{{short description|Cyrillic letter}} {{hatnote group| {{Distinguish|text=Greek theta (Θ), Latin Ə, or other Cyrillic letter Ө (Oe) and Schwa (Cyrillic)}} {{Other uses|FITA (disambiguation)}} }} {{more references|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox grapheme | letter = Ѳ ѳ | script = Cyrillic | type = Alphabet | typedesc = ic | name = Fita / {{lang|cu|ѳита́}} | image = Cyrillic letter Fita.svg | imageclass = skin-invert-image | imagealt = | phonemes = [{{IPA link|f}}], [{{IPA link|t}}], [{{IPA link|θ}}] | number = 9 (Cyrillic numerals) | fam1 = 𐤈 | fam2 = Θ θ | language = Old Church Slavonic | usageperiod = {{circa|893}}–present | unicode = U+0472, U+0473 | alphanumber = 43rd }}
'''Fita''' (Ѳ ѳ; italics: <span style="font-family: serif">''Ѳ ѳ''</span>) is a letter of the Early Cyrillic alphabet. The shape and the name of the letter are derived from the Greek letter theta (Θ θ). In the ISO 9 system, Ѳ is romanized using F grave accent (F̀ f̀).<ref name="ISO9">{{cite web |url=http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=3589 |title=ISO 9:1995: Information and documentation — Transliteration of Cyrillic characters into Latin characters — Slavic and non-Slavic languages |publisher=International Organization for Standardization |access-date=15 June 2019}}</ref>
In the Cyrillic numeral system, Fita has a numerical value of 9.
== Shape == In traditional (Church Slavonic) typefaces, the central line is typically about twice the width of the letter's body and has serifs similar to those on the letter Т: 40px. Sometimes the line is drawn as low as the baseline, which makes the letter difficult to distinguish from Д.
==Usage==
===Old Russian and Church Slavonic=== The traditional Russian name of the letter is {{lang|ru|фита́}} ''fitá'' (or, in pre-1918 spelling, ѳита́). Fita was mainly used to write proper names and loanwords derived from or via Greek. Russians pronounced these names with the sound {{IPA|/f/}} instead of {{IPA|/θ/}} (like the pronunciation of {{angbr|th}} in "'''th'''in"), for example "Theodore" was pronounced as "Feodor" (now "Fyodor").
Early texts in Russian (and in the Russian recension of Church Slavonic) demonstrate an increasing interchangeability of Ѳ and Ф. Some scribes preferred one of the two letters and ignored the other. There existed an orthographical system to write Ѳ in an initial position and Ф elsewhere. Since the middle of the 17th century, selection between Ѳ and Ф was re-adjusted to exactly follow the Greek origin, the system still in use in Church Slavonic orthography.
===Russian=== In the first variant of the Petrine Russian alphabet (1707–1708), the letter ''fita'' was eliminated and ''fe'' (Ф) became the only way to represent {{IPA|/f/}}. But in the 19th century, the letter ''fita'' was restored and both letters co-existed until the 1918 spelling reform, when ''fita'' was replaced by ''fe'' again.
Many Greek words with ''theta'' were adopted in Russian with ''te'' (Т т) instead of ''fita'' (mostly through Latin or other Western European languages): теорема (theorem), атлетъ (athlete), пантера (panther), фталевый (phthalic), etc. Sometimes dual spellings/pronunciations existed: ѳеатръ/театръ (theatre), аѳеизмъ/атеизмъ (atheism), алгориѳмъ/алгоритмъ (algorithm), каѳолическій/католическій (Catholic), etc.; the variants with ''fita'' (in modern spelling with Ф) are typically more archaic or special.
===Other languages=== In other languages which use the Cyrillic alphabet, ''fita'' was pronounced {{IPA|/t/}} and was replaced with ''te'' (Т т). For example, the Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian version of Theodore is Тодор ''Todor'' or Теодор ''Teodor''.{{Citation needed|date=June 2013}}
===Romanian=== Called ''thita'', {{angbr|Ѳ}} is part of the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, which was used until about 1860.
===Aleut=== Fita was used in the first Cyrillic version of the Aleut alphabet, typically in loanwords.
==Related letters and other similar characters== *Θ θ/{{not a typo|ϑ}} : Greek letter ''theta'' *Ө ө : Cyrillic letter ''oe'', currently used in the Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tuvan, and Mongolian languages
==Computing codes==
{{charmap |0472|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Fita |0473|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Fita }}
==See also== * Th-fronting, pronunciation of English "th" as "f" or "v". * Ҫ ҫ : Cyrillic letter the, which is pronounced in Bashkir as a voiceless dental fricative ({{IPA|/θ/}}) * Т̌ т̌ : Cyrillic letter te with caron, pronounced in Wakhi Cyrillic as a voiceless dental fricative ({{IPA|/θ/}})
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Commons category-inline|Cyrillic Fita}}
{{Cyrillic navbox}}
Category:Cyrillic letters