Yo (Cyrillic letter Ё, ё)

Sound and orthographic role

Phonetically, Ё commonly represents the sequence of a glide plus o: [jo] at the beginning of a word or after a vowel, and a palatalized consonant followed by o (often notated [ʲo]) when it follows a consonant. In practice the letter also normally indicates a stressed syllable in Russian, which helps readers locate the word's stress pattern.

Examples and contrasts

• ёлка — "yolka" (fir tree)
• ёж — "yozh" (hedgehog)
• всё vs. все — "vsyo" (everything) vs. "vse" (all, plural) — an everyday example of how Ё can change meaning
• ещё — "eshchó" or "yoshchó" in transliteration, commonly written with ё

Distinction from Е: Ё is related to Е (E) but marks a separate pronunciation. In many printed texts the diaeresis is omitted and Ё is replaced by E; readers usually infer the intended sound from context. Dictionaries, educational materials and texts where ambiguity would arise, however, retain the diaeresis.

Alphabetical status, history and encoding

In the modern Russian alphabet Ё is commonly treated as the letter following Е. Historically the character grew out of the desire to mark a different vowel quality and palatalizing effect of a preceding consonant. In computing and typography it has dedicated code points: Unicode U+0401 (Ё) and U+0451 (ё). Romanization is often rendered as "ë" or "yo" depending on the system.

Typographic and practical notes: Use of Ё is sometimes a matter of style or convention rather than strict rule. Authors and publishers may drop the diaeresis for economy or aesthetics, leading to occasional ambiguity; where precise reading or pronunciation is important (dictionaries, language teaching, legal texts), Ё is normally shown. Its presence affects pronunciation, meaning and stress, making it an important letter despite being visually similar to Е.