Zhe (Cyrillic)
Template:Short description Template:Infobox grapheme
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Zhe, Zha, or Zhu, sometimes transliterated as Že (Ж ж; italics: Ж ж or Ж ж; italics: Ж ж) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It commonly represents the voiced retroflex sibilant Script error: No such module "IPA". (listen) or voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/, like the pronunciation of the Template:Angbr in "measure". It is also often used with D (Д) to approximate the sound in English of the Latin letter J with a ДЖ combination. Zhe is romanized as Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr or Template:Angbr.
History
It is not known how the character for Zhe was derived. No similar letter exists in Greek, Latin or any other alphabet of the time, though there is some graphic similarity with its Glagolitic counterpart Zhivete Template:Angbr (Image: File:Glagolitic capital letter Zhivete.svg) which represents the same sound. However, the origin of Zhivete, like that of most Glagolitic letters, is unclear.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
One possibility is that it was formed from the pronunciation of Hebrew letter Zayin Template:Angbr combined with the Hebrew letter Shin Template:Angbr letter, to eventually form the Modern Hebrew letter of Zhayin Template:Angbr, with a geresh Template:Angbr on top for distinction.
Zhe may also be derived from the Coptic letter Script error: No such module "lang". ⟨<templatestyles src="Script/styles_coptic.css" />Ϫ⟩, supported by the phonetic value (Script error: No such module "lang". represents the sound /d͡ʒ/ in Coptic) and shape of the letter, which the Glagolitic counterpart Zhivete Template:Angbr resembles even more closely. The form of the letter also may be derived from an Egyptian hieroglyph depicting a drill: <hiero>U29\</hiero>
Some Ukrainian scholars argue that it represents the shape of a beetle, since Zhe is the first phoneme in the Slavic word <templatestyles src="Script/styles_slavonic.css" />жукъ (žuk), meaning "beetle".[1]
In the Early Cyrillic alphabet the name of Zhe was <templatestyles src="Script/styles_slavonic.css" />живѣтє (živěte), meaning "live" (imperative).
Zhe was not used in the Cyrillic numeral system.
Usage
Zhe is used in the alphabets of all Slavic languages using a Cyrillic alphabet, and of most non-Slavic languages which use a Cyrillic alphabet. The position in the alphabet and the sound represented by the letter vary from language to language.
| Language | Position in alphabet |
Represented sound | Romanization |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belarusian | 8th | voiced retroflex fricative Script error: No such module "IPA". | zh |
| Bulgarian | 7th | voiced postalveolar fricative Script error: No such module "IPA". | zh |
| Macedonian | 8th | voiced postalveolar fricative Script error: No such module "IPA". | ž or zh |
| Russian | 8th | voiced retroflex fricative Script error: No such module "IPA". | zh |
| Serbian | 8th | voiced retroflex fricative Script error: No such module "IPA". | ž |
| Ukrainian | 9th | voiced postalveolar fricative Script error: No such module "IPA". | zh |
| Uzbek (1940–1994) | 8th | voiced postalveolar affricate Script error: No such module "IPA". or voiced postalveolar fricative Script error: No such module "IPA". (in Russian loanwords only) | j |
| Mongolian | 8th | voiceless postalveolar affricate Script error: No such module "IPA". | j |
| Kazakh | 10th | voiced alveolo-palatal fricative Script error: No such module "IPA"., sometimes voiced postalveolar affricate Script error: No such module "IPA". in speech | j |
| Kyrgyz | 8th | voiced postalveolar affricate Script error: No such module "IPA". | j |
| Dungan | 9th | voiced retroflex fricative Script error: No such module "IPA". | r |
| other non-Slavic languages | voiced postalveolar fricative Script error: No such module "IPA". |
Zhe can also be used in Leet speak or faux Cyrillic in place of the letter Template:Angbr, or to represent the symbol of the rap duo Kris Kross (a ligature of two back-to-back letter K's).
Transliteration
Ж is most often transliterated as the digraph Template:Angbr for English-language readers (as in Doctor Zhivago, Доктор Живаго, or Georgy Zhukov, Георгий Жуков). In linguistics and for Central European readers, it is most often transliterated as Template:Angbr, with a háček. The scientific transliteration convention comes from Czech spelling and is also used in the Latin alphabets of several other Slavic languages (Slovak, Sorbian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene). Thus, Leonid Brezhnev's surname (Леонид Брежнев) could be transliterated as "Brežnev", as it is spelled in a number of Slavic languages. Polish uses its own convention for transliteration of Cyrillic according to which ж is transliterated with the Polish letter ż (which is pronounced Script error: No such module "IPA". in Polish). Ж is often transliterated Template:Angbr in Mongolian because of its pronunciation as Script error: No such module "IPA"..
Related letters and other similar characters
- Ӂ ӂ : Cyrillic letter Zhe with breve
- Ź ź : Latin letter Z with acute
- Ž ž : Latin letter Z with caron
- Ż ż : Latin letter Z with dot above
- J j : Latin letter J - the same sound in Romanian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, French, Portuguese, and Catalan
- Ʒ ʒ : Latin letter Ezh
- Җ җ : Cyrillic letter Zhje
- Ӝ ӝ : Cyrillic letter Zhe with diaeresis
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Computing codes
See also
References
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