Language desk
< September 14	<< Aug \| September \| Oct >>	September 16 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

September 15

Yaroslav Rakitskyi spelling

moved from the Entertainment reference desk

Watching the Chelsea vs Zenit Saint Petersburg yesterday, I noticed that one of the Zenet players, Yaroslav Rakitskyi, spelled his name "Rakitskyy" on his shirt (his official Instagram account also spells it this way). When his name appeared in an on-screen caption, it was written Rakits'kyy. What is the function of the apostrophe in this case? (By the way, our article spells his name at least 3 different ways, none of which are as on his shirt). BbBrock (talk) 12:23, 15 September 2021 (UTC). Edit, apologies I posted this in the wrong section and I'm not sure how to move it BbBrock (talk) 12:25, 15 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The apostrophe stands for the Cyrillic letter ь, whose purpose is to indicate that the preceding consonant, ц (ts), is soft (palatalized). To move a comment, you simply delete it and repost it in the correct page, ideally making that clear with edit summaries or notes on one or both pages. --Theurgist (talk) 12:38, 15 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Many thanks for the reply. I was worried this was a dumb question, but it was actually a far more interesting answer than I expected. And thanks for moving my question! BbBrock (talk) 14:29, 15 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The official Romanization that Ukraine uses for passports transliterates Ракицький as "Rakits’kyi". This is somewhat curious, since the и is a vowel, while the й is a consonant. --Lambiam 14:44, 15 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hm? How is "short i" a consonant? --jpgordon^{𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇} 15:06, 17 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

"Short i" means a consonant like the 'y' in young. It has nothing to do with what in the context of English phonology is referred to as the "short i" in bit and the "long i" in bite. --Theurgist (talk) 18:34, 17 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Or even the short and long vowels in any language that has distinctive vowel quantity. — It might be more convenient to describe ‹й› as a semivowel. —Tamfang (talk) 00:25, 19 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]

In the article on Ukrainian phonology it is represented as /j/; for example, "вона́ йде /wɔˈnɑ ˈjdɛ/". --Lambiam 07:20, 18 September 2021 (UTC)[reply]