The philologist told about the problems with the letter "E" in the official data

The letter "e" plays an important role in the Russian language, as it helps to distinguish the meanings of words. However, the problems arising from its absence in official documents are more related to bureaucratic requirements than to linguistics. Alyona Popova, a philologist and comparative linguist, told Izvestia about this on March 11.

According to her, the "e" performs a semantic function. For example, the words "sky" and "sky" or "chalk" and "chalk" have different meanings precisely because of this letter.

"In the language system, the letter "e" is indispensable for accuracy," the expert emphasized.

At the same time, situations where citizens are denied social benefits or services due to differences in the spelling of "e" and "e" lie on a different plane. This is where the demands of linguistic precision and legal formalism collide.

Popova explained that the complete identity of the spelling of first and last names in all documents is important for government systems. Formally, even a difference in one letter can be perceived as a data discrepancy, although from a human point of view, replacing "e" with "e" does not create a new person — the identity is reliably confirmed by passport data.

This problem is especially acute among Russians living abroad. In foreign documents, the name "Peter" is usually written as Petr. When translated back into Russian, it becomes "Peter" without the letter "e". However, in Russian databases, the name can be fixed in its original form — with an "e", which leads to formal discrepancies.

"This is a formal discrepancy caused by transliteration rules and a different approach to the use of the "e" inside and outside the country, and it becomes a bureaucratic obstacle," Popova said.

Verb burned: how the Russian language will be rid of rude borrowings

When will the center for his promotion abroad appear and what is wrong with studying Pushkin in schools in the Russian Federation?

On March 10, the Social Fund of Russia reported that when applying for a single benefit, it is necessary to carefully check personal data, since even small discrepancies with information on the Gosuslug portal can lead to a refusal. The match must be accurate down to the spelling of the letter "e". If the data is specified otherwise, the system may not recognize the user and reject the application.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.