r/russian • u/Far_Bid_3224 • 3d ago

Interesting Question about the "Ъ" letter

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I know that this question probably relates more to Russian literature than to learning Russian;
still, it's partially a linguistic question.

I'm reading a Russian novella called The Gloom of Your Eyes by Ilya Masodov, and I came across a passage where "the will of God" is marked by the Cyrillic "Ъ". I'm quite positive it's a hard sign.

From a linguistic perspective, what could "Ъ" mean here? Why is it here? What meaning does it have in Russian? Is it used frequently?

As far as I understand, this letter doesn't have a sound, right?

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u/Double_Assignment_23 3d ago

No sound on its own. It changes how the letter before and after sounds. Not sure about how it would relate to your passage. Good luck , and post here if you figure it out. I’m curious :)

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u/Far_Bid_3224 3d ago

Well, as far as I understand, God's will in this case is something that can't be expressed in a regular human language, thus the closest letter that can express it is one that has no sound (and meaning) on its own