concept
Decimal I (І)
decimal i
also: i десятеричное, І
One of two pre-1918 Cyrillic letters representing the sound /i/ (alongside и); its use was governed by fussy rules Chekhov mocks as a needless ornament, part of his call for orthographic reform in this letter.
Reading notes
- To M. Ye. Chekhov, 18 January 1887. Moscow. §11 It is more sensible to write the word Vladimir with
\emph{и}, and not with \emph{i}.
Pre-1918 Russian orthography retained two letters for the sound /i/: и and "decimal i" (i, so called from its use as the numeral ten in Church Slavonic), the choice between them governed by fussy positional rules. Chekhov here sides with young Volodya's plainer preference, treating the distinction as superfluous.