Yo (Cyrillic)

Yo, Jo, or, Io (Ё ё; italics: Ё ё; Russian pronunciation: [jɵ]) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. In Unicode, the letter ⟨Ё⟩ is named CYRILLIC CAPITAL/SMALL LETTER IO.

In English, the letter Yo is romanized using the Latin ë (according to the ALA–LC and British Standards), ë (yë word-initially) (BGN/PCGN) or yo/jo (orthographic transcription) for Russian, and as i͡o (ALA–LC), yo (BGN/PCGN), or ë (BSI) for Belarusian. In international systems, Yo is romanized as ë (ISO 9).

It was derived from the Cyrillic letter Ye (Е е).

The letter ⟨ё⟩ occurs in a stressed syllable in the overwhelming majority of Russian and Belarusian words. In Russian, unstressed ⟨ё⟩ occurs only in compound numerals and a few derived terms, where it is considered an exception.

It is a so-called iotated vowel. At the start of a word or after a vowel, it represents the consonant-vowel sequence /jo/, like in 'York'. The same applies if ⟨ё⟩ is preceded by either ⟨ъ⟩ or ⟨ь⟩.

After a consonant letter, the letter ⟨ё⟩ indicates the phoneme /o/ together with palatalization of the preceding consonant (if it can be palatalized). No /j/ sound occurs between the consonant and the vowel in this case.

The exact pronunciation of the vowel sound of ⟨ё⟩ can vary because of allophony in Slavic languages. In Russian, it is pronounced [jɵ], with an [ɵ] vowel similar to bird in New Zealand or South African English; see palatalization for some background.

Yo was first used in Russian, but its status in that language is now ambiguous. Yo occurs as a discrete letter in the Cyrillic alphabets of Belarusian, Rusyn, Mongolian and many Caucasian and Turkic languages.