Cyrillic Capital Letter I with Macron

Cyrillic Capital Letter I with Macron at U+04E2 is an uppercase Cyrillic letter formed from И with a macron above it, used to mark a distinct long or modified i-like vowel. It belongs to the Cyrillic block and pairs with the lowercase ӣ in orthographies that need this vowel contrast. Its most visible modern use is in Tajik Cyrillic, where the lowercase form is a regular letter and the capital appears at the beginnings of words, names, titles, and all-caps text. In Tajik it represents the long close front vowel /iː/, distinguishing it from plain И in spelling and pronunciation. The letter also appears in some minority-language Cyrillic alphabets and linguistic materials for languages of the former Soviet Union, especially where vowel length or quality is marked directly in the alphabet. In dictionaries, grammars, school texts, and transliterated names, it helps keep native spelling distinctions that would be lost if plain И were substituted. Because it resembles И plus a diacritic, it may be replaced by an unaccented И in limited fonts or informal typing, but that can change correct spelling in languages such as Tajik.