Dze (Ѕ ѕ; italics:Ѕ ѕ orЅ ѕ; italics:Ѕ ѕ) is a letter of theCyrillic script, used in theMacedonian alphabet to represent thevoiced alveolar affricate/d͡z/, similar to the pronunciation of⟨ds⟩ in "needs" or "kids" in English. It is derived from the letterdzelo orzelo of theEarly Cyrillic alphabet, and it was used historically in all Slavic languages that use Cyrillic.
Although fully obsolete everywhere in the Cyrillic world by the 19th century, the letterzelo was revived in 1944 by the designers of the alphabet of the then-codifiedMacedonian language. The phoneme is also present inGreek (ΤΖτζ) andAlbanian (Xx), both non-Slavic neighbours to the Macedonian language; all are a part of theBalkan linguistic area.[1] In the early 21st century, the same letter also appeared inVojislav Nikčević's proposal for the new alphabet for the modernMontenegrin language.
The most common early letterform (Ѕ ѕ) resembles theLatin letterS (S s), but it is also seen reversed (Ꙅ ꙅ) like the Latin letterReversed S (Ƨ ƨ), or Z with a tail and a tick (Ꙃ ꙃ).
Abkhaz hasAbkhazian Dze (Ӡ ӡ), with an identical function and name but a different shape.
The seven root words commencing with the letter dze (aka, dzelo).
The letter is descended from ѕѣло (pronounceddzělo;) in theEarly Cyrillic alphabet, where it had the numerical value 6. The letter Dzělo was itself based on the letter Dzelo in theGlagolitic alphabet. In the Glagolitic alphabet, it was written⟨Ⰷ⟩, and had the numerical value of 8. InOld Church Slavonic it was called ѕѣло (pronounceddzeló), and inChurch Slavonic it is called ѕѣлѡ (pronouncedzeló).
The origin ofGlagolitic letter Dzelo is unclear, but the Cyrillic Ѕ may have been influenced by theGreekstigma⟨Ϛ⟩, the medieval form of the archaic letterdigamma, which had the same form and numerical value (6). Thus the visual similarity of the Cyrillic⟨Ѕ⟩ and Latin⟨S⟩ is largely coincidental.
The initial sound of⟨Ѕ⟩ inOld Church Slavonic was a soft/d͡z/ or/z/, which usually came from a historically palatalised *g (ноѕѣ, ѕвѣзда, etc.). In almost all Slavic dialects this sound was pronounced as a simple /z/; however, as the Old Church Slavonic language was based on the Bulgaro-Macedonian dialects, the sound remained distinct.
In the Old Slavic period the difference between⟨Ѕ⟩ and⟨З⟩ had already begun to be blurred, and in the writtenChurch Slavonic language from the middle of the 17th century⟨Ѕ⟩ was used only formally. The letter's distinguishing features from⟨З⟩ are:[2]
⟨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");
InRussian it was known as зѣло orzelo[zʲɪˈɫo] and had the phonetic value of/z/ or/zʲ/. In the initial version of Russian civil script ofTsar Peter I (1708), the⟨Ѕ⟩ was assigned the sound/z/, and the letter⟨З⟩ was removed. 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.
InUkrainian, 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, thedigraph⟨дз⟩ is used to represent both the phoneme/d͡z/ and the separately occurring consonant cluster/d.z/ whichUkrainian phonotactics assimilate as/d͡z.z/.
Belarusian commonly features⟨дз⟩, but it usually comes from *d from a similar development toPolish. As such,⟨ѕ⟩ had never been used for it.
Reflexes of Old Church Slavonicѕ across Eastern South Slavic.
⟨ѕ⟩ is now only used in theMacedonian alphabet. A commission formed to standardise theMacedonian language andorthography decided to adopt the letter on December 4, 1944, after a vote of 10-1. Despite the letter originally being found between⟨ж⟩ and⟨з⟩, in the new alphabet it was placed after⟨з⟩ instead. The letter represents/dz/ (examples including: ѕид/dzid, 'wall' and ѕвезда/dzvezda, 'star'). The corresponding sound is used in all dialects ofMacedonian.
⟨ѕ⟩ was also used until the middle of the 19th century in theSerbian civil script, whose orthography was closer toChurch Slavonic (compared to theRussian).Vuk Karadžić'sSerbian Cyrillic alphabet (1868) did not include⟨ѕ⟩, instead favouring a simpledigraph⟨дз⟩ to represent the sound, as it was non-native.⟨Ѕ⟩ is also included in Microsoft's Serbian Cyrillic keyboard layout, although it is not used in theSerbian Cyrillic Alphabet. The Serbian keyboard in Ubuntu replaces Ѕ with a second Ж.
TheModern Bulgarian, apart from when explicitly written with the Church Slavonic alphabet, has never used⟨ѕ⟩. Although most dialects feature it, it is found in neither the Tărnovo dialect, theprestige dialect of the time of codification, nor in theChurch Slavonic language (despite being written independently there). A few eastern dialects, including the Tărnovo dialect, have, however, independently developed both /dz/ and /dʒ/ phonemes not found in the standard language due toaffrication.Marin Drinov, one of the most important players in the establishment of Standard Bulgarian, floated the idea of using⟨ѕ⟩ as it was found in most dialects, however chose not to as he considered the letter all but forgotten.[3]
