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Glite Dictionary
big yus

big yus

9.9
A letter in old Slavic alphabets that shows a nasal vowel sound
  • noun
  • Specialized
translation icon : yus grande
  • The big yus was used to represent a nasal vowel in Old Church Slavonic texts.

Examples

  • Many early manuscripts feature both big yus and little yus in various words.

  • Linguists study how the big yus gradually disappeared from Slavic alphabets.

  • The big yus is an important letter in Slavic linguistics.

  • Do you know how to pronounce big yus?

  • The big yus is a key letter in understanding the phonetics of early Slavic languages.

  • In historical texts, the big yus often appears alongside other Cyrillic letters.

  • Scholars agree that the big yus played a significant role in the development of Slavic writing.

Synonyms

yus
vsbig yus
  • Archaic
9.9

A letter in old Slavic alphabets used for vowels with a nasal sound

refers specifically to the letter for a nasalized back vowel

Surface Forms

big yus singular
big yuses plural

Morphology

big + yus

The phrase combines the transparent modifier 'big' (large) with 'yus' (a historic character), so a learner who knows both constituents can infer it denotes a particular, larger/major variant of the yus letter. However, the specific phonetic/historical sense (a Common Slavonic nasalized back vowel and its scriptological role) is specialised and not derivable from the words alone, making the expression only partially predictable.

Etymology

The noun big yus names an old Slavic 'letter' that stood for a back nasal vowel sound. It was called big yus because there were two similar signs, the other called little yus, and the word 'big' showed it was the larger, back form, so the name helps you remember it was that old 'letter'.