Once upon a time, “Yati” and “Eri”, Fita and Izhitsa left our alphabet relatively painlessly - as if they never existed at all. A slight nostalgia jumps in, perhaps, when you see a sign like “Tavern”, and then among older people, young people - up to the lantern.

But as for the letter “Y” in the rules of the Russian language, there is a whole epic here, and it would not be a sin to recall its key points. “History of the issue” - as they usually say in scientific circles.

The wine went to my head!

The honor of discovery and introduction and the wide use of this letter are shared between the associate of Catherine II, Princess Elizaveta Romanovna Dashkova (she is also the President of the Imperial Academy) and Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin - poet, publicist, historian. By the way, in Ulyanovsk - Karamzin’s homeland - there was even a monument to this letter. Dashkova, at one of the Academy meetings, openly “pushed” the expediency of introducing this letter, but another 12 years passed before the letter appeared in print.

Strictly speaking, Karamzin’s close friend (and also a poet) Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev was the first to use it, and Karamzin sanctified it with his authority. This happened in 1795-1796. According to the widespread version, Dashkova decided on the innovation, being a lover of a fizzy drink, the famous French champagne brand Moët & Chandon. Those very notorious dots above the letter “e” are there.

Scrape out the very spirit!

Not to say that everyone followed Dashkova and Karamzin. The archaists and Old Believers did not want to give up their positions so easily. Thus, the former admiral A.S. Shishkov, who headed the society “Conversation of Lovers of Russian Literature” - a man, of course, of great civil and personal courage, but absolutely devoid of linguistic flair, went to extremes, demanding both a ban on all foreign words in the Russian language and personally erasing the hated dots in each of the books that caught my eye.

From poets to generalissimos

However, linguistic conservatism was not unique to Shishkov: Russian poets (Marina Tsvetaeva, Andrei Bely, Alexander Blok) stubbornly continued to write “zholty” and “black”. The Bolsheviks did not touch Yo, which was the last one in the pre-revolutionary alphabet, issuing a decree according to which its writing was recognized as “desirable, but not obligatory.”

This continued until the Great Patriotic War, when maximum accuracy was required in the names of settlements on maps. Stalin personally issued a decree on the widespread use of Yo. Of course, after his death there was a rollback. And today there is absolutely “confusion and vacillation.”

They want to completely destroy it!

On one of the Internet resources, Yo is contemptuously called “under-letter,” which sounds good, but, they say, looks bad. Its widespread use is called violence against the reading public.

And it’s not so bad that Yo’s keyboard has a strange place in the upper left corner. There are obvious distortions in the spelling of both proper names (Lev instead of Lev, Montesquieu instead of Montesquieu, Fet instead of Fet) and settlements (Pyongyang instead of Pyongyang, Königsberg instead of Königsberg). And what a hassle and headache for passport officers when Eremenko turns out to be Eremenko, and not only Natalia turns out to be Natalia!

Let's calmly figure it out!

We will not take the side of the “yofikators” (supporters of the widespread use of this letter) or their opponents on the issue of “writing e or ё”. Let's remember the rule of the “golden mean” and consider the basic rules for using Ё in modern written and printed texts. Moreover, linguists managed to reach a compromise and consolidate it in a special document - “Rules for Spelling and Punctuation of the Russian Language.”

Firstly, even if in the Russian language there is no rule about a clearly fixed stress, unlike, say, Italian or French, there is almost always an exception to every rule, and in this case it concerns the letter E, which is always found in a striking position.

Secondly, in books for preschoolers and textbooks for students junior classes Yo is present without fail - after all, children are still just learning and comprehending all the basics of linguistic wisdom and there is no need to complicate this process for them.

Thirdly, Yo will appear in manuals for foreigners learning Russian.

Fourthly, when it is not entirely clear to us which part of speech is meant, when the general meaning of a word can be perceived erroneously (chalk or chalk, bucket or pail, all or everything, sky or palate), writing Ё will become a lifesaver.

Fifthly, Yo is written in geographical names, toponyms, surnames, proper names: Olekma, Veshenskaya, Neyolova, etc.

Sixthly, E is required when we are dealing with an unfamiliar, possibly borrowed word (for example, surfing). It will also help indicate the correct stress in this word. This is how you kill two birds with one stone!

Finally, seventhly, dictionaries, reference books, encyclopedias - specialized literature - are not just allowed, but required.

In general, you should gradually develop a sense of language and adhere to the following rule: if the E is not dotted and this distorts the meaning of the word, we dot it. Otherwise, we vary E and E.

In modern times, the Russian language is developing every day. Neologisms appear more often and acquire a new trend. But the seventh letter of the alphabet “ё” is increasingly less and less given due importance in print. It made history during Soviet times in 1942 and remains to this day. However, when drawing up important documents identifying a citizen’s identity or affiliation, many officials consider it unnecessary to use the letter “е”, replacing it with “e”.

Federal Law of the Russian Federation dated July 1, 2005, No. 53 “On state language RF" Article 3, obliges the use of the letter "ё" in all official documents, such as identity cards, passports, civil registration certificates, educational documents in the names and surnames of citizens of the Russian Federation.

Download text federal law 53 “On the state language Russian Federation" Can

Rules for writing E and E

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in 2009 approved a ruling that the letters “e” and “e” in different documents of the same person are equivalent, and valid for all rights if the person’s identity is identified. Controversial issues arise when drawing up official papers of a pension fund, when purchasing real estate, registration of registration and any other significant documents. In more than 2.5 thousand Russian surnames, it is necessary to use the letter “ё”, but they write “e”.

Thus, in the law “On the spelling of the letters “e” and “e” the documents state that it is necessary to oblige a person to change acts due to the use of a particular letter only when the semantic meaning in the surname, first name, patronymic or city ​​names.

Spelling E and Yo in last name and first name

When there is a letter “ё” in the first name, last name, city of residence or other significant facts for any documentation, which is written as “e”, this can cause inconvenience when buying or selling real estate, obtaining citizenship, and so on.

It happens that the letter “e” is written in the passport, and “e” in the birth certificate. In this case, additional information and corrections of errors in documents may be required. Citizens of the Russian Federation often seek advice on such issues. to the Ministry of Education and Science .

The Rules of Russian Spelling and Punctuation, certified by the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1956, indicate that the letter “ё” should be used in cases of preventing the incorrectness of the stated word. Thus, regional authorities represented by officials are required to enter into the document the letter “е” in proper names (first name, surname and patronymic), as detailed in letter No. 159/03 dated 05/03/2017.

Examples

Case 1

One of the employees of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation appealed to the Pension Fund with a request to accrue an insurance pension. The citizen was refused, citing different readings of the letters in the spelling.

On the identity card, the surname is spelled out with an “е”, and in the owner’s work book the letter “e” appears. The Supreme Court explained to the man that there is no double meaning of the letter “e”, since the letter “e” is not meaningful and does not affect personal identification data.

For additional confirmation, it was necessary to contact the Russian Language Institute. V.V. Vinogradov, where it was confirmed that “e” and “e” in the surname Solovyov, in different letters are the same surname belonging to the same citizen. In this case, the meaning of the surname is not lost, and the refusal of the Pension Fund bodies contradicts the constitutional right of a citizen of the Russian Federation to a pension.

Case 2

Another letter to the Ministry of Education and Science dated October 1, 2012, IR 829/08 “on the spelling of the letters “e” and “e” in official documentation” confirms the law of Russian language spelling and punctuation, its importance and use.

The Moscow Regional Court recently stated that it is possible to fine a person whose last name contains such a mistake. However, legal practice suggests the opposite. A similar incident occurred in the young Snegirev family. A daughter was born, on whose birth certificate it was written Snegireva N.

In receipt maternity capital refused, citing the fact that the surnames of the mother and daughter are different. The couple had to abandon their original surname and forward their documents to the proper letter “e.” Thus, all family members received the same surname.

For a long time, the Russian language did not have the famous letter “ё”. But this letter can boast that the date of its birth is known - namely, November 29, 1783. The “mother” of the letter is Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, an enlightened princess.

Let's remember the details of this event...

In the house of Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, who was at that time the director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, a meeting of the Academy of Literature, created shortly before this date, was held. Present then were G. R. Derzhavin, D. I. Fonvizin, Ya. B. Knyazhnin, Metropolitan Gabriel and others.

And once during one of the meetings she asked Derzhavin to write the word “Christmas tree”. Those present took the proposal as a joke. After all, it was clear to everyone that it was necessary to write “iolka”. Then Dashkova asked a simple question. Its meaning made academicians think. Indeed, is it reasonable to designate one sound when writing with two letters? The princess's proposal to introduce a new letter “e” into the alphabet with two dots on top to indicate the sound “io” was appreciated by literature experts. This story happened in 1783. And then off we went. Derzhavin began to use the letter “ё” in personal correspondence, then Dmitriev published the book “My Trinkets” with this letter, and then Karamzin joined the “e-movement”.

The image of the new letter was probably borrowed from the French alphabet. A similar letter is used, for example, in the spelling of the Citroën car brand, although it sounds completely different in this word. Cultural figures supported Dashkova’s idea, and the letter took root. Derzhavin began to use the letter e in personal correspondence and used it for the first time when writing his last name - Potemkin. However, in print - among typographical letters - the letter е appeared only in 1795. Even the first book with this letter is known - this is the book of the poet Ivan Dmitriev “My trinkets”. The first word, over which two dots were blackened, was the word “everything”, followed by the words: light, stump, etc.

A widely known new letter e became thanks to the historian N.M. Karamzin. In 1797, Nikolai Mikhailovich decided to replace two letters in the word “sl” when preparing to publish one of his poems io zy" with one letter e. So, with Karamzin’s light hand, the letter “е” took its place in the sun and became entrenched in the Russian alphabet. Due to N.M. Karamzin was the first to use the letter е in a printed publication, which was published in quite a large circulation, some sources, in particular, Bolshaya Soviet Encyclopedia, it is he who is mistakenly indicated as the author of the letter e.

In the first book of the poetic almanac “Aonids” (1796) he published, he printed the words “dawn”, “eagle”, “moth”, “tears” and the first verb with the letter e - “flowed”. But, oddly enough, in the famous “History of the Russian State” Karamzin did not use the letter “ё”.

The letter came into place in the alphabet in the 1860s. IN AND. Dahl placed е along with the letter "e" in the first edition of " Explanatory dictionary living Great Russian language." In 1875, L.N. Tolstoy in his “New ABC” sent it to 31st place, between yat and the letter e. But the use of this symbol in typographic and publishing was associated with some difficulties due to its non-standard height. Therefore, the letter e officially entered the alphabet and received the serial number 7 only in Soviet times - December 24, 1942. However, for many decades, publishers continued to use it only in cases of extreme necessity, and even then mainly in encyclopedias. As a result, the letter “е” disappeared from the spelling (and then pronunciation) of many surnames: Cardinal Richelieu, philosopher Montesquieu, poet Robert Burns, microbiologist and chemist Louis Pasteur, mathematician Pafnuty Chebyshev (in the latter case, the place of emphasis even changed: CHEBYSHEV; exactly the same the beets became beets). We speak and write Depardieu instead of Depardieu, Roerich (who is pure Roerich), Roentgen instead of the correct Roentgen. By the way, Leo Tolstoy is actually Leo (like his hero - the Russian nobleman Levin, and not the Jew Levin).

The letter ё has also disappeared from the spellings of many geographical names– Pearl Harbor, Königsberg, Cologne, etc. See, for example, the epigram on Lev Pushkin (the authorship is not exactly clear):
Our friend Pushkin Lev
Not without reason
But with champagne fatty pilaf
And a duck with milk mushrooms
They will prove to us better than words,
That he is healthier
By the strength of the stomach.

When the Bolsheviks came to power, they “combed through” the alphabet, removed “yat” and fita and izhitsa, but did not touch the letter E. It was under Soviet rule that the points above e In order to simplify typing, most words were missing. Although no one formally banned or abolished it.

The situation changed dramatically in 1942. Supreme Commander-in-Chief Stalin received German maps on his desk, in which German cartographers wrote down the names of our settlements accurate to points. If the village was called “Demino”, then in both Russian and German it was written Demino (and not Demino). The Supreme Commander appreciated the enemy's meticulousness. As a result, on December 24, 1942, a decree was issued requiring the mandatory use of the letter Yoyo everywhere, from school textbooks to the Pravda newspaper. Well, of course, on the maps. By the way, no one has ever canceled this order!

Often the letter “е”, on the contrary, is inserted into words in which it is not needed. For example, “scam” instead of “scam”, “being” instead of “being”, “guardianship” instead of “guardianship”. The first Russian world chess champion was actually called Alexander Alekhine and was very indignant when his noble surname was spelled incorrectly, “commonly” - Alekhine. In general, the letter “е” is contained in more than 12 thousand words, in approximately 2.5 thousand surnames of Russian citizens and former USSR, in thousands of place names.

A categorical opponent of using this letter when writing is designer Artemy Lebedev. For some reason he didn't like her. It must be said that it is indeed inconveniently located on a computer keyboard. Of course, you can do without it, as, for example, the text will be understandable even if zngo sklcht vs glsn bkv. But is it worth it?

IN last years a number of authors, in particular Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Yuri Polyakov and others, some periodicals, as well as the scientific publishing house “Big Russian Encyclopedia” publish their texts with the obligatory use of the discriminated letter. Well, the creators of the new Russian electric car gave the name to their brainchild from this one letter.

Some statistics

In 2013, the letter Yoyo turns 230 years old!

She is in 7th (lucky!) place in the alphabet.

There are about 12,500 words in the Russian language with the letter Ё, of which about 150 words begin with е and about 300 words end with е!

On average, there is 1 letter e for every hundred characters of text. .

There are words in our language with two letters E: “three-star”, “four-bucket”.

There are several traditional names in the Russian language that contain the letter Ё:

Artyom, Parmen, Peter, Savel, Seliverst, Semyon, Fedor, Yarem; Alena, Matryona, Fyokla and others.

Optional use letters e leads to erroneous readings and the inability to restore the meaning of the word without additional explanations, for example:

Loan-loan; perfect-perfect; tears-tears; palate-palate; chalk-chalk; donkey-donkey; fun-fun...

And, of course, the classic example from “Peter the Great” by A.K. Tolstoy:

Under such a sovereign let's take a break!

It was meant - " let's take a break" Do you feel the difference?

How do you read “Let’s Sing Everything”? Are we all eating? Shall we eat everything?

And the last name of the French actor will be Depardieu, not Depardieu. (see Wikipedia)

And, by the way, A. Dumas’s cardinal’s name is not Richelieu, but Richelieu. (see Wikipedia)

And the correct way to pronounce the surname of the Russian poet is Fet, not Fet.

At the end of 1783, President Russian Academy Sciences, Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, the favorite of Empress Catherine II, gathered academicians of literature, including prominent writers Gavrila Derzhavin and Denis Fonvizin. The princess asked the learned men if they knew how to spell the word “Christmas tree.” After a short brainstorming, the academics decided that it should be written “yulka”. But to Dashkova’s next question, whether it is legal to represent one sound in two letters, the pundits could not find an answer. Approaching the board, the princess erased the “i” and “o”, writing the letter “e” instead. Since then, academicians began to use the letter “e” in correspondence with the princess. The letter came to the people only in 1797 through the efforts of Nikolai Karamzin, who used it in his almanac “Aonids”.

Ekaterina Dashkova was born in 1744 into a family of Moscow boyars. Her father Roman Vorontsov became fabulously rich during the time of Catherine I and even received the nickname “Roman - a big pocket.” Dashkova was one of the most educated women of her time, capable of arguing with philosophers and encyclopedists on equal terms. She was considered the closest friend of Catherine II. True, on the night when the queen overthrew her husband Peter III, Dashkova overslept. Ekaterina could not forgive Dashkova for this, and the friendship fell apart.

The letter “ё” became widely known thanks to the famous historian Karamzin. In the first book of his poetic almanac "Aonids" with the letter "ё" the words "dawn", "eagle", "moth" and "tears", as well as the verb "flowed", were printed. In this regard, Karamzin was considered the author of the letter “ё”... And of all thirty-three letters of the Russian alphabet, not a single one caused as much controversy as the letter “Ё”...

On November 29, 1783, in the house of the director of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Princess Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova, one of the first meetings of the newly created Russian Academy took place, which was attended by G. R. Derzhavin, D. I. Fonvizin, I. I. Lepyokhin, Ya. B. Knyazhnin , Metropolitan Gabriel and others. The project of a complete explanatory Slavic-Russian dictionary, the later famous 6-volume “Dictionary of the Russian Academy”, was discussed.

The academicians were about to go home when Ekaterina Romanovna asked those present if anyone could write the word “Christmas tree”. The academics decided that the princess was joking, but she, having written the word “Iolka” she had spoken, asked: “Is it legal to represent one sound with two letters?” Noting that “these reprimands have already been introduced by custom, which, when it does not contradict common sense, should be followed in every possible way,” Dashkova proposed using the new letter “e” “to express words and reprimands, with this consent, beginning as matіoryy, іolka, іож , іol".

Dashkova’s arguments seemed convincing, and the feasibility of introducing a new letter was asked to be assessed by Metropolitan Gabriel of Novgorod and St. Petersburg, a member of the Academy of Sciences. On November 18, 1784, the letter “е” received official recognition.

After this, the letter E for 12 years occasionally appeared only in handwritten form and, in particular, in the letters of G.R. Derzhavin. It was replicated on a printing press in 1795 at the Moscow University Printing House by H. Riediger and H. A. Claudia during the publication of the book “And My Trinkets” by Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev, a poet, fabulist, chief prosecutor of the Senate, and then Minister of Justice. This printing house, in which, by the way, the newspaper “Moskovskie Vedomosti” was printed since 1788, was located on the site of the current Central Telegraph.

The first word printed with the letter E was the word “everything”. Then came the words: light, stump, immortal, cornflower. In 1796, in the same printing house, N.M. Karamzin in his first book “Aonid” with the letter E prints: dawn, eagle, moth, tears and the first verb with E “flowed”. Then in 1797 - the first annoying typo in a word with E. The proofreader did not notice, and the edition was published with “garnished” instead of “faceted”. And in 1798, G.R. Derzhavin used the first surname with the letter E - Potemkin. These are Yo’s first steps through the pages of books.

The spread of the letter “ё” in the 18th-19th centuries was also hampered by the then attitude towards the “yocking” pronunciation as bourgeois, the speech of the “vile rabble”, while the “church” “yocking” pronunciation was considered more cultured and noble.
Formally, the letter “ё”, like “y”, entered the alphabet (and received serial numbers) only in Soviet times.

The decree signed by the Soviet People's Commissar for Education A.V. Lunacharsky read: “Recognize the use of the letter e as desirable, but not obligatory.” And on December 24, 1942, by order people's commissar Education of the RSFSR Vladimir Petrovich Potemkin introduced the mandatory use of the letter “ё” in school practice, and from that time on. it is officially considered part of the Russian alphabet.

For the next 14 years, fiction and scientific literature were published with almost complete use of the letter “ё”, but in 1956, on Khrushchev’s initiative, new, somewhat simplified spelling rules were introduced, and the letter “ё” again became optional.

Nowadays, the question of using “е” has become the subject of scientific battles, and the patriotic part of the Russian intelligentsia selflessly defends the obligatory nature of its use. In 2005, a monument was even erected to the letter “e” in Ulyanovsk.

In accordance with the Letter of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation dated 05/03/2007 No. AF-159/03 “On the decisions of the Interdepartmental Commission on the Russian Language”, it is required to write the letter “ё” in cases where the word may be misread, for example, in names own, since ignoring the letter “е” in this case is a violation of the Federal Law “On the State Language of the Russian Federation.”

According to the current rules of Russian spelling and punctuation, in ordinary printed texts the letter ё is used selectively. However, at the request of the author or editor, any book can be printed sequentially with the letter “е”.

Myths about the letter E

The problem with the letter e is this: the vast majority of those who talk about it or defend it know very little about it and about the language as a whole. This fact itself, naturally, negatively affects her reputation. Due to the fact that the quality of the argumentation of its supporters is close to zero, fighting it is a piece of cake. Arguments about the sacred seventh place in the alphabet can only work to prove the insanity of their supporter, but not in favor of using the letter e itself.

1. The letter e has always existed, but now enemies are fighting it

This is the most common myth, it is completely unclear where it came from. It seems that people say this because no one will check, but the reference to tradition looks convincing. In reality, the prevalence of the letter е has only grown throughout its history (except for a small deviation, when in the 1940s, it seems, there was a directive on its mandatory use, and then everyone gave up on it).

You need to understand that once upon a time there was not only the letter ё, but even such a sound. In the Church Slavonic language, those words that we pronounce with е are pronounced with е (“brothers and sisters!”), and in general the pair o - e (ѣ) stands in the series a - ya, ou - yu and y - and (ï) (see, for example, “Abridged practical Slavic grammar with systematic Slavic and Russian examples, collections and dictionaries”, Moscow, 1893). Yes, there is no letter e in Church Slavonic either.

The occasional appearance in print at the end of the 18th and 19th centuries of the symbol ё was a response to the appearance of a new sound in speech. But it received official status after the revolution. In a Russian language textbook published in 1911 we read: “E is written in words when this sound is pronounced like yo: ice, dark, light.” It’s not even written “like yo”, it’s written “like yo”. And in the alphabet there is no e: after e comes z. It’s not for me to judge, but I believe that the letter e at that time looked as outlandish in books as the ruble sign looks today.

Letter E - entrance to the store - in Moscow

2. Without it, it is impossible to distinguish between everything and everyone

This, of course, is not entirely a myth, but there is so much misunderstanding around this situation that it should be examined separately.

Let's start with the fact that the words were all written with different letters and without any е, so that their indistinguishability today must be blamed on the language reform, during which yati was abolished, and not at all on the practical unusability of е. At the same time, modern rules of the Russian language require writing two periods in cases of possible discrepancies, therefore the non-use of е where “everything” is read without it is a spelling error.

It is clear that the situation can also be the opposite, when you need to suggest that in a certain case it is e that is read. But this problem cannot be overcome by requiring the mandatory use of e.

Memorial sign to the letter E in Perm (on the territory of the Remputmash motor-locomotive repair plant)

3. Numerous examples of reading difficulties prove the need for

When fighting for the letter e, a set of pairs of words are constantly presented, most of which are some kind of unimaginable crap. It feels like these words were specially invented to protect the letter e. What the hell is this bucket, what kind of fable is this? Before you started collecting examples, had you seen or heard these words somewhere?
And, again, in cases where both words can be used equally, spelling rules require the use of e.

For example, in “The Book about Letters” by Gordon, published by the ArtLebedev Publishing House, the word “learn” does not have dots over it, which is why it naturally reads “let’s find out.” This is a spelling error.

The very fact that to prove your point of view you need to collect examples bit by bit, most of which are completely unconvincing, it seems to me, only proves that the problem has been made up. There are no fewer examples with unspecified stress, but no one fights for the placement of stress.
There would be much more practical benefit if the word healthy was written “zdarova”, because you want to read “great” with the emphasis on the first syllable. But for some reason no one is fighting for this!

4. Due to inconsistency in the use of ё, the surname Montesquieu is misspelled

We also spell the surname Jackson “incorrectly”: in English it is pronounced much closer to Chaksn. The very idea of ​​​​transmitting foreign language pronunciation in Russian letters is obviously a failure, but when it comes to defending the letter ё, as I already said, no one pays attention to the quality of the argumentation.

The topic of conveying foreign names and titles by means of Russian graphics generally lies beyond the topic of the letter e and is comprehensively covered in the corresponding reference book by R. Gilyarevsky and B. Starostin.

By the way, the sound at the end of Montesquieu is midway between e and e, so in this situation, even if the task is to accurately convey the sound, the choice of e is obvious. And “Pasteur” is completely nonsense; There is no smell of iotation or softening, so “Pastor” is much better suited for transmitting sounds.

5. Poor e is not a letter

The letter е is often sympathized with due to its unfair non-inclusion in the alphabet. The conclusion that it is not in the alphabet is apparently made from the fact that it is not used in house numbering and lists.

In fact, of course, it is in the alphabet, otherwise the rules of the Russian language could not possibly require its use in some cases. In lists, it is not used in the same way as th, due to its similarity with its neighbor. It's just inconvenient. In some cases, it is advisable to also exclude Z and O due to the similarity with the numbers 3 and 0. It’s just that, of all these letters, e is closest to the beginning of the alphabet, and therefore its “dropout” is noticeable most often.

By the way, in license plates Only 12 letters of the alphabet are used.
The situation in pre-revolutionary spelling was completely different: there was no letter e in the alphabet. It was just a symbol that some publishers used to show off. Here Zhenya in another note puts it in a quote from a book published in 1908. It wasn't in the book itself. Why was the quote distorted? In the pre-revolutionary text it looks completely ridiculous.

In any case, fighting for the letter e is the same nonsense as fighting against it. If you like it, write it; if you don’t like it, don’t write it. I like writing because I don't see any reason not to write it. And a Russian-speaking person must be able to read both ways.

compilation based on RuNet materials - Fox

A few facts

The letter E is in the sacred, “lucky” 7th place in the alphabet.
There are about 12,500 words in the Russian language with Ё. Of these, about 150 begin with Ё ​​and about 300 end with Ё.
The frequency of occurrence of E is 1% of the text. That is, for every thousand characters of text there are an average of ten yoshkas.
In Russian surnames, Yo occurs in approximately two cases out of a hundred.
There are words in our language with two and even three letters E: “three-star”, “four-bucket”, “Boryolekh” (a river in Yakutia), “Boryogesh” and “Kögelyon” (male names in Altai).
More than 300 surnames differ only in the presence of E or E. For example, Lezhnev - Lezhnev, Demina - Demina.
In the Russian language there are 12 male and 5 female names, the full forms of which contain Y. These are Aksen, Artyom, Nefed, Parmen, Peter, Rorik, Savel, Seliverst, Semyon, Fedor, Yarem; Alena, Klena, Matryona, Thekla, Flena.
In Ulyanovsk, hometown"yofikator" Nikolai Karamzin, there is a monument to the letter E.
In Russia, there is an official Union of Eficators of Russia, which is engaged in the fight for the rights of “de-energized” words. Thanks to their vigorous activity to besiege the State Duma, now all Duma documents (including laws) are completely “eified.” Yo - at the suggestion of the Chairman of the Union Viktor Chumakov - appeared in the newspapers “Versiya”, “Slovo”, “Gudok”, “Arguments and Facts”, etc., in television credits and in books.
Russian programmers have created etator - a computer program that automatically places letters with dots in the text. And the artists came up with the copyright - an icon for marking official publications.

History of the letter Yoyo

On November 29, 2013, the letter E turns 230 years old!

Russian alphabetconsists of thirty-three letters. One of them stands somewhat apart from the general row. Firstly, it is the only one among its colleagues that has dots at the top. Secondly, it was introduced into the already existing alphabet by order.

This is a letter Her.

The history of the letter began in 1783 year.November twenty ninth In 1783, one of the first meetings of the newly created Academy of Russian Literature took place with the participation of its director - Princess Ekaterina Dashkova, as well as the then famous writers Fonvizin and Derzhavin. Ekaterina Romanovna proposed replacing the two-letter designation of the sound “io” in the Russian alphabet with one new letter “E” with two dots on top. Arguments Dashkova The academicians seemed convincing, and soon her proposal was approved by the general meeting of the Academy.

A widely known new letter e became thanks to the historian N.M. Karamzin. In 1797, Nikolai Mikhailovich decided to replace two letters in the word “sl” when preparing to publish one of his poems io zy" with one letter e. Yes, with a light hand Karamzina, the letter “ё” took its place in the sun and became entrenched in the Russian alphabet. Due to N.M. Karamzin was the first to use the letter ё in a printed publication, which was published in a fairly large circulation; some sources, in particular, the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, erroneously indicate him as the author of the letter ё.

When the Bolsheviks came to power, they “combed through” the alphabet, removed “yat” and fita and izhitsa, but did not touch the letter E. It was under Soviet rule that the points above e In order to simplify typing, most words were missing. Although no one formally banned or abolished it.

The situation changed dramatically in 1942. Supreme Commander-in-Chief Stalin received German maps on his desk, in which German cartographers wrote down the names of our settlements down to the dots. If the village was called "Demino", then in both Russian and German it was written Demino (and not Demino). The Supreme Commander appreciated the enemy's meticulousness. As a result, on December 24, 1942, a decree was issued requiring the mandatory use of the letter Yoyo everywhere, from school textbooks to the Pravda newspaper. Well, of course, on the maps. By the way, no one has ever canceled this order!

Some statistics

In 2013, the letter Yoyo turns 230 years old!

She is in 7th (lucky!) place in the alphabet.

There are about 12,500 words in the Russian language with the letter Ё, of which about 150 words begin with е and about 300 words end with е!

On average, there is 1 letter e for every hundred characters of text. .

There are words in our language with two letters E: “three-star”, “four-bucket”.

There are several traditional names in the Russian language that contain the letter Ё:

Artyom, Parmen, Peter, Savel, Seliverst, Semyon, Fedor, Yarem; Alena, Matryona, Fyokla and others.

Optional use letters e leads to erroneous readings and the inability to restore the meaning of the word without additional explanations, for example:

Loan-loan; perfect-perfect; tears-tears; palate-palate; chalk-chalk; donkey-donkey; fun-fun...

And, of course, the classic example from “Peter the Great” by A.K. Tolstoy:

Under such a sovereign let's take a break!

It was meant - " let's take a break" Do you feel the difference?

How do you read “Let’s Sing Everything”? Are we all eating? Shall we eat everything?

And the last name of the French actor will be Depardieu, not Depardieu. (see Wikipedia)

And, by the way, A. Dumas’s cardinal’s name is not Richelieu, but Richelieu. (see Wikipedia)

And the correct way to pronounce the surname of the Russian poet is Fet, not Fet.

Interesting expressions from Russian speech:

The expression “not every bast fits the line” is understandable, but not to every modern

to the word alarm bell attributed to Arab (or Turkic?) origin. With this word

The expression “our regiment has arrived” has a direct effect. Means simply “ours”

In fact, Suvorov called his instructions (formulated in the form of a manuscript for

The expression “to be out of place” means to feel awkward, uncomfortable,

The expression “in seventh heaven” is usually used with the verb be

Since ancient times (and to this day), nuts have been a favorite treat for children.

Climbing on the wall- talk about those who are in an extremely excited or state

Incense is the general name for incense that smoked not only in front of altars

Interesting expression - scapegoat. The phrase is unsaid, but everything is fine

An interesting expression is to buy a pig in a poke. It can be classified as intuitive

The nightingale is the most pleasant songbird living in the vastness of Russia. Why of all

Kuzka's mother(or show Kuzka’s mother) – set phrase indirect

Expression mutual responsibility- this expression direct meaning, that is, it means

This expression - squaring the circle, you've probably come across it somewhere. And that's what it is

The expression at the top of Ivanovo, or rather, to yell at the top of Ivanovo, is very well known