U+042C "Ь" Cyrillic Capital Letter Soft Sign Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
U+042C "Ь" Cyrillic Capital Letter Soft Sign is a distinct letter in the Cyrillic alphabet, primarily used in Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and several other Slavic languages. Unlike typical consonants or vowels, this character does not represent a specific sound on its own; instead, its main function is to indicate that the preceding consonant is palatalized, meaning it is pronounced with the tongue raised toward the hard palate. In modern Russian, it also serves as a spelling marker to separate a consonant from a following vowel in certain grammatical contexts. The name "soft sign" reflects this role, as it contrasts with the "hard sign" (Ъ), which denotes a hard pronunciation. Its uppercase form is relatively rare in everyday text, mostly appearing in all-caps headings or proper nouns, but it remains an essential component of the written language.
General Properties
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding |
Ь |
| HTML Hex Encoding |
Ь |
| UTF-8 Encoding |
0xD0 0xAC |
| UTF-16 Encoding |
0x042C |
| UTF-32 Encoding |
0x0000042C |
| C/C++/Java Escape |
\u042c |
Unicode Properties