Home›Open Questions›Did the opaque letter names at the end of the Slavic alphabets, fert, kher, tsy and sha among them, ever carry a sense in Slavonic?Open QuestionsDid the opaque letter names at the end of the Slavic alphabets, fert, kher, tsy and sha among them, ever carry a sense in Slavonic?Citation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextDivinity Atlas. "Did the opaque letter names at the end of the Slavic alphabets, fert, kher, tsy and sha among them, ever carry a sense in Slavonic?." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/did-the-opaque-letter-names-at-the-end-of-the-slavic-alphabets-fert-kher-tsy-and-sha-among-them-ever-carry-a-sense-in-slavonic.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextDivinity Atlas. (n.d.). Did the opaque letter names at the end of the Slavic alphabets, fert, kher, tsy and sha among them, ever carry a sense in Slavonic?. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/did-the-opaque-letter-names-at-the-end-of-the-slavic-alphabets-fert-kher-tsy-and-sha-among-them-ever-carry-a-sense-in-slavonicCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{divinityatlas-did-the-opaque-letter-names-at-the-end-o, author = {Divinity Atlas}, title = {Did the opaque letter names at the end of the Slavic alphabets, fert, kher, tsy and sha among them, ever carry a sense in Slavonic?}, year = {2026}, url = {https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/open-questions-index/did-the-opaque-letter-names-at-the-end-of-the-slavic-alphabets-fert-kher-tsy-and-sha-among-them-ever-carry-a-sense-in-slavonic}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXOpen QuestionCross-Tradition ConnectionsSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)Open QuestionThe first twenty letter names of both Slavic alphabets are ordinary Slavonic words and read together as connected sentences, from azu buky vedi, I know letters, through rtsy slovo tverdo, say the word firmly. After that point the names stop meaning anything recoverable. The reference literature records them as of uncertain or unknown origin and offers no reading. This is not a disagreement between scholars with rival etymologies; it is an absence. Nobody has established whether these names are corrupted Slavonic words, reflexes of Greek letter names, or labels that never meant anything at all, and the question has not been taken up.What would resolve this A systematic etymological study of the full set of Slavic letter names, working from the earliest abecedaria and from the acrostic alphabet poems of the Old Church Slavonic tradition, which arrange the names in verse and may preserve senses that the plain lists do not. A finding that the names are demonstrably meaningless would settle the question as firmly as a set of etymologies would.OpenSlavic historical linguistics; Old Church Slavonic philologyPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.), The World's Writing SystemsCross-Tradition ConnectionsQuestion OnBig Yus Ѫ, Alphabet Letters Open question Fert Ф, Alphabet Letters Well-attested Source The World's Writing SystemsPeter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.)tier 1Iotified A Ꙗ, Alphabet Letters Open question Iotified Big Yus Ѭ, Alphabet Letters Open question Iotified E Ѥ, Alphabet Letters Open question Iotified Little Yus Ѩ, Alphabet Letters Open question Kher Х, Alphabet Letters Open question Little Yus Ѧ, Alphabet Letters Open question Sha Ш, Alphabet Letters Open question Shta Щ, Alphabet Letters Open question Tsy Ц, Alphabet Letters Open question Yat Ѣ, Alphabet Letters Open question Yer Ъ, Alphabet Letters Open question Yeri Ь, Alphabet Letters Open question Yery Ы, Alphabet Letters Open question Yu Ю, Alphabet Letters Open question SourcesThe World's Writing Systemstier 1Peter T. Daniels and William Bright (eds.), Oxford University Press, 1996View the SourceComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year