the letter ѧ, known little jus (bulgarian: малък юс, russian: юс малый) stood front nasal vowel, conventionally transcribed ę. history of letter (in both church slavonic , vernacular texts) varies according development of sound in different areas cyrillic used.
in serbia, [ę] became [e] @ period , letter ѧ ceased used, being replaced e. in bulgaria situation complicated fact dialects differ , there different orthographic systems in use, broadly speaking [ę] became [e] in positions, in circumstances merged [ǫ], particularly in inflexional endings, e.g. third person plural ending of present tense of verbs such правѧтъ (modern bulgarian правят). letter continued used, distribution, particularly in regard other jusy, governed orthographical convention phonetic value or etymology.
among eastern slavs, [ę] denasalised, [æ], palatalised preceding consonant; after palatalisation became phonemic, /æ/ phoneme merged /a/, , ѧ henceforth indicated /a/ after palatalised consonant, or else, in initial or post-vocalic position, /ja/. however, cyrillic had character function, namely ꙗ, eastern slavs these 2 characters henceforth equivalent. alphabet in meletij smotrickij s grammar of 1619 accordingly lists ꙗ и҆лѝ ѧ ; explains ꙗ used , ѧ elsewhere. (in fact distinguishes feminine form of accusative plural of third person pronoun ѧ҆̀ masculine , neuter ꙗ҆̀.) reflects practice of earlier scribes , further codified muscovite printers of seventeenth century (and continued in modern church slavonic). however, in vernacular , informal writing of period, 2 letters may used indiscriminately.
it in russian cursive (skoropis ) writing of time letter acquired modern form: left-hand leg of ѧ progressively shortened, disappearing altogether, while foot of middle leg shifted towards left, producing я shape.
in specimens of civil script produced peter i, forms of ꙗ, ѧ , я grouped together; peter deleted first two, leaving я in modern alphabet, , use in russian remains same present day. adopted standardised orthographies of modern ukrainian , belarusian. in nineteenth-century bulgaria, both old cyrillic , civil scripts used printing, я in latter corresponding ѧ in former, , there various attempts standardise orthography, of some, such plovdiv school exemplified nayden gerov, more conservative, preserving middle bulgarian distribution of letter, others attempted rationalise spelling on more phonetic principles, , 1 project in 1893 proposed abolishing letter я altogether. twentieth century, under russian influence, я came used /ja/ (which not reflex of ę in bulgarian), retaining use /jɐ/ no longer used other purposes; function today.
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