Pre-1918 orthography for Russian

• Apr 7, 2025 - 02:13

I feel like it would be cool if there were a language setting for "imperial" Russian used before the Bolshevik reform in 1918. For one example, I used this for Mozart and Salieri by Rimsky-Korsakov:
Screenshot 2025-04-06 202019.png
In short, there are four letters that were discontinued by the reform:
Decimal I (І, і; Russian: и десятеричное): the most familiar letter to the non-Russophonic world, decimal I, so named because it was the tenth letter in the alphabet, remains in use in Belarusian, Ukrainian, Kazakh, etc.; but in Russian it was primarily used before another vowel and was thus replaced by the backwards N or "octal I" (и восьмеричное). The Russian language itself has not forgotten decimal I, however, because it remains in use as ligatures in yery (Ы, ы) and yu (Ю, ю).
Examples: Василій, ​Маріо, міръ, Эѳіопія
Yat (Ѣ ѣ; Russian: ять): essentially the soft sign (ь) with a small line above it, although the italic version looked like a ligature of that with decimal I. The 1918 reform replaced it with е (and, in some cases after 1956, ё), although it remained in use in Bulgarian until the conclusion of World War II in 1945.
Examples: Александръ Сергѣевичъ Пушкинъ, Двѣнадцать стульевъ, Евгеній Онѣгинъ, Тенхицвѣтъ
Fita (Ѳ, ѳ; Russian: ѳита или фита): not to be confused with the barred o (перечёркнутая О или ө) used in Altaic Cyrillic scripts (Azerbaijani, Bashkir, Kazakh, etc.), fita is based on the Greek letter theta and was primarily used in loan words from Greek, although Hebrew and Aramaic derivatives also existed. It was eliminated because Ef (ф или фертъ) shares the exact same sound.
Examples: Аѳанасій Аѳанасьевичъ Фетъ, ариѳметика, Виѳлеемъ, Ѳаддей (although the patronym was Фадѣевичъ)
Izhitsa (Ѵ, ѵ; Russian: ижица): probably the most obscure letter of the four, izhitsa was inspired by upsilon in Greek, but by 1900 it had almost vanished entirely. It was replaced by в before three specific vowels (а, е, э) and by и elsewhere.
Examples: Егѵпетъ, Моѵсей, мѵро, ​Сѵмволъ​ ​вѣры​


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