Ulyanovsk, hometown Karamzin, erected a monument to the letter “e”. It is a rectangular slab of brown marble on which is carved a lowercase letter with two dots at the top.
There is an official Union of Yofikators of Russia, which is engaged in the fight for the rights of “de-energized” words. Thanks to the active work of the efikators, now all Duma documents, including laws, are completely “eoficated”. “Yo” appeared in the newspapers “Versiya”, “Slovo”, “Gudok”, “Arguments and Facts” and others, in television credits and books, on signposts in the Moscow and St. Petersburg metro.
The fight for the rights of the youngest Russian letter continues. On the social network “VKontakte” there are a lot of groups to protect the rights of “e”; the largest of them has more than five thousand people registered.
Interesting facts:
The first printed word with the letter “е” was “everything”, then “Ogonyok”, “Stump”, “Bessmertna”, “Vasilyochik”, the first surname was “Potemkin”.
There are about 12,500 words with “ё” in the Russian language. Of these, about 150 begin with it and about 300 end with it.
There are words in the Russian language with two or even three letters “ё”: “three-star, four-vector, Börölyoh (a river in Yakutia), Börögösh and Kögelön ( male names in Altai).
It was customary to write V.I. Lenin’s patronymic in the instrumental case as Ilyich (while for all other Ilyichs after 1956 it was used only by Ilyich). There is no information that this rule has been lifted.
The surname of the famous Russian poet Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet (Foeth - German by origin) was distorted when printing his first book. He gained fame under the name Fet. At the same time, he spent part of his life under the name Shenshin.
Morse code does not provide for the transmission of the letter “е”.
The Elkin family from Barnaul lost their inheritance due to the fact that it was registered in the Elkin family.
Perm resident Tatyana Teterkina almost lost her Russian citizenship due to the incorrect spelling of her last name in her passport.
Voice greetings
Yo ran along the path,
I lost two points,
Crying while sitting on the ground:
- Now I’m not Yo, but E!
From the wings of a ladybug
I brushed off two dots deftly,
Secure them with grass
The letter E above the head.
In parting she said:
- I have a lot of points!
Don't worry, letter E,
It's all yours now!
Send to a friend
E and Yo are sisters,
It's not easy to tell the sisters apart.
But the letter E has two dots,
Like a ladder of nails.
The letter E took a break,
How immediately at her
A couple of chicks fluttered -
The result is the letter E.
Starting with the letter E you will name
Three words: Christmas tree, hedgehog and ruff,
And everything is terribly caustic.
They all have needles.
Tell me, letter E,
How is your life?
The letter E gives a report:
- Nothing goes on.
I am always the drummer!
- Oh-Yo-Yo, this is it!
The letter E sighs and cries,
They stole her points.
In magazines, books and newspapers
You won't meet more letter this one.
But the letter E is happy.
It is found everywhere.
Meanwhile, without the letter E
The world cannot live! Oh my!
Imagine. Under the green Christmas tree
A hedgehog and a quail are shedding tears.
Matryona, Peter and Semyon
Now we are left without names.
The eagle could not begin to fly,
The plane is bothering him.
Director with make-up artist on set
They can't cope with the actor.
Having overcome a steep climb,
The donkey fell into the pond.
In vain we wait for honey from bees,
The ferret came to the apiary.
You give the people the letter E!
After all, we can’t live without her!
And in our Russian alphabet
There is such a letter! Please note!
The tree is the same as the spruce,
And there are drops above the Christmas tree.
Add drops of dots,
Yo - this is how we read the letter.
As you know, in the Russian language there is a letter e . However, not everyone and not everywhere install it. So what is the right thing to do, to write or not? Personally, I rarely write it, other authors always use it. Let's look into this issue.
Let's turn to history. The combination of sounds and [o] after soft consonants was not indicated in writing for a long time. Only in the middle of the 18th century were they used for this purpose. IO under a common lid, but due to the cumbersome design, it was ignored by most literate people. Sometimes signs were also used o, yo, iô, ió, io.
On November 29 (18), 1783, one of the first meetings took place Russian Academy of Sciences, which was attended by E.R. Dashkova (Director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences), G.R. Derzhavin, D.I. Fonvizin, I.I. Lepyokhin, Ya.B. Prince, Metropolitan Gabriel and others. The project of the 6-volume “Dictionary of the Russian Academy” was discussed. And at the end of the meeting Dashkova I asked those present how they would spell the word “Christmas tree.” Having written “yolka”, she remarked: “Is it legal to represent one sound with two letters?” She further continued: “These reprimands have already been introduced by custom, which, when it does not contradict common sense, should be followed in every possible way.”, — and suggested entering the letter e. Thus, November 18 (November 29, New Style) 1784 year can be considered the birthday of the letter e .
One of the first to use e started in personal correspondence Derzhavin. But only twelve years later the letter e appeared in a printed publication - in the poet’s book Ivan Dmitrieva“And my trinkets”, printed in 1795 at the Moscow University Printing House. Words meet there “everything”, “light”, “stump”, “immortal”, “cornflower”. In 1796, a poetic almanac was published in the same printing house "Aonids", published N.M. Karamzin. There with the letter e words printed “dawn”, “eagle”, “moth”, “tears”, “flowed”. In 1798 G.R.Derzhavin published from e first surname: " Potemkin" However, in scientific works that time letter e still not used. For example, in "History of the Russian State" Karamzin (1816-29) letter " e " absent. Although until recently it was Karamzin who was considered the author of this innovation.
Unlike th , which was introduced into the alphabet in 1735 and was required to be used, the letter e was not considered a separate letter and was not included in the alphabet. In addition, throughout the 18th-19th centuries, “mocking” pronunciation was considered as “philistine”, “mean”. The speech of a cultured person was “cheeky”, “church”. Among the opponents e there were such famous figures as A.P. Sumarokov and V.K. Trediakovsky. Thus, its use was optional. Letter e was included in "New ABC" L.N. Tolstoy (1875) and took 31st place, between yat and “e”.
However, the letter e did not always convey the correct sound of words, especially those borrowed from French and German languages, because it softens the previous consonants. Therefore in late XIX- at the beginning of the 20th century it was proposed to enter the letter ӭ (uh with two dots). Sometimes it was also used for these purposes ö . In posthumous edition Dahl's dictionary in a number of cases, publishers dotted the issue.
On December 23, 1917 (January 5, 1918), a Decree was published, signed by the Soviet People's Commissar for Education A. V. Lunacharsky, which ordered “all government and state publications” from January 1 (Old Art.), 1918, to “be printed according to the new spelling.” It also said: “Recognize the use of the letter e as desirable, but not obligatory”. At the same time, in 1918, Bolshevik periodicals continued to use the old spelling and only switched to the new one in the fall.
It should be noted that work on spelling reform began at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1904, a “Preliminary Report” was published regarding the reform of the Spelling Subcommittee at the Imperial Academy of Sciences, chaired by A. A. Shakhmatov. In 1911, a special meeting at the Academy of Sciences in general view approved the work of the commission. The following year, 1912, a decree on the reform was published and some publications began to be published taking into account the new spelling. On May 11 (24), 1917, “Resolutions of the meeting on the issue of simplifying Russian spelling” were published. May 17 (30) Ministry public education The Provisional Government ordered an immediate reform of Russian spelling; another circular was issued on June 22 (July 5). Thus, the reform of the spelling of the Russian language was carried out even before the October Revolution.
On December 24, 1942, according to the order of the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR, the mandatory use of the letter was introduced e at school, from now on it is officially included in the Russian alphabet. There is a legend that he personally had a hand in this Stalin. December 6, 1942 manager of the Council of People's Commissars Yakov Chadayev brought an order for signature in which the names of several generals were printed with the letter “e” rather than “e”. Stalin flew into a rage, and the very next day, December 7, 1942, the letter “e” appeared in all articles of the Pravda newspaper. For example: “Workers, collective farmers, Soviet intelligentsia! Strengthen your assistance to the front with selfless work! Sacredly fulfill your civic duty to your homeland and its valiant defenders at the front!”
However, the normative spelling rules were published only in 1956. At first, publishers used the letter e , but then began to use it only when necessary.
According to § 10 " Rules of Russian spelling and punctuation", operating since 1956, letter e is written in the following cases:
- 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.
- When you need to indicate the pronunciation of a little-known word, for example: Olekma river.
- 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.
According to § 5 new edition of these rules, approved by the Orthographic Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences and published in 2006, the use of the letter e can be sequential or selective.
Consistent use of letters e 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. Consistent 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 e used selectively. It is recommended to use it in the following cases.
1. To prevent misidentification 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, for example: gyozy, surfing, fleur, harder, lye, including to indicate correct accent, eg: fable, brought, carried away, condemned, newborn, spy.
3. In proper names - surnames, geographical names, for example: Konenkov, Neyolova, Catherine Deneuve, Schrödinger, Dezhnev, Koshelev, Chebyshev, Veshenskaya, Olekma.
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 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.”
The greatest inconvenience is optional use e delivers in jurisprudence. People often cannot register an inheritance because the surnames of relatives are often spelled with a different letter. In 2009 Supreme Court Russian Federation admitted that “The letter “e” is not meaningful. The absence of two dots above the letter does not distort the data about the citizen.”
Interestingly, due to the optional spelling of the letter e , we pronounce many words incorrectly, replacing e on e And e on e. For example:
Replacing e with e:
- Koenigsberg is often pronounced as Koenigsberg. This mistake is also reflected in the film “Seventeen Moments of Spring”.
- Pyongyang should be read as Pyongyang (평양) (cf. English: Pyongyang).
- Goebbels (German Goebbels) should be written as Goebbels, Goering (German Göring) - as Goering.
- Mireille Mathieu (French: Mireille Mathieu) should be pronounced "Mathieu".
- Burns, Röntgen, Foeth began to be written “Burns”, “X-ray”, “Fet”, etc.
Replacing e with ё:
- "scam" instead of "scam"
- "grenadier" instead of "grenadier"
- "being" instead of "being"
- "guardianship" instead of "guardianship"
Sometimes misspellings become common usage.
There are also words that allow both options: for example, faded And faded, whitish And whitish, maneuver And maneuver, bile And bile etc.
Some writers, scientists and cultural figures advocate for the mandatory use of the letter e , for example, it is necessarily used in the works of A.I. Solzhenitsyn. In 2005, in Ulyanovsk, the homeland of N. Karamzin, by decision of the mayor's office, a monument was erected - a rectangular slab of brown marble, on which is engraved e. Every year on November 29th the Day of the Letter is celebrated. e ».
Thus, the author himself determines whether to write a letter for him e or not. According to opponents of the use e , when writing it, the eye “stumbles” over the superscript, two dots interfere with cursive writing. Yes, and in computers the letter e placed outside the main keyboard and located in the upper left corner, which is quite inconvenient for the typist.
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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, whether it is legal to represent one sound in two letters, the pundits could not find an 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" were printed, as well as the verb "flowed". 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. 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 - 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 “yokaya” pronunciation as bourgeois, the speech of the “vile rabble”, while the “church” “eka” 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.
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 “ё” 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 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 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 it received official status 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. At the same time, modern rules of the Russian language require writing two periods in cases of possible discrepancies, therefore the non-use of е where “everything” 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 Gordon’s “Book about Letters,” published by the ArtLebedev Publishing House, the word “we recognize” does not have dots over it, which is why it naturally reads “we recognize.” 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 е, 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 transmitting foreign language pronunciation in Russian letters is obviously a failure, but when it comes to defending 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 halfway 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 their 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 as part of a 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, the full forms of which contain Y. These are Aksen, Artyom, Nefed, Parmen, Peter, Rorik, Savel, Seliverst, Semyon, Fedor, Yarem; Alena, Klena, Matryona, Thekla, Flena.
In Ulyanovsk, the hometown of the “yofikator” Nikolai Karamzin, there is a monument to the letter E.
In Russia, there is an official Union of Efictionists 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 have created etator - a computer program that automatically places letters with dots in the text. And the artists came up with the copyright - an icon for marking official publications.
On December 24, 1942, by order of the People's Commissar of Education of the RSFSR Vladimir Potemkin, the mandatory use of the letter "ё" in school practice was introduced. It was from this day that this letter, which still causes a lot of conversation and controversy around itself, officially entered the Russian alphabet. And she took an honorable place in it - 7th place.
"RG" provides a number of interesting and little-known facts about the letter "Y" and its history.
Princess Christmas tree
The “godmother” of the letter “e” can be considered Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. On November 29 (18), 1783, one of the first meetings of the Russian Academy of Sciences took place, at which the princess was present among the respected poets, writers and philosophers of that time. The project of the 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?” And she proposed using the new letter “е” to express words and pronunciations, for example, such as “matіoryy,” “іolka,” “іozh.” Dashkova’s arguments seemed convincing, and the feasibility of introducing a new letter was asked to be assessed by a member of the Academy of Sciences, Metropolitan of Novgorod and St. Petersburg Gabriel. Thus, November 29 (18), 1783 can be considered the birthday of “yo”.
One of the first to use “ё” in personal correspondence was the poet Gavriil Derzhavin. The letter first appeared in a printed edition in the late 90s of the 18th century - in the book of the poet Ivan Dmitriev “And My Trinkets,” printed in 1795 at the Moscow University Printing House. There are the words “everything”, “light”, “stump”, “immortal”, “cornflower”. However, in scientific works of that time the letter “е” was still not used. For example, in “History of the Russian State” by Karamzin (1816-1829) the letter “ё” is missing. Although many researchers and philologists give credit to the historical writer Karamzin for introducing the letter “e”. Among her opponents were such famous figures as the writer and poet Alexander Sumarokov and the scientist and poet Vasily Trediakovsky. Thus, its use was optional.
It couldn't have happened without Stalin
On December 23, 1917 (January 5, 1918), a decree was published, signed by People's Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, which ordered “all government and state publications” from January 1 (old style) 1918 “to be printed according to the new spelling.” It also said: “Recognize the use of the letter “ё” as desirable, but not obligatory.” And only on December 24, 1942, according to the order of the People’s Commissar of Education of the RSFSR Vladimir Potemkin, the mandatory use of the letter “e” was introduced in school.
There is a legend that Stalin personally had a hand in this. On December 6, 1942, the manager of the Council of People's Commissars, Yakov Chadayev, brought an order for signature in which the names of several generals were printed with the letter "e" rather than "e". Stalin was furious, and the very next day, December 7, 1942, the letter “e” appeared in all articles of the Pravda newspaper. However, publishers initially used the letter with two dots at the top, but in the 50s of the twentieth century they began to use it only when necessary. The selective use of the letter "ё" was enshrined in the rules of Russian spelling in 1956.
To write or not to write
In accordance with the letter of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated 05/03/2007 “On decisions of the Interdepartmental Commission on the Russian Language”, it is prescribed to write the letter “ё” in cases where a word can be misread, for example, in proper names, since ignoring the letter “ ё" in this case is a violation of the Federal Law "On the State Language of the Russian Federation".
According to the current rules of Russian spelling and punctuation, the letter “ё” is written in the following cases:
When it is necessary to prevent incorrect reading and understanding of a word, for example: “we recognize” as opposed to “we recognize”; "everything" as opposed to "all"; “perfect” (participle) as opposed to “perfect” (adjective), etc.;
- when you need to indicate the pronunciation of a little-known word, for example: Olekma river.
- 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.
According to the same rules, in ordinary printed texts the letter “e” can be used selectively. But at the request of the author or editor, any text or book can be printed with the letter “е”.
Especially if there are rarely used, borrowed or difficult words: for example, “gyeza”, “surfing”, “fleur”, “harder”, “slit”. Or you need to indicate the correct emphasis: for example, “fable”, “brought”, “carried away”, “condemned”, “newborn”, “filler” (the letter “e” is always stressed).
Leo instead of Leo
The optional use of the letter “е” has led to the fact that today names are written without it:
Philosopher and writer Montesquieu;
- X-ray physics;
- physicist Anders Jonas Ångström, as well as the unit of length Ångström, named after him;
- microbiologist and chemist Louis Pasteur;
- artist and philosopher Nicholas Roerich;
- Nazi leaders Goebbels and Goering;
- writer Leo Tolstoy (the writer himself pronounced his name in accordance with the old Moscow speech tradition - Lev; Tolstoy was also called by members of his family, close friends and numerous acquaintances).
The surnames Khrushchev and Gorbachev are also written without the “ё”.
Other interesting facts
In 2005, in Ulyanovsk, by decision of the city mayor’s office, a monument was erected to the letter “e” - a triangular prism made of granite, on which a lowercase “e” is stamped.
There are about 12.5 thousand words in the Russian language with “ё”. Of these, about 150 begin with “е” and about 300 end with “е”.
In the Russian language, words with several letters “е” are also possible, usually these are compound words: “three-star”, “four-vector”.
More than 300 surnames differ only in the presence of “e” or “e” in them. For example, Lezhnev - Lezhnev, Demina - Demina. The correct spelling of such surnames in personal documents and various property and inheritance matters is especially important. A mistake can deprive a person, for example, of an inheritance. For example, the Elkin family from Barnaul reported that in the 1930s their ancestor lost his inheritance due to the fact that it was registered in the Elkin family. And Perm resident Tatyana Teterkina almost lost her Russian citizenship due to the incorrect spelling of her last name in her passport.
There is a rare Russian surname Yo of French origin, which French written in four letters.
The surname of the famous Russian poet Afanasy Afanasyevich Fet (Foeth - German by origin) was distorted when printing his first book. He gained fame under the name Fet. At the same time, he spent part of his life under the name Shenshin.