back yer

9.9

A Cyrillic letter written as Ъ or ъ that shows a hard consonant sound

noun

Specialized

: signo duro

In Russian, back yer represents a hard consonant.

Examples

When learning Cyrillic, understanding the function of the back yer is essential.
The Russian word 'мать' uses the back yer at the end in older orthography.
Some Slavic languages retain the back yer as an important orthographic symbol.
The letter back yer is crucial in Slavic languages.
Some Slavic languages retain the back yer as an important orthographic symbol.
When learning Cyrillic, understanding the function of the back yer is essential.
The Russian word 'мать' uses the back yer at the end in older orthography.

Synonyms

hard sign

vsback yer

Specialized

9.9

A Cyrillic letter that makes the consonant before it sound hard

is the same letter and meaning but is an alternative name or form

Surface Forms

back yer singular

back yers plural

Morphology

back + yer

The phrase is compositionally built from 'back' + 'yer' and would reasonably be interpreted as the 'back' variant of the historical Cyrillic 'yer' letter by a learner who knows both constituents. However, the detailed phonological function (that this letter specifically marks a hard/non‑palatalized consonant) is specialized orthographic knowledge not fully inferable from the literal parts, so the transparency is partial.

Etymology

Back yer gets its name from an old small letter called yer, and the word back shows it was a sign for a sound made at the back of the mouth. That's why the mark later came to show a 'hard' consonant in spelling.