Dze

Dze (Ѕ ѕ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script, used in the Macedonian alphabet to represent the voiced alveolar affricate /d͡z/, similar to the pronunciation of ⟨ds⟩ in "needs" or "kids" in English. It is derived from the letter dzelo or zelo of the Early Cyrillic alphabet, and it was used historically for Old Church Slavonic, Ukrainian, Russian, and Romanian.

For the Pashto letter, see Dze (Pashto).
For the Georgian surname suffix -dze, see Georgian surname.
Not to be confused with the Latin letter S or the Georgian letter Ⴝ.
Cyrillic letter Dze
Phonetic usage:[d͡z]
Name:ѕѣло
Numeric value:6
Derived from:Greek letter Stigma (Ϛ ϛ)
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
АА́А̀А̂А̄ӒБВ
ГҐДЂЃЕЕ́Ѐ
Е̄Е̂ЁЄЄ́ЖЗЗ́
ЅИІІ́ЇЇ́ꙆИ́
ЍИ̂ӢЙЈКЛЉ
МНЊОО́О̀О̂Ō
ӦПРСС́ТЋЌ
УУ́У̀У̂ӮЎӰФ
ХЦЧЏШЩꙎЪ
Ъ̀ЫЫ́ЬѢЭЭ́Ю
Ю́Ю̀ЯЯ́Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
ӐА̊А̃Ӓ̄ӔӘӘ́Ә̃
ӚВ̌ԜГ̑Г̇Г̣Г̌Г̂
Г̆Г̈ҔҒӺҒ̌Ӷ
Д́Д̌Д̈Д̣Д̆ӖЕ̃
Ё̄Є̈ҖӜӁЖ̣ҘӞ
З̌З̣З̆ԐԐ̈ӠИ̃Ӥ
ҊҚӃҠҞҜК̣Ԛ
ᴫЛ́ӅԮԒЛ̈Ӎᵸ
Н́ӉҢԨӇҤО̆О̃
Ӧ̄ӨӨ̄Ө́Ө̆ӪԤП̈
Р̌ҎС̌ҪС̣С̱Т́Т̈
Т̌Т̇Т̣ҬУ̃ӲУ̊
Ӱ̄ҰҮҮ́Х̣Х̱Х̮Х̑
Х̌ҲӼӾҺҺ̈ԦЦ̌
Ц̈ҴҶҶ̣ӴӋҸ
Ч̇Ч̣ҼҾШ̈Ш̣ꚜЫ̆
Ы̄ӸꚝҌҨЭ̆Э̄Э̇
ӬӬ́Ӭ̄Ю̆Ю̈Ю̈́Ю̄Я̆
Я̄Я̈Я̈́Ӏ
Archaic or unused letters
А̨Б̀Б̣Б̱В̀Г̀Г̧
Г̄Г̓Г̆Ҕ̀Ҕ̆ԀД̓
Д̀Д̨ԂꚀꙢЕ̇Е̨
Ж̀Ж̑ꙂꙄЏ̆
ꚄꚄ̆ꙀЗ̀З̑ԄԆꚈ
ԪꚂꚔІ̂І̣І̨
Ј̵Ј̃ꙈК̓К̀К̆Ӄ̆
К̑К̇К̈К̄ԞК̂
Л̀ԠꙤԈЛ̑Л̇Ԕ
М̀М̃ꙦН̀Н̄Н̧Н̃
ԊԢН̡ѺꙨꙪꙬꙮ
ꚘꚚП̓П̀П́П̧
ҦП̑ҀԚ̆Р́Р̀Р̃
ԖС̀С̈ԌҪ̓Т̓Т̀
ԎТ̑ꚊТ̧ꚌꚌ̆
ѸꙊУ̇У̨ꙋ́Ф̑
Ф̓Х́Х̀Х̆Х̇Х̧Х̓
һ̱ѠꙌѼѾꙠЦ̀Ц́
Ц̓ꚎꚎ̆ꚐЧ́
Ч̀Ч̆Ч̑Ч̓ԬꚒ
ꚆꚆ̆Ҽ̆Ш̀Ш̆Ш̑Щ̆Ꚗ
Ꚗ̆ꙐЫ̂Ы̃Ѣ́Ѣ̈Ѣ̆
ꙒЭ̨Э̂ꙔЮ̂Ꙗ
Я̈Я̂Я̨ԘѤѦꙘѪ
ꙚѨꙜѬѮѰѲѴ
ѶꙞ

Although fully obsolete everywhere in the Cyrillic world by the 19th century, the letter zelo was revived in 1944 by the designers of the alphabet of the then-codified Macedonian language. The phoneme is also present in Greek (ΤΖ τζ) and Albanian (X x), both non-Slavic neighbours to the Macedonian language; all are a part of the Balkan linguistic area.[1] In the early 21st century, the same letter also appeared in Vojislav Nikčević's proposal for the new alphabet for the modern Montenegrin language.

The most common early letterform (Ѕ ѕ) resembles the Latin letter S (S s), but it is also seen reversed (Ꙅ ꙅ) like the Latin letter Reversed S (Ƨ ƨ), or Z with a tail and a tick (Ꙃ ꙃ).

Abkhaz has Abkhazian Dze (Ӡ ӡ), with an identical function and name but a different shape.

Origin

The letter is descended from ѕѣло (pronounced dzělo; Dzělo) in the Early Cyrillic alphabet, where it had the numerical value 6. The letter Dzělo was itself based on the letter Dzelo in the Glagolitic alphabet. In the Glagolitic alphabet, it was written ⟨Ⰷ⟩, and had the numerical value of 8. In Old Church Slavonic it was called ѕѣло (pronounced dzeló), and in Church Slavonic it is called ѕѣлѡ (pronounced zeló).

The origin of Glagolitic letter Dzelo is unclear, but the Cyrillic Ѕ may have been influenced by the Greek stigma ⟨Ϛ⟩, the medieval form of the archaic letter digamma, which had the same form and numerical value (6). Thus the visual similarity of the Cyrillic ⟨Ѕ⟩ and Latin ⟨S⟩ is largely coincidental.

Development

The initial sound of ⟨Ѕ⟩ in Old Church Slavonic was a soft /d͡z/ or /z/, which often corresponds in cognates to a /ɡ/ sound in modern Russian, as in мъноѕи (Russian: много), по ноѕѣ (Russian: нога), and растрьѕати (Russian: расторгать). However, in the Old Slavic period the difference between ⟨Ѕ⟩ and ⟨З⟩ had already begun to be blurred, and in the written Church Slavonic language from the middle of the 17th century ⟨Ѕ⟩ was used only formally. The letter's distinguishing features from ⟨З⟩ are:[2]

The seven root words commencing with the letter dze (aka, dzelo).
  • ⟨Ѕ⟩ is used in root derived from these seven words beginning with ⟨Ѕ⟩: ѕвѣзда, ѕвѣрь, ѕеліе, ѕлакъ, ѕлый, ѕмій, ѕѣлѡ ("star, beast, vegetable, herb, angry, dragon, very");
  • ⟨З⟩ is used in all remaining cases.
  • ⟨Ѕ⟩ has the numerical value of 6, whereas ⟨З⟩ has the numerical value of 7;

In Russian it was known as зѣло or zelo [zʲɪˈɫo] and had the phonetic value of /d͡z/, /z/ or /zʲ/.

In the initial version of Russian civil script of Tsar Peter I (1708), the ⟨Ѕ⟩ was assigned the sound /z/, and the letter ⟨З⟩ was abolished. However, in the second version of the civil script (1710), ⟨З⟩ was restored, and ⟨Ѕ⟩ was abolished. Both versions of the alphabet were used until 1735, which is considered the date of the final elimination of ⟨Ѕ⟩ in Russian.

See also Reforms of Russian orthography.

⟨Ѕ⟩ was used in the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet (where it represented /d͡z/) until the alphabet was abolished in favour of a Latin-based alphabet in 1860-62. ⟨Ѕ⟩ was also used—albeit rarely—to the middle of the 19th century in the Serbian civil script, whose orthography was closer to Church Slavonic (compared to Russian). Vuk Karadžić's Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (1868) did not include ⟨Ѕ⟩, instead favouring the digraph ⟨ДЗ⟩ to represent /dz/.

In Ukrainian, the sound /d͡z/ is integrated as part of the language's phonology, but it mainly occurs in loanwords rather than in words of native Ukrainian origin. As such, the digraph ⟨ДЗ⟩ is used to represent both the phoneme /d͡z/ and the separately occurring consonant cluster |d.z| which Ukrainian phonotactics assimilate as /d͡z.z/.

Usage

⟨Ѕ⟩ is now only used in the Macedonian alphabet. A commission formed to standardise the Macedonian language and orthography decided to adopt the letter on December 4, 1944, after a vote of 10-1. The letter represents /dz/ (examples including: ѕид/dzid, 'wall' and ѕвезда/dzvezda, 'star'). The corresponding sound is used in all dialects of Macedonian.

⟨Ѕ⟩ is also included in Microsoft's Serbian Cyrillic keyboard layout, although it is not used in the Serbian Cyrillic Alphabet. The Serbian keyboard in Ubuntu replaces Ѕ with a second Ж.

Computing codes
Character information
PreviewЅѕꙄꙅꙂꙃ
Unicode name CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER DZE CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER DZE CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER REVERSED DZE CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER REVERSED DZE CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER DZELO CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER DZELO
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode1029U+04051109U+045542564U+A64442565U+A64542562U+A64242563U+A643
UTF-8208 133D0 85209 149D1 95234 153 132EA 99 84234 153 133EA 99 85234 153 130EA 99 82234 153 131EA 99 83
Numeric character referenceЅЅѕѕꙄꙄꙅꙅꙂꙂꙃꙃ
Named character referenceЅѕ
Code page 8551378913688
Windows-1251189BD190BE
ISO-8859-5165A5245F5
Macintosh Cyrillic193C1207CF

See also

References
  1. Dontchev Daskalov, Roumen; Marinov, Tchavdar (2013), Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies, Balkan Studies Library, BRILL, p. 454, ISBN 978-9004250765
  2. Gamanovich, Alypy (1964), Грамматика Церковно-Славянскаго Языка (Grammar of the Church Slavonic Language), Jordanville, New York: Printing shop of St. Job of Pochaev, Holy Trinity Monastery (published 1984), ISBN 978-0-88465-064-5
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