Combining Cyrillic Letter Ha

It is a letter in a shortened spelling. In Old Church Slavonic and Church Slavonic manuscripts, letters could be raised over others to shorten words, especially in religious texts. This mark represents ha, corresponding to the ordinary lowercase Cyrillic letter х. The mark alone does not identify the full word.

This raised-letter tradition is documented in manuscripts, not just in modern typesetting. The Ostromir Gospel, an early Slavic Gospel manuscript from 1056–1057, shows the broader practice; related raised letters also appear in 15th- and 16th-century manuscripts. These examples do not establish when this exact ha form first appeared.

How to type combining Cyrillic letter ha

Put it after the letter it modifies. It is a combining mark: the text stores it after a base letter, while a supporting font displays it above that letter. In old Church Slavonic manuscripts, names such as titlo, pokrytie, and vzmet were used with some overlap; modern Church Slavonic distinguishes pokrytie, a cover over superscript letters, from titlo, used for omissions or numerals. When transcribing an abbreviation, follow the source’s spelling and placement.