De (Cyrillic)

The Cyrillic letter De was derived from the Greek letter Delta (Δ δ).

In the Early Cyrillic alphabet its name was добро (dobro), meaning "good."

In the Cyrillic numeral system, De had a value of 4.

The major graphic difference between De and its modern Greek equivalent lies in the two descenders ("feet") below the lower corners of the Cyrillic letter. The descenders were borrowed from a Byzantine uncial shape of uppercase Delta.

De, like the Cyrillic letter El, has two typographical variants i.e. an older variant where its top is pointed (akin to uppercase Greek letter ⟨Δ⟩) and a modern one (first used in mid-19th-century fonts) where it is square. Nowadays, almost all books and magazines are printed with fonts with the second variant of the letter , the first one is rather stylish and only a few popular text fonts use it (the best known example is "Baltika" designed in 1951-52 by V. G. Chiminova and others).

In italic (Russian) type , the lowercase form looks more like the lowercase Latin ⟨d⟩, a mirrored numeral ⟨6⟩ or a partial derivative symbol ⟨∂⟩. Southern (Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian) typography may prefer a variant that looks like a single-storey lowercase Latin ⟨g⟩. Cursive lowercase De has the same two shapes, but with a different distribution e.g. the single-storey lowercase Latin g-shaped variant is a standard for schools in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus but also used for certain typefaces with OpenType features.

The (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian) cursive form of capital De looks like Latin ⟨D⟩ as the printed version is not comfortable enough to be written quickly. The Serbian cursive form is closer to the shape of a numeral ⟨2⟩ (akin to the form sometimes used for uppercase cursive Latin ⟨Q⟩) , this form is unknown in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria.

Ukrainian diaspora have been known to write the triangle form, namely uppercase Greek letter ⟨Δ⟩ with single/two vertical strokes going through the horizontal bottom.

As used in the alphabets of various languages, De represents the following sounds:

• voiced alveolar plosive /d/, like the pronunciation of ⟨d⟩ in "dire"
• palatalized voiced alveolar plosive /dʲ/
• Voiceless alveolar plosive /t/, like the pronunciation of ⟨t⟩ in "team"
• palatalized voiceless alveolar plosive /tʲ/

The pronunciations shown in the table are the primary ones for each language; for details consult the articles on the languages.

• Δ δ : Greek letter Delta
• D d : Latin letter D
• Л л : Cyrillic letter El
• Ԁ ԁ : Cyrillic letter Komi De
• G g : Latin letter G
• Ꭰ : Cherokee syllabary letter Ah
• ∂  : Partial derivative symbol
• 𐍓  : Abur letter Doi