Numeric value: 2 | ||
Ve (В в; italics: В в) is a letter of the Cyrillic script.
Contents
It commonly represents the voiced labiodental fricative /v/, like ⟨v⟩ in "very".
The capital letter Ve looks the same as the capital Latin letter B but is pronounced differently.
Ve is romanized usually by the Latin letter V but sometimes the Latin letter W (such as in Polish or German).
History
Both Ve and the Cyrillic letter Be (Б б) were derived from the Greek letter Beta (Β β), which already represented /v/ in Greek by the time that the Cyrillic alphabet was created.
In the Early Cyrillic alphabet, its name was вѣдѣ (vědě), meaning "I know".
In the Cyrillic numeral system, it had the value of 2.
Usage
In Russian and Bulgarian, Ve generally represents /v/, but at the end of a word or before voiceless consonants, it represents the voiceless [f]. Before a palatalizing vowel, it represents /vʲ/.
In standard Ukrainian pronunciation (based on the Poltava dialect), Ve represents a sound like the English W ([w]) when in the word final position. Because of this, it is not uncommon to see words ending in ⟨в⟩ transcribed to end in ⟨w⟩, for example, Владислав = Vladyslaw for Vladislav.
Additionally, some Ukrainians also use this pronunciation in words where the letter is directly preceded by a consonant, while for others all occurrences of the letter Ve denote [w]. In the Eastern Ukraine, the letter Ve may represent a voiceless [f], but this is considered a Russianism, as word-final devoicing does not occur in standard Ukrainian. For example, the standard Ukrainian pronunciation of the word сказав (being said) is /skazaw/. However in the Eastern Ukraine one is likely to hear the Russified [skazaf] (with final devoicing).
In Belarusian, the letter Ve represents only the sound /v/. In the word final position, or if directly proceeded by a consonant, it mutates to the letter Short U (Ў ў), a Belarusian letter representing the sound /w/. E.g., the Belarusian noun "language" is мова (mova), but the adjectival form is моўны (mowny), and the genitive plural of the noun (formed by removing the final ⟨а⟩) is моў (mow).
In Serbian, the letter Ve represents only the sound /v/.
In Macedonian the letter is used for the sound /v/, but if the letter appears at the end of the word then it is pronounced as /f/. An example of this is the word бев [bɛf] ('I was').
In Slovene and Tuvan, it is used for /ʋ/.
In Mongolian and Kalmyk, it is used for /w/.