We are used to taking the letters of the alphabet for granted, constantly accompanying us. Perhaps we could no longer do without them, because, in fact, this is the only way to record and transmit information. Therefore, many different peoples use the alphabet, following the example of the ancient Phoenicians, who first created and began to use it.
It would seem that there is something special in ordinary letters, and, in particular, what can be said interesting about the letter “O”?
Meanwhile, each of the particles of the alphabet has its own history, full of interesting facts.
Monument
A very interesting fact about the letter “O”: once a group of students from the Vologda Institute of Business had an idea to erect a monument to that element of the alphabet. As a result of the vote, the project of one of the architects was approved, and after two weeks of work by several blacksmiths, a three-meter forged structure was erected in the very center of the city. There is an opinion that this sculptural composition is intended to symbolize the historically formed speech feature of the inhabitants of this region, giving a special touch to their dialect (in the dialect of local residents, the sound “O” clearly sounds even in cases where the stress in the word falls on another syllable).
Prevalence
The letter "O" is very popular.
An interesting fact about the letter “O”: it is present in the vast majority of the sixty-five alphabets currently used in the world. It is found in all languages and dialects using Slavic Cyrillic alphabets. And besides, it is also found in the writing of some peoples of non-Slavic origin.
The letter "O" in Church Slavonic writing
An interesting fact about the letter “O” is noteworthy: in the Russian language, or rather, in the written version of the Church Slavonic language, there are used three options for writing this seemingly simple letter:
- Full-time “O”.
- The so-called "wide Oo", used as the first letter of words, at the beginning of the roots of words, in the names of geographical objects; with it, in addition, the second part of compound words begins; such a variation has received a lesser-known alternative name, “round omega”.
- The narrow "O", which is part of the letter - the digraph "oh."
The letter "O" in Russian
Another interesting fact about the letter “O”: in the Russian alphabet: today it is recognized as the oldest. Appearing for the first time in the ancient Phoenician alphabet, which is already 33 centuries old, it practically did not undergo any changes. Although in some manuscripts from time to time there are unusual, rather exotic variations of the spelling of this letter:
- with a dot inside — in the word “eye” —this kind of mark is really somewhat reminiscent of an eye;
- with two points or “stuck together” variant, doubled “o” (oo) in the word “eyes”;
- with a cross inside in the word "nearby";
- In some cases, an open configuration is encountered.
However, no matter how the letter is modified depending on the meaning of the words in which it was used, its styles, however, remained practically unchanged.
The following peculiarity can be recognized as a rather curious and interesting fact about the letter “O”: being located in a word in an unstressed position, it is almost always pronounced, and, therefore, is heard as “A”. It is known that the original pronunciation sounded that way.
The exception is some dialects in which a clear pronunciation of the sound “O” is preserved in an unstressed position, which makes these varieties of dialect special, characteristic, easily recognizable by ear. Such a feature is inherent, for example, in the speech of residents of the Perm and Vologda regions.
Interesting combinations
Interesting facts about the letter “O” include some combinations of letters found in words. For example, there are words in which only this one is found from vowels.
- The word "defense capability" and the specific term "hydrogen-like" contain as many as seven vowels "O".
- There is a word in which the three letters “O” are arranged in a row - a zoo association.
- It is also curious that this letter can be used independently, both as an excuse and as a single exclamation letter.
One has only to pay a little attention to the history and some features of individual letters, and the study of the alphabet immediately ceases to be so commonplace.