The standard Russian language reduces the vowel to but yakanye dialects x77e8 я x77e9 undergo no reduction unlike other instances of the a phoneme represented with the letter x77e8 а x77e9 When it follows a consonant the consonant becomes soft Although is a distinctive pronunciation of x77e8 я x77e9 in Russian the letter is almost never used to transcribe that sound unlike the use of x77e8 ю x77e9 to approximate close front and central rounded vowels Inherited from Old East Slavic зъ jaz from Proto Slavic 97 j azъ from Proto Indo European 97 h The alphabet in Meletij Smotrickij s grammar of 6669 accordingly lists и ли x855 ili or 96 6 98 he explains that is used initially and elsewhere The letter continued to be used but its distribution particularly in regard to the other yuses was governed as much by orthographical convention as by phonetic value or etymology The iotated vowel is pronounced ja in initial or post vocalic positions like the English pronunciation of x77e8 ya x77e9 in ya rd The letter known as little jus yus Bulgarian малка носовка Russian юс малый originally stood for a front nasal vowel conventionally transcribed as If a hard consonant follows x77e8 я x77e9 or none the result is an open vowel usually a From Old East Slavic зъ jaz from Proto Slavic 97 j azъ from Proto Indo European 97 h Inherited from Old Church Slavonic j from Proto Slavic 97 jej In Serbia became e at a very early period and the letter ceased to be used being replaced by e From older form яз jaz язъ jaz from Old East Slavic зъ jaz from Proto Slavic 97 j azъ In Bulgaria the situation is complicated by the fact that dialects differ and that there were different orthographic systems in use but broadly speaking became in most positions but in some circumstances it merged with particularly in inflexional endings e g When in a sentence by itself it means I However in vernacular and informal writing of the period the two letters may be used completely indiscriminately the third person plural ending of the present tense of certain verbs such as прав тъ Modern Bulgarian правят The alternative forms with stress retraction and with an initial н n in https://longnews.ru/q/6 third person are used after a preposition In non stressed positions the vowel reduction depends on the language and the dialect It was in Russian cursive skoropis writing of this time that the letter acquired its modern form the left hand leg of was progressively shortened eventually disappearing altogether while the foot of the middle leg shifted towards the left producing the я shape 96 8 98 For example the modern pronouns её and неё were formerly spelled ея and нея in the genitive and possessive due to their historical pronunciations as j ja and n ja which had since shifted to j jo and n jo Ultimately from Proto Indo European 97 h Variant reflex of аз az see it Ya with macron is used in the Aleut Bering dialect 96 5 98 Evenki Ingush Mansi Nanai Negidal Ulch Kildin Sami Selkup Central Siberian Yupik and Chechen languages In fact he also distinguishes the feminine form of the accusative plural of the third person pronoun from the masculine and neuter This reflects the practice of earlier scribes and was further codified by the Muscovite printers of the seventeenth century and is continued in modern Church Slavonic