View source for Z with swash tail

{{Short description|Latin letter formerly used in Shona orthography}}
[[File:Latin letter Z with swash tail.svg|thumb|Latin Z with swash tail]]
'''Ɀ''' (lowercase: '''ɀ''') is a Latin letter [[z]] with a "swash tail" (encoded by [[Unicode]], at codepoints U+2C7F for uppercase and U+0240 for lowercase). It was used as a [[phonetic transcription|phonetic symbol]] by linguists studying [[African languages]] to represent a [[Labial–coronal consonant|voiced labio-alveolar fricative]] ({{IPAblink|ʷ|zʷ}}).<ref>[http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/WG2/docs/n2799.pdf Proposal to add two Africanist phonetic characters to the UCS], Michael Everson & Peter Constable, June 12, 2004.{{dead link|date=May 2025}}</ref><ref>[http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/wg2/docs/n3447.pdf Proposal to encode two phonetic characters and two Shona characters], Lorna A. Priest, October 2, 2007.{{dead link|date=May 2025}}</ref>

In 1931, it was adopted into the [[orthography]] of [[Shona language|Shona]] for a 'whistled' or labialized ''z'', but it was dropped in 1955 due to the lack of the character on [[typewriter]]s and [[typeface|font]]s. Use of this character for Shona was significant enough to be mentioned as an additional character in the 1949 guide to the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]], although the character was never an official part of the IPA.<ref>{{cite book |last1=International Phonetic Association |title=The principles of the International Phonetic Association: being a description of the International Phonetic Alphabet and the manner of using it, illustrated by texts in 51 languages |date=1949 |page=14 |url=https://archive.org/details/PrinciplesoftheIPA1949/page/n15/mode/2up |access-date=27 May 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03190-add-phon-syms.pdf |last=Constable |first=Peter |title=Proposal to Encode Additional Phonetic Symbols in the UCS |date=2003}}</ref> However, even at that time, the [[digraph (orthography)|digraph]] [[zv (digraph)|zv]] was also used instead of ɀ in Shona writing systems, and zv is the standard way of writing this sound at present.

It is sometimes used to transcribe [[Toda language|Toda]]'s /d̪z̪/.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

{{charmap
|2C7F|name1=LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z WITH SWASH TAIL|Info=yes
|0240|name2=LATIN SMALL LETTER Z WITH SWASH TAIL
}}

== Notes and references ==
<references/>

==See also==
*[[S with swash tail|ȿ]]
*[[ƍ]]
*[[Ȥ]] "Z with hook"

{{Latin script|Z|hook}}

[[Category:Latin-script letters|Z]]
[[Category:Phonetic transcription symbols|Z]]

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