There are about 70 words starting with the letter ‘Й’ (‘short I’) in Russian
But only a few of them are commonly used.
The letter ‘Й’ (I kratkoye) is one of the most exotic letters in the Russian alphabet. Modern Russian dictionaries list just over 70 words that begin with this letter, including their derivatives. However, only a few are frequently used: ‘йод’ (iodine), ‘йога’ (yoga), ‘йогурт’ (yogurt), as well as names of countries and cities like ‘Йошкар-Ола’ (Yoshkar-Ola), ‘Йемен’ (Yemen), and ‘Йорк’ (York).
The letter ‘Й’ became a separate letter only in the 20th century – before that, it was written as ‘И’ with a breve on top. The sound itself is something between ‘I’ and ‘J’ and is called ‘I kratkoye’ (‘short I’).
