The Banned Letter: The History of Ukrainian’s ‘Ґ’ and ‘Ї’

When we begin learning a new language, we often view the alphabet as a neutral toolkit—a static collection of symbols assigned to specific sounds. We memorize the shapes, practice the pronunciation, and rarely give a second thought to why the letters exist in the form they do. However, for linguists and historians, an alphabet is never just a list of characters. It is a battlefield.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the history of the Ukrainian language. While Ukrainian utilizes the Cyrillic script, its orthography has been subjected to centuries of political pressure, particularly during the Soviet era. The goal was often linguicide: the deliberate suppression of a language to erode national identity.

Two letters in particular tell the story of this struggle: the banned letter ‘Ґ’ (ge), which was exiled for over half a century, and the unique letter ‘Ї’ (yi), which has survived to became a defiant symbol of Ukrainian distinctiveness.

The Exile: The Case of the Letter ‘Ґ’ (Ge)

To understand the controversy surrounding the letter ‘Ґ’, we must first look at phonetics. In most Slavic languages using Cyrillic (like Russian), the letter ‘Г’ represents a “hard G” sound, like the ‘g’ in go. However, in Ukrainian, the letter ‘Г’ represents a voiced glottal fricative—a sound much closer to the English ‘h’ in house (though slightly more voiced).

So, how does a Ukrainian speaker write the “hard G” sound found in words like “goose” or borrowed words like “Google”? Historically, they used the letter ‘Ґ’—a ‘Г’ with a small upturned tail.

The Golden Age and the “Skrypnykivka”

In the 1920s, during a brief period of “Ukrainization” in the early Soviet Union, linguists worked to standardize the spelling rules of the language. This resulted in the Kharkiv Orthography of 1928, affectionately known as the Skrypnykivka, named after Mykola Skrypnyk, the People’s Commissar for Education.

The Skrypnykivka was scientifically rigorous and aimed to capture the unique phonetic features of Ukrainian. It solidified the use of ‘Ґ’ for native words featuring the plosive ‘g’ sound (like ґудзик – button, or ґанок – porch) and for transliterating foreign names (like Ґете – Goethe).

The Ban of 1933

The linguistic freedom of the 1920s was short-lived. As Stalin consolidated power, the Soviet policy shifted aggressively toward Russification—the assimilation of non-Russian populations into Russian culture and language. The existence of a distinct Ukrainian alphabet was seen as a threat to the concept of a unified Soviet people.

In 1933, the Soviet authorities denounced the 1928 orthography as “nationalist.” They introduced a new set of spelling rules designed specifically to artificially align Ukrainian closer to Russian. The most blatant casualty of this reform was the letter ‘Ґ’.

The logic was purely political. Since the Russian alphabet uses ‘Г’ for the “hard G” sound, Soviet censors decided Ukrainian should do the same, ignoring the fact that Ukrainians already used ‘Г’ for the “H” sound. This created phonetic chaos. For over 50 years, Ukrainians were forced to use the same letter for two completely different sounds.

• Loan words lost their original sound: Ernest Hemingway became Ernest Heminhvei.
• Native words lost their distinction: The nuance between similar-sounding words was blurred in writing.

Generations of Ukrainians grew up without ‘Ґ’ in their typewriters or schoolbooks. It wasn’t until the dissolution of the Soviet Union that the letter returned. In the early 1990s, independent Ukraine reinstated ‘Ґ’ into the alphabet, correcting a historical wrong and reclaiming the language’s natural phonetic range.

The Survivor: The Cultural Power of ‘Ї’ (Yi)

While ‘Ґ’ represents a history of suppression, the letter ‘Ї’ represents resilience. Phonetically, it stands for the sound /ji/ (pronounced “yee”, as in yield). While this might seem like a standard sound, the letter’s existence is a linguistic wedge that separates Ukrainian from its neighbor, Russian.

A Linguistic Unique Identifier

The Russian language does not use the letter ‘Ї’. To represent a similar sound, Russian orthography often requires a combination of letters or a “soft sign.” In Ukrainian, however, ‘Ї’ is omnipresent. It appears in the most important words in the national lexicon:

• Україна (Ukrayina) — Ukraine
• Київ (Kyyiv) — Kyiv
• Її (Yiyi) — Her / Hers

Because this letter is visually distinct (an ‘i’ with two dots, or diaeresis), it acts as an immediate visual flag. A text containing ‘Ї’ is instantly recognizable as Ukrainian. During the centuries of imperial rule, when the Ukrainian language was mocked as merely a “peasant dialect” of Russian, the existence of ‘Ї’ was a stubborn reminder that the phonology of the language was fundamentally different.

‘Ї’ as a Symbol of Resistance

In the digital age, ‘Ї’ has transcended linguistics to become a meme and a symbol of political defiance. The distinctness of the letter has been weaponized by Ukrainian internet culture to assert identity.

This symbolism took a serious and brave turn during the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In occupied cities like Mariupol, the letter ‘Ї’ began appearing as graffiti on pavements, walls, and statues. It became a shorthand symbol of resistance—a way for partisans to tell the occupiers, “You do not belong here; this is Ukrainian soil.”

For the occupiers, the letter was a source of frustration because it cannot be easily typed on a gripping Russian keyboard layout. For the locals, painting a simple ‘Ї’ was a reclamation of their space. It is a powerful example of how a singular phoneme can carry the weight of a nation’s history.

The Importance of Orthography in Identity

The story of ‘Ґ’ and ‘Ї’ teaches us that language is rarely just a means of communication; it is a repository of culture. When a government attempts to ban a letter, as the Soviets did with ‘Ґ’, they are not just changing spelling rules—they are attempting to sever the speakers’ connection to their own history and distinctiveness.

Conversely, when a people cling to a letter, as Ukrainians have with ‘Ї’, they are preserving their identity against assimilation.

Why This Matters for Language Learners

For those learning Ukrainian today, mastering the pronunciation of the soft /h/ in ‘Г’, the plosive /g/ in ‘Ґ’, and the sharp /ji/ in ‘Ї’ is about more than just having a good accent. It is an acknowledgment of the history that allowed these letters to exist on the page.

The Ukrainian alphabet consists of 33 letters. But as we have seen, ‘Ґ’ and ‘Ї’ are more than just numbers 5 and 13 in the lineup. One is a returning exile that proves culture can survive repression; the other is a beacon that proves distinctiveness cannot be erased. Together, they serve as a reminder that writing and speaking one’s native tongue is, in itself, an act of freedom.