4 ms·

Would anyone mind explaining the "Ya" => backwards R dealie?

• DenisM 18y ago
  Written Russian language uses Cyrillic alphabet instead of Latin. That alphabet has 33 separate letters and one of them is for sound "Ya", it is spelled like "R" but backwards. A mix of Russian and English in a brand-name for a Russian company was a popular thing to do, at least in the nineties. English part makes it cool and trendy while Russian part makes it less alien and more domesticated. Ya is also the word "I" (or "me") in Russian, thus "Yandex" is a pun on "Index" (referring to "indexing" of internet).
  • aston 18y ago
    Clever. I saw the visual pun since the shape of the Я contains the I. Very cool that it's also reflected semantically.