soft sign

English

WOTD – 12 June 2021

Etymology

The uppercase and lowercase versions of the soft sign.

Calque of Russian мя́гкий знак (mjáxkij znak),[1] from мя́гкий (mjáxkij, “palatal, palatized, soft”) + знак (znak, “mark, sign”).

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌsɒftˈsaɪn/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˌsɔftˈsaɪn/
Rhymes: -aɪn

Noun

soft sign (plural soft signs)

The Cyrillic letter Ь/ь (transliterated in English with an apostrophe (’) or prime (′)), which in modern languages using the Cyrillic alphabet serves to denote a soft (palatized) consonant.
Synonyms: front jer, front yer
Antonym: hard sign

Hypernyms

jer, yer

Translations

Cyrillic letter Ь/ь

Armenian: please add this translation if you can
Belarusian: мя́ккі знак m (mjákki znak)
Bulgarian: ер ма́лък m (er málǎk)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 軟音符號／软音符号 (ruǎn yīn fúhào)
Chuvash: ҫемҫелӗх палли (śemś̬elĕh palli)
Czech: měkký znak m
Dutch: zacht teken n
Esperanto: mola signo
Estonian: pehmendusmärk (et)
Finnish: pehmeä merkki, pehmennysmerkki
French: signe mou (fr) m
German: weiches Zeichen n, Weichheitszeichen n
Greek: μαλακό σημείο n (malakó simeío), «μιάχκιι ζνακ» m («miáchkii znak»)
Italian: segno tenue m
Kazakh: жіңішкелік белгі (jıñışkelık belgı)
Kyrgyz: ичкертүү белгиси (içkertüü belgisi), жумшартуу белгиси (jumşartuu belgisi)
Latvian: please add this translation if you can
Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
Macedonian: мек знак m (mek znak), мал ер m (mal er)
Mongolian: зөөлний тэмдэг (zöölnii temdeg)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: bløtt tegn n
Old Church Slavonic:
Cyrillic: ѥрь m (jerĭ)
Polish: miękki znak m
Portuguese: sinal suave m
Romanian: semn moale (ro) n
Russian: мя́гкий знак (ru) m (mjáxkij znak), ерь (ru) m (jerʹ) (archaic)
Rusyn: мня́гкый знак m (mnjáhkŷj znak), ірь m (irʹ)
Serbo-Croatian: meki znak m, jer (sh)
Slovak: mäkký znak m
Slovene: mehki znak m
Southern Altai: јымжак темдек (ǰïmžak temdek)
Spanish: signo suave m, signo blando m
Swedish: mjuktecken n
Tatar: нечкәлек билгесе (neçkälek bilgese)
Turkish: inceltme işareti (tr)
Tuvan: чымчак демдек (çımçak demdek)
Udmurt: небыт пус (nebyt pus)
Ukrainian: м'яки́й знак m (mʺjakýj znak), є́рик m (jéryk) (archaic)
Yakut: сымнатыы бэлиэтэ (sımnatıı beliete)

References

“soft sign, n.” under “soft, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2021; “soft sign, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.