Tsade (also spelledṣade,ṣādē,ṣaddi,ṣad,tzadi,sadhe,tzaddik) is the eighteenthletter of theSemitic abjads, includingPhoenicianṣādē 𐤑,Hebrewṣādīצ‎,Aramaicṣāḏē 𐡑,Syriacṣāḏē ܨ,Ge'ezṣädäy ጸ, andArabicṣādص‎. It is related to theAncient North Arabian 𐪎‎‎,South Arabian𐩮, andGe'ezጸ. The corresponding letter of theUgaritic alphabet is 𐎕ṣade.

Its oldest phonetic value is debated, although there is a variety of pronunciations in different modern Semitic languages and their dialects. It represents the coalescence of threeProto-Semitic "emphatic consonants" inCanaanite.Arabic, which kept the phonemes separate, introduced variants ofṣād andṭāʾ to express the three (seeḍād,ẓāʾ). In Aramaic, these emphatic consonants coalesced instead withʿayin andṭēt, respectively, thus Hebrewereṣארץ (earth) isaraʿארע‎ in Aramaic.

The Phoenician letter is continued in theGreeksan (Ϻ) and possiblysampi (Ϡ), and inEtruscan 𐌑Ś. It may have inspired the form of the lettertse in theGlagolitic andCyrillic alphabets.

The letter is named "tsadek" in Yiddish,^[1] and Hebrew speakers often give it a similar name as well. This name for the letter probably originated from a fast recitation of the alphabet (i.e., "tsadi,qoph" → "tsadiq,qoph"), influenced by the Hebrew wordtzadik, meaning "righteous person".^[2]

The origin ofṣade is unclear. It may have come from aProto-Sinaitic script based on a pictogram of a plant, perhaps apapyrus plant, or afish hook (inModern Hebrew,צדtsad means "[he] hunt[ed]", and in Arabicصادṣād means "[he] hunted"). The form of the Arabic letterṣād may be formed from a ligature of dotlessnūn and the bottom part of the letterṭa.

The letter is namedṣād and inModern Standard Arabic ispronounced/sˤ/.

It is written in several ways depending in its position in the word:

Chapter 38 of the Quran is named for this letter, which begins the chapter.

The phoneme is not native toPersian,Ottoman Turkish, orUrdu, and its pronunciation in Arabic loanwords in those languages is not distinguishable fromس orث, all of which are pronounced[s].

Often, words that haveظẓāʾ,صṣād, andضḍād in Arabic have cognates withצtsadi in Hebrew.

Examples

• ظẓāʾ: the word for "thirst" in Classical Arabic isظمأẓamaʾ andצמאtsama in Hebrew.
• صṣād: the word for "Egypt" in Classical Arabic isمصرmiṣr andמצריםmitsrayim in Hebrew.
• ضḍād: the word for "egg" in Classical Arabic isبيضةbayḍah andביצהbetsah in Hebrew.

When representing this sound in transliteration of Arabic into Hebrew, it is written asצtsade orס׳‎ samekh with a geresh.

Orthographic variants
position in word	Various print fonts			Modern Cursive Hebrew	Rashi script
	Serif	Sans-serif	Monospaced
non-final	צ	צ	צ
final	ץ	ץ	ץ

Hebrew spelling:צָדִי orצָדֵי.

InHebrew, the letter's name istsadi orṣadi, depending on whether the letter is transliterated as Modern Israeli "ts" or Tiberian "ṣ". Alternatively, it can be calledtsadik orṣadik, spelled צָדִּיק, influenced by its Yiddish nametsadek and the Hebrew wordtzadik.

Ṣadi, likekaph,mem,pe, andnun, has a final form, used at the end of words. Its shape changes fromצ‎ toץ‎.

InModern Hebrew, צtsade represents avoiceless alveolar affricate/t͡s/. This is the same inYiddish. Historically, it represented either apharyngealized/sˤ/ or an affricate such as the modern Hebrew pronunciation or theGe’ez[t͡sʼ];^[3] which became[t͡s] inAshkenazi pronunciation. Ageresh can also be placed aftertsade (צ׳ ; ץ׳‎), giving it the sound[t͡ʃ] (or, in ahypercorrected pronunciation, apharyngealized[ʃˤ]), e.g.צִ׳יפְּס‎ chips.

Ṣade appears as[sˤ] amongstYemenite Jews and other Jews from theMiddle East.

SomeSephardi Jews pronounceצ‎ like a regulars, and this is the sound value it has inJudaeo-Spanish, as in "masa" (matzo) or "sadik" (tzadik).

Ingematria,ṣadi represents the number 90. Its final form represents 900, but this is rarely used,taw, taw, andqof (400+400+100) being used instead.

As an abbreviation, it stands forṣafon, north.

Ṣadi is also one of the seven letters that receive special crowns (calledtagin) when written in aSefer Torah. Seeshin,‘ayin,tet,nun,zayin, andgimmel.

• Ṣ
• Z → Usage
• Tse (Cyrillic)

Wikimedia Commons has media related toTsade (letter).

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