Usage
The Slavic languages practically do not have native words containing /f/; this sound, which did not exist in Proto-Indo-European, arose in Greek and Latin from PIE *bʰ (which yielded Slavic /b/) and in the Germanic languages from PIE *p (which remained unchanged in Slavic). The letter ф is, therefore, almost exclusively found in words of foreign origin, especially Greek (from ph and sometimes from th), Latin, French, German, English, and Turkic.
Few native Slavic words with this letter (in different languages) are examples of onomatopoeia (like Russian verbs фукать, фыркать etc.) or reflect sporadic pronunciation shifts, for example:
- from пв /pv/: Serbian уфати 'to hope' (cf. Church Slavonic уповати 'to hope')
- from хв /xv/: Macedonian сфати '(he) understands' (cf. Church Slavonic схватити 'to take, to catch')
- from х /x/: Russian toponym Фили 'Fili' (from хилый 'sickly')
Read more about this topic: Ef (Cyrillic)
Famous quotes containing the word usage:
“Pythagoras, Locke, Socrates—but pages
Might be filled up, as vainly as before,
With the sad usage of all sorts of sages,
Who in his life-time, each was deemed a bore!
The loftiest minds outrun their tardy ages.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Girls who put out are tramps. Girls who don’t are ladies. This is, however, a rather archaic usage of the word. Should one of you boys happen upon a girl who doesn’t put out, do not jump to the conclusion that you have found a lady. What you have probably found is a lesbian.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1951)
“I am using it [the word ‘perceive’] here in such a way that to say of an object that it is perceived does not entail saying that it exists in any sense at all. And this is a perfectly correct and familiar usage of the word.”
—A.J. (Alfred Jules)