? (Az?/)
? ?
(See below) ?
Usage
Writing system	Cyrillic script
Type	Alphabetic
Language of origin	Old Church Slavonic
Phonetic usage	[a] [?] [?]
Unicode codepoint	U+0410, U+0430
Alphabetical position	1 Numerical value: 1
History
Development	Proto-Canaanite script or Cretan script ? ? ? ? ?
Time period	~900 to present
Descendants	• ?
Sisters	A ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? A ?
Transliteration equivalents	A (Latin script)
Variations	(See below) ?
Other
Other letters commonly used with
Associated numbers	1
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Letter ?, page from Elisabeth Boehm's Azbuka

Cyrillic letter ?
Phonetic usage:	[a], [?], [?]
Name:
Numeric value:	1
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Non-Slavic letters
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Archaic letters
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
List of Cyrillic letters Cyrillic digraphs
v t e

? (? ?; ? ?) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It commonly represents an open central unrounded vowel /ä/, halfway between the pronunciation of ⟨a⟩ in "cat" and "father". The Cyrillic letter ? is romanized using the Latin letter A.

History

The Cyrillic letter ? was derived directly from the Greek letter Alpha (? ?). In the Early Cyrillic alphabet its name was (az?), meaning "I". In the Cyrillic numeral system, the Cyrillic letter ? had a value of 1.

Form

Through history the Cyrillic letter ? has had various shapes, but today is standardised on one that looks exactly like the Latin letter A, including the italic and lower case forms.

Usage

In most languages that use the Cyrillic alphabet - such as Ukrainian, Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, Macedonian, Montenegrin and Bulgarian - the Cyrillic letter ? represents the open central unrounded vowel /a/. In Ingush and Chechen the Cyrillic letter ? represents both the open back unrounded vowel /?/ and the mid-central vowel /?/. In Tuvan the letter can be written as a double vowel.^[1][2]

Related letters and other similar characters

• A a : Latin letter A
• ? ? : Greek letter Alpha
• ? ? : Latin letter A with Breve
• Â â : Latin letter A with Circumflex
• ? ? : Latin letter A with Macron
• Æ æ Icelandic letter Æ

Computing codes

	? (Cyrillic) Pronunciation of name of Cyrillic '?'
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See also

• Cyrillic characters in Unicode

References

External links

• The dictionary definition of ? at Wiktionary
• The dictionary definition of ? at Wiktionary