We are accustomed to taking the letters of the alphabet for granted, accompanying us all the time. 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 what is special about 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 voting, 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 thatthis sculptural composition is intended to symbolize the historically developed speech peculiarity of the inhabitants of this region, which gives a special flavor to their dialect (the sound “O” clearly sounds in the dialect of local residents 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 in use today 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” draws attention: in Russian, or rather, in the written version of the Church Slavonic language, three spellings of this seemingly simple letter are used:
- Full O.
- The so-called "wide Oo", used as the first letter of words, at the beginning of word roots, in the names of geographical objects; with it, in addition, the second part of compound words begins; this variation has been given the lesser-known alternative name "round omega".
- Narrow "O", which is an integral part of the letter - digraph "oy".
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 has practically not undergone any changes. Although in some manuscripts there are from time to time unusual, rather exotic spellings of this letter:
- with a dot inside - in the word "eye" - this type of inscription really does somewhat resemble an eye;
- with two dots or "sticky" variant, double "o" (oo) in the word "eyes";
- with a cross inside in the word "around";
- in some cases there is an open top configuration.
However, no matter how the letter changed depending on the meaning of the words in which it was used, its outline, nevertheless, remained practically unchanged.
A rather curious and interesting fact about the letter "O" is the following feature: being located in a word in an unstressed position, it is almost always pronounced, and, therefore, it is heard as "A". It is known that the original pronunciation sounded this way.
The exception is some dialects, in which a clear pronunciation of the sound "O" in an unstressed position has been preserved, which makes these varieties of dialect special, characteristic, easily recognizable by ear. Such a feature is inherent, for example, in the speech of the inhabitants 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 whichonly this vowel occurs.
- The word "defense" and the specific term "hydrogen-like" contain as many as seven vowels "O".
- There is also a word in which three letters "O" are located in a row - animal association.
- It is also curious that this letter can be used on its own, both as a preposition and as an exclamation consisting of a single letter.
One has only to pay a little attention to the history and some features of individual letters, and learning the alphabet immediately ceases to be so mundane.
