| Ezh | |
|---|---|
| Ʒ ʒ | |
| (See below,Typography) | |
 | |
| Usage | |
| Writing system | Latin script |
| Type | Alphabetic andLogographic |
| Language of origin | Latin language |
| Sound values | |
| In Unicode | U+01B7, U+0292 |
| History | |
| Development | |
| Time period | 1847 to present |
| Descendants | • Ƹ • Ǯ |
| Sisters | |
| Transliterations | zh,ž |
| Variations | (See below,Typography) |
| Other | |
| Associated graphs | z(x),zh,ž |
| Writing direction | Left-to-Right |
| This article containsphonetic transcriptions in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. For the distinction between[ ],/ / and ⟨ ⟩, seeIPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters. | |
Ezh (Ʒ ʒ)/ˈɛʒ/ ⓘEZH, also called the "tailed z", is a letter, notable for its use in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to represent thevoiced postalveolar fricative consonant. This sound, sometimes transcribed /zh/, occurs in the pronunciation of⟨si⟩ invision/ˈvɪʒən/ andprecision/prɪˈsɪʒən/, the⟨s⟩ intreasure/ˈtrɛʒər/, and the⟨g⟩ inbeige/beɪʒ/.
Ezh is also used as a letter in some orthographies ofLaz andSkolt Sami, both by itself, and with acaron (⟨Ǯ⟩ ⟨ǯ⟩). In Laz, these represent voiceless alveolaraffricate/ts/ and itsejective counterpart/tsʼ/, respectively. In Skolt Sami they respectively denote partially voiced alveolar and post-alveolar affricates, broadly represented/dz/ and/dʒ/. It also appears in the orthography of some African languages, for example in theAja language ofBenin and theDagbani language ofGhana, where the uppercase variant looks like a reflectedsigma ⟨Σ⟩. It also appears in the orthography ofUropi.
The zh/ʒ/ sound is represented by various letters in different languages, such as the letter ⟨Ž⟩ as used in manySlavic languages, the letter ⟨Ż⟩ as used inKashubian, the letter ⟨ج⟩ in a number ofArabic dialects, thePersian alphabet letter ⟨ژ⟩, theCyrillic letter ⟨Ж⟩, theDevanagari letter (झ़) and theEsperanto letter ⟨Ĵ⟩.
As a phonetic symbol, it originates withIsaac Pitman'sEnglish Phonotypic Alphabet in 1847, as az with an added hook. The symbol is based onmedieval cursive forms of Latin ⟨z⟩, evolving into theblackletter ⟨z⟩ letter. In Unicode, however, the blackletter ⟨z⟩ ("tailed z", Germangeschwänztes Z) is considered a glyph variant of ⟨z⟩, and not an ezh.HumanistGian Giorgio Trissino proposed in 1524 a reform ofItalian orthography introducing ezh as an uppercase⟨ç⟩ for the[dz] sound.[1]
In contexts where "tailed z" is used in contrast to tail-less z, notably in standard transcription ofMiddle High German, Unicode ⟨ʒ⟩ is sometimes used, strictly speaking incorrectly. Unicode offers ⟨ȥ⟩ "z with hook" as a grapheme for Middle High German coronal fricative instead.
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InUnicode 1.0, the character was unified with the unrelated characteryogh ⟨Ȝ ȝ⟩, which was not correctly added to Unicode until Unicode 3.0. Historically, ezh is derived from Latin ⟨z⟩, but yogh is derived from Latin ⟨g⟩ by way ofinsular G. The characters look very similar and do not appear alongside each other in any alphabet. To differentiate between the two more clearly, theOxford University Press and theEarly English Text Society extend the uppermost tip of the yogh into a little curvature upward.[citation needed]
The ezh looks similar to the common form of thefigure three ⟨3⟩. To differentiate between the two characters, ezh includes the sharp zigzag of the letter ⟨z⟩, while the number is usually curved. Some typefaces use a form of ⟨3⟩ with a flat top, very similar (or virtually identical) to an ezh.[citation needed]
In handwritten Cyrillic, the numeral ⟨3⟩ is sometimes written in a form similar to the ezh, so as to distinguish it from the letterze ⟨З⟩.[citation needed]
Ezh looks similar to thesyllabogram ⟨ろ⟩, which is the hiragana form of the Japanesemoraro.
The Cyrillic letterze ⟨З з⟩ has a similar body to Ezh and theAbkhazian dze ⟨Ӡ ӡ⟩. As customary, the Cyrillic script has a stiffer structure, but both letters have common roots in historical cursive forms of the Greek letterzeta ⟨Ζ ζ⟩.[citation needed]
However, Latin ezh and Cyrillic ze represent different phonemes: the former generally represents/ʒ/, while the latter represents /z/. Cyrillic useszhe ⟨Ж ж⟩ for the /ʒ/ phoneme.[citation needed]
Trissino's reform did not prosper in relation to the⟨z⟩.
In the IPA it represents thevoiced postalveolar fricative consonant. For example:vision/ˈvɪʒən/. It is pronounced as the ⟨s⟩ in "treasure" or the ⟨si⟩ in the word "precision".
It is used with that value inUropi.
It is used in the "International Standard" orthography, as devised by Marcel Courthiade forRomani.
It was also used in an obsolete Latin alphabet for writingKomi, where it represented[d͡ʑ] (similar to English ⟨j⟩). In the modern Cyrillic alphabet, this sound is written as "дз".
It was also used duringLatinisation in the USSR in the project ofUnified Northern Alphabet and other alphabets of the people of the Soviet Union during the 1920–1930s.
InUnicode, a standard designed to allow symbols from all writing systems to be represented and manipulated by computers, the ezh is also used as the symbol to represent the abbreviation fordram or drachm, anapothecaries' systemunit ofmass.[2] Unicode has no dedicated symbol for dram,[3] but the Unicode code table entry for ezh reads "LATIN SMALL LETTER EZH = dram sign".[4] The upper-case letterz inBlackletter/Fraktur hand,ℨ, is also seen used for dram, but this letter is meant to be used in mathematics and phonetics, and is not recommended as an abbreviation for dram.
TheUnicode code points areU+01B7 for ⟨Ʒ⟩ andU+0292 for ⟨ʒ⟩.Ezh with caron is alsoprecomposed inUnicode with the code pointsU+01EE for ⟨Ǯ⟩ andU+01EF for ⟨ǯ⟩.
The IPA historically allowed for ezh to beligatured to other letters; some of these ligatures have been added to the Unicode standard.
Relatedobsolete IPA characters includeU+01BA ƺLATIN SMALL LETTER EZH WITH TAIL andU+0293 ʓLATIN SMALL LETTER EZH WITH CURL.
U+1DBE ᶾMODIFIER LETTER SMALL EZH andU+1D9A ᶚLATIN SMALL LETTER EZH WITH RETROFLEX HOOK are also used for phonetic transcription.[5]
U+1D23 ᴣLATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL EZH is used in theUralic Phonetic Alphabet.[6]
U+1DF18 𝼘LATIN SMALL LETTER EZH WITH PALATAL HOOK was previously used in theIPA[7][8]
For Mac:Option⌥+:, followed by⇧ Shift+Z orZ respectively.
For Windows (Sámi Keyboard Layout):AltGr+B.
qui il z ha piu del c Lombardo, chε in Ӡona, Ӡoroaʃtro, Ӡephiro, meço, ε ʃimili
