Cyrillic Capital Letter E

In Russian, Э spells a plain “eh” vowel. It begins words such as этот and эхо.

At the start of a Russian word, Э has no opening “y” sound. After another vowel, as in поэт, it keeps the two vowel sounds separate. After a consonant, it does not mark the softened pronunciation that Е can signal.

Where did Э come from?

Forms resembling Э appear in medieval Slavic writing. Examples occur in Serbian and Bulgarian writing of the 13th–14th centuries, often as raised letters at line endings. An East Slavic example appears in Silvester’s Miscellany, a manuscript collection from the late 14th or early 15th century, including the name El.

One explanation connects the shape to Glagolitic, an early Slavic alphabet; another links it to the Hebrew letter aleph and sacred writing. The origin remains disputed, and examples outside religious writing weaken the sacred-use theory.

Э became regular in Russian writing in the 18th century as foreign vocabulary grew. It is also an ordinary front-vowel letter in Mongolian; Tatar Cyrillic adaptations used it for a native sound not represented in Russian.