Russian has no words that start with the letter ‘Ы’ (‘Y’)
This is the most mysterious letter of the Russian alphabet and its pronunciation is hard to explain to foreigners.
The letter ‘Ы’ entered the Russian language from the Cyrillic Old Slavonic alphabet back in the 9th century, like many other Russian letters. It appears in words like ‘быть’ (‘byt’, ‘to be’), ‘плыть’ (‘plyt’, ‘to swim’), ‘рыба’ (‘ryba’, ‘fish’), as well as many others.
But, despite its ancient history, there are no Russian words that begin with ‘Ы’. However, such words exist in the languages of other indigenous peoples of Russia. For example, in Yakut – ‘Ысыах’ (‘Yhyakh’, a summer festival), in Khakas – ‘ыр’ (‘yr’, a song) and in Komi – ‘ыб’ (‘yb’, ‘a hill’).
