Old Permic letter Yer

It is one letter in the historical Old Permic script. Old Permic was used to write the Komi and Komi-Permyak languages; 𐍯 belongs within that writing, rather than expressing a complete word or picture on its own.

A fourteenth-century Troitsa icon—a painted religious image—bears Old Permic writing. Two texts are dated 1486 and 1510; the script's documented use spans from the end of the fourteenth century to the middle of the sixteenth.

Why was Old Permic created?

For Komi-language Christian writing and teaching. In the fourteenth century, Stefan of Perm, a missionary, is credited with devising it for Komi and Komi-Permyak. The script carried translated church texts and supported instruction.

Its letter order draws on Greek and Cyrillic models, while many letter shapes draw on traditional Komi Tamga signs. As knowledge of Old Permic declined, Komi texts shifted to Cyrillic. In the sixteenth century, Russian scribes also used Old Permic to write notes meant to hide their contents from casual readers.

Why does Old Permic look different in different fonts?

Fonts can change the drawing, not the character. Unicode's chart gives an example, not a required design, so typefaces can draw 𐍯 differently. Handwritten manuscripts can be harder to read too, especially when damaged; comparing forms may be needed to settle a character.

A mark above a letter may add no meaning or may show vowel quality or palatalization (a change in consonant pronunciation); it does not automatically create a new base letter. As of 2026, Old Permic is not used in ordinary modern communication. A lone 𐍯 in a modern message is safest read as a historical or typographic reference; the letter itself does not reveal the sender’s tone.