In English, Tse is commonlyromanized as⟨ts⟩. However, in proper names (personal names,toponyms, etc.) and titles, it may also be rendered as⟨c⟩ (which signifies the sound inSerbo-Croatian,Czech,Polish,Hungarian etc.),⟨z⟩ (which signifies the sound inItalian andGerman),⟨cz⟩ (which was one of the conventions to represent the sound in Medieval Latin) or⟨tz⟩. Its equivalent in themodern Romanian Latin alphabet is⟨ț⟩.
Tse is thought to have come from theHebrew letter Tsadi ⟨צ⟩ or the Arabic letterص, via theGlagolitic letter Tsi (Ⱌ ⱌ).[1] It is unclear what Egyptian hieroglyph originated the letter Tse, possibly derived from an image of a fish hook or a papyrus plant.
The name of Tse in theEarly Cyrillic alphabet isци (tsi). NewChurch Slavonic and Russian (archaic name) spelling of the name is⟨цы⟩. In modern Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian, the name of the letter is pronounced [tsɛ] and spelled⟨цэ⟩ (sometimes⟨це⟩) in Russian,⟨це⟩ in Ukrainian, and⟨цэ⟩ in Belarusian.[2]
In theCyrillic numeral system, Tse has a value of 900. Tse may also have been derived fromSampi (based on numerical relationship) orFai (based on shape and numerical relationship).
It is the 24th (ifYo is included) letter of theRussian alphabet. It is used both in native Slavic words (and corresponds toProto-Indo-European *k in certain positions) and in borrowed words:
as a match for the Latin⟨c⟩ in words ofLatin origin, such asцирк (circus),центр (centre),
⟨ци⟩ may correspond to Latin⟨ti⟩ (before vowels), such as сцинтилляция (scintillation).
Unlike most other consonants (but like⟨ж⟩ and⟨ш⟩),⟨ц⟩ never represents a palatalised consonant in Russian (except occasionally in foreign proper names with⟨ця⟩ or⟨цю⟩). Since /i/ after unpalatalised consonants becomes [ɨ], the combinations⟨ци⟩ and⟨цы⟩ are pronounced identically: [tsɨ]. A notable rule of Russianorthography is that⟨ц⟩ is rarely followed by⟨ы⟩, with the following exceptions:
pre-1956 lists contain words such as цыбик, цыбуля, цыгарка, цыдулка, цыкля, цымбалы, цымес, цынга, цыновка, цынубель, цырюльня, цытварный, цыфирь, панцырь, etc. (examples taken from Ya. S. Khomutov's spelling dictionary, 1927 but now all those words are spelled with -ци-),
