Noto Sans Italic: Version 2.008
Noto Serif Italic: Version 2.007
Issue
The Cyrillic left descender appears in two lowercase letters: U+04CC CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER KHAKASSIAN CHE and U+A661 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER REVERSED TSE. In the italic fonts, these letters look partially or wholly small-caps instead of lowercase. In Noto Serif, the bottom right of U+04CC has a flat serif instead of an upwards curl as other che-derived letters do. In Noto Sans, U+04CC is fine. In both fonts, U+A661 is just a miniature U+A660 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER REVERSED TSE.
Publishers were not consistent about whether the descender added to che should be on the left or on the right; for example, https://nbdrx.ru/pdf/bx0000527.pdf uses the right descender on the book cover but left descender inside. Even in books that use the left descender, though, the italic letter consistently uses a right descender.
page=8, exercise 9, line 7: ілӌірбе (middle, i.e. right)
The descender looks like it is directly in the middle, but I count that as being on the right because the descenders of tse and shcha, which unambiguously have right descenders, are positioned the same in fonts like this, as in конница on page=13.
page=58, entry 1964: тыхтаӌаң (middle, i.e. right)
page=58, heading: ирткенӌе (left)
Clearly, the most authentic glyph for U+04CC would look identical to U+04B7 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER CHE WITH DESCENDER. You might consider shifting the descender to the middle to avoid a homoglyph: it is closer to the left, it looks different from U+04CC, and it isn’t unattested. Compare ParaType’s fonts like Newton, where the left descender is very definitely on the left, and in some fonts doesn’t even touch the stem of the che. There are many possible solutions.
U+A661 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER REVERSED TSE is a long obsolete character that predates Cyrillic italics. Still, it would be best for consistency if its glyph looked lowercase instead of small caps and if its left descender matched U+04CC’s left descender, whatever that ends up being.
Character data
ӌꙡҷц
U+04CC CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER KHAKASSIAN CHE
U+A661 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER REVERSED TSE
U+04B7 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER CHE WITH DESCENDER
U+0446 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER TSE
nizarsq
commented
4 years ago 
Font
NotoSans-Italic.otf NotoSerif-Italic.otf
Where the font came from, and when
Site: https://github.com/googlefonts/noto-fonts/blob/c5481f3a1b57d54190a4e7881103033fbbbcec0c/unhinted/otf/NotoSans/NotoSans-Italic.otf Site: https://github.com/googlefonts/noto-fonts/blob/c5481f3a1b57d54190a4e7881103033fbbbcec0c/unhinted/otf/NotoSerif/NotoSerif-Italic.otf Date: 2022-05-07
Font version
Noto Sans Italic: Version 2.008 Noto Serif Italic: Version 2.007
Issue
The Cyrillic left descender appears in two lowercase letters: U+04CC CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER KHAKASSIAN CHE and U+A661 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER REVERSED TSE. In the italic fonts, these letters look partially or wholly small-caps instead of lowercase. In Noto Serif, the bottom right of U+04CC has a flat serif instead of an upwards curl as other che-derived letters do. In Noto Sans, U+04CC is fine. In both fonts, U+A661 is just a miniature U+A660 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER REVERSED TSE.
Publishers were not consistent about whether the descender added to che should be on the left or on the right; for example, https://nbdrx.ru/pdf/bx0000527.pdf uses the right descender on the book cover but left descender inside. Even in books that use the left descender, though, the italic letter consistently uses a right descender.
Clearly, the most authentic glyph for U+04CC would look identical to U+04B7 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER CHE WITH DESCENDER. You might consider shifting the descender to the middle to avoid a homoglyph: it is closer to the left, it looks different from U+04CC, and it isn’t unattested. Compare ParaType’s fonts like Newton, where the left descender is very definitely on the left, and in some fonts doesn’t even touch the stem of the che. There are many possible solutions.
U+A661 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER REVERSED TSE is a long obsolete character that predates Cyrillic italics. Still, it would be best for consistency if its glyph looked lowercase instead of small caps and if its left descender matched U+04CC’s left descender, whatever that ends up being.
Character data
ӌꙡҷц U+04CC CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER KHAKASSIAN CHE U+A661 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER REVERSED TSE U+04B7 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER CHE WITH DESCENDER U+0446 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER TSE
Screenshot