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Dze, ѕѣло (Early Cyrillic alphabet)
Ѕ ѕ
Ꙃ ꙃ, Ꙅ ꙅ
Usage
Writing systemCyrillic
TypeAlphabetic
Language of originOld Church Slavonic, Macedonian language
Sound values[d͡z], [z]
History
Development
Time periodc. 893–19th century, 1944–present
TransliterationsẐ ẑ
VariationsꙂ ꙃ, Ꙅ ꙅ
Other
Associated numbers6 (Cyrillic numerals)
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Dze (Ѕ ѕ; italics: Ѕ ѕ or Ѕ ѕ; italics: 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 in all Slavic languages that use Cyrillic.

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.

Church Slavonic

[edit]
The seven root words commencing with the letter dze (aka, dzelo).

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.

The initial sound of ⟨Ѕ⟩ in Old 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 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]

  • ⟨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;

East Slavic Languages

[edit]
See also Reforms of Russian orthography.

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

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/.

Belarusian commonly features ⟨дз⟩, but it usually comes from *d from a similar development to Polish. As such, ⟨ѕ⟩ had never been used for it.

South Slavic Languages

[edit]
Reflexes of Old Church Slavonic ѕ across Eastern South Slavic.

⟨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. 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 of Macedonian.

⟨ѕ⟩ was also used until the middle of the 19th century in the Serbian civil script, whose orthography was closer to Church Slavonic (compared to the Russian). Vuk Karadžić's Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (1868) did not include ⟨ѕ⟩, instead favouring a simple digraph ⟨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 the Serbian Cyrillic Alphabet. The Serbian keyboard in Ubuntu replaces Ѕ with a second Ж.

The Modern 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, the prestige dialect of the time of codification, nor in the Church 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 to affrication. 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]

The Banat Bulgarian dialect, being based on the Paulician dialect, retains ⟨ѕ⟩. However, as it is written with the Latin script, the sound is instead notated as ⟨dz⟩.

Romanian

[edit]

⟨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.

[edit]

Computing codes

[edit]
Character information
Preview Ѕ ѕ Ꙅ ꙅ Ꙃ ꙃ
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
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 1029 U+0405 1109 U+0455 42564 U+A644 42565 U+A645 42562 U+A642 42563 U+A643
UTF-8 208 133 D0 85 209 149 D1 95 234 153 132 EA 99 84 234 153 133 EA 99 85 234 153 130 EA 99 82 234 153 131 EA 99 83
Numeric character reference Ѕ Ѕ ѕ ѕ Ꙅ Ꙅ ꙅ ꙅ Ꙃ Ꙃ ꙃ ꙃ
Named character reference Ѕ ѕ
Code page 855 137 89 136 88
Windows-1251 189 BD 190 BE
ISO-8859-5 165 A5 245 F5
Macintosh Cyrillic 193 C1 207 CF

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Dze

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Dze (uppercase Ѕ, lowercase ѕ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script, officially named "Cyrillic Capital Letter Dze" in the Standard with U+0405 and its lowercase counterpart U+0455. It is primarily used in the to represent the /d͡z/, similar to the "ds" combination in the English word "lads". As the tenth letter in the Macedonian Cyrillic alphabet, which consists of 31 letters and was standardized in 1945, Dze distinguishes Macedonian orthography from other by providing a dedicated symbol for this affricate sound. The letter traces its origins to the early Cyrillic alphabet developed in the 9th century by the brothers Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, where it was known as dzelo (or zelo) and served dual purposes: denoting the /dz/ sound in Old Church Slavonic texts and functioning as a numeral with the value of 6, analogous to the archaic Greek letter digamma. Over time, its phonetic use persisted in certain Cyrillic orthographies, including historical variants for Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian, and Serbian, though it was largely discontinued in favor of digraphs like дз in most modern Slavic languages except Macedonian. In contemporary Macedonian, Dze appears in words such as ѕид (dzid, meaning "wall") and ѕвезда (dzvezda, referring to "star"), highlighting its role in accurately rendering the language's phonology. Beyond Macedonian, Dze has limited modern applications, such as in the Abkhazian Cyrillic alphabet for the same /dz/ sound, and it occasionally appears in scientific transliterations or legacy publications. Its inclusion in since version 1.1 (1993) ensures compatibility in digital , supporting the preservation of Macedonian cultural and linguistic heritage.

History and Origins

Etymology and Early Development

The Cyrillic letter dze (Ѕ ѕ), also known historically as dzělo or zĕlo, derives its name from the Old Church Slavonic term zĕlo, signifying "zeal" or an intensifier meaning "very," which reflects its phonetic role in early Slavic texts. Its graphical form in Cyrillic was adapted from the corresponding Glagolitic letter dzelo (Ⰷ ⰷ), invented in the 9th century by the missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius to transcribe the voiced affricate /dz/ absent in the Greek alphabet from which Slavic scripts drew inspiration. Although the shape of dzelo in Glagolitic is an original creation not directly traceable to a single Greek letter, dze's assignment of the numeric value 6 in the early Cyrillic numeral system directly parallels the function of the archaic Greek digamma (Ϝ ϝ), which similarly denoted 6 as a numeral after falling out of alphabetic use for the /w/ sound. The introduction of dze occurred first in the Glagolitic script, developed around 860 CE in the First Bulgarian Empire to facilitate the translation of liturgical works into Old Church Slavonic for Slavic converts to Christianity. This precursor script incorporated dzelo as the eighth letter, with a numerical value of 8 in Glagolitic reckoning, to accommodate Slavic phonemes like /dz/. Evidence of its early use survives in 9th- and 10th-century Glagolitic manuscripts, notably the Kiev Missal (also known as the Kiev Fragments), a seven-folio parchment codex dated to the late 10th century and containing excerpts from the Roman-rite liturgy; this artifact, discovered in 1872 and now held in the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, exemplifies the Glagolitic script's application in rendering Old Church Slavonic texts. Transitioning to the Cyrillic script, which emerged in the late 9th century at the Preslav Literary School as a more Greek-like alternative to Glagolitic, dze retained its phonetic and numeric roles while adopting a simplified, sigma-like form suited to uncial influences. Key historical texts marking its initial Cyrillic appearances include 11th-century Church Slavonic codices, such as the Ostromir Gospels (completed in 1056–1057 in Novgorod), the oldest fully dated Cyrillic manuscript, preserved in the National Library of Russia, which exemplifies dze's integration into semi-uncial ustav script for liturgical and scriptural purposes. Other early examples encompass the Undolsky Codex (early 11th century) and the Archangel Gospel (1092), both of which are early Cyrillic manuscripts employing Old Church Slavonic orthography, underscoring its foundational status in East Slavic scribal traditions.

Evolution in Cyrillic Script

The letter dze (Ѕ ѕ) originated in the transition from the Glagolitic script, invented by Saints Cyril and Methodius in 863 CE for Slavic liturgy, to the Early Cyrillic alphabet developed by their disciples around 893 CE in the First Bulgarian Empire. In its initial Cyrillic form, dze resembled a reversed C with a downward-extending tail or vertical stroke, adapted to represent the affricate sound /dz/ and assigned a numerical value of 6 in the Slavonic numeral system. This shape drew directly from the Glagolitic letter dzelo (Ⰷ), which itself may trace etymological ties to the ancient Greek digamma (Ϝ), an archaic letter for the sound /w/ repurposed in medieval contexts. During the medieval period, particularly in the ustav script (9th–14th centuries), dze exhibited rounded, calligraphic forms suited to manuscript production, often appearing more fluid and diacritic-like due to the pervasive influence of Greek uncial scripts on early Cyrillic design. These uncial influences lent dze a compact, ligature-inspired appearance reminiscent of Greek stigma (Ϛ), a medieval numeral symbol for 6 that combined sigma and tau elements, facilitating its integration into Slavic orthography for both phonetic and numeric purposes. In later handwriting styles like poluustav (semi-uncial, from the 15th century), the letter's curves became slightly more angular for expedited writing, reflecting practical adaptations in monastic and scribal traditions. By the 18th century, printed typography standardized dze into upright, simplified shapes, particularly in Russian contexts, where it transitioned from ornate medieval variants to more linear forms aligned with emerging secular printing needs. Dze had already become obsolete in civil Russian orthography by the 15th–16th centuries, replaced by the digraph дз. A pivotal reform under Peter the Great in 1708–1710 introduced the civil script (гражданский шрифт), which westernized Cyrillic by reducing the alphabet from around 43 to 38 letters through typographic simplification and removal of some archaic forms, though dze's formal exclusion from Russian standards was confirmed by the Russian Academy in 1735, marking its obsolescence in secular branches of East Slavic typography while preserving it in ecclesiastical Slavonic.

Usage in Church Slavonic

Phonetic Representation

In texts, the letter Dze (Ѕ ѕ) represents the /z/, derived from palatalized clusters in Proto-Slavic *dz- that evolved into /z/ sounds, distinct from the voiceless alveolar affricate /ts/ denoted by Tse (Ц ц). This value is documented in early manuscripts and reflects its role in preserving historical distinctions. Over time, in various recensions of , the pronunciation remained /z/, though in some contexts it may have been influenced by regional variations. For instance, in liturgical texts, Dze appears in words like ѕѣло (zĕlo, meaning "zeal" or "very"), highlighting its use for initial /z/ sounds in specific sacred vocabulary. The letter Dze inherits its form from the Greek (Ϝ), with a numerical value of 6, but was repurposed in the early to fit . Graphically, it derives from Glagolitic precursors into the S-shaped form in early ustav script.

Orthographic Conventions

In Church Slavonic orthography, the letter Dze (Ѕ ѕ) is used primarily at the beginning of specific words derived from Proto-Slavic *dz- clusters, now pronounced /z/, including roots from seven words: ѕвѣзда ("star"), ѕвѣрь ("beast"), ѕѣлѡ ("village"), ѕлакъ ("herb"), ѕлый ("angry"), ѕмій ("snake"), and ѕеліе ("vegetable"). This restricted usage ensures distinction from the letter Ze (З з). These conventions arose to standardize representation in liturgical and scriptural texts. Variations in Dze usage occur across Church Slavonic recensions, present in Ustav, Poluustav, and Synodal traditions but absent in later Skoropis. In Russian recensions, it is retained for these archaic roots, while other traditions show similar adherence.

Usage in East Slavic Languages

Historical Applications

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the letter dze (Ѯ ѕ) played a significant role in Ukrainian and Belarusian printing, appearing in early typographic works that bridged Church Slavonic traditions and vernacular East Slavic orthographies. Pioneering printer Ivan Fedorov incorporated dze into his publications, such as the Apostol (Moscow, 1564) and the Ostrog Bible (1581), using it within the poluustav typeface for liturgical texts produced in East Slavic regions, including Ukrainian territories under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. These prints represented a key advancement in East Slavic typography, where dze facilitated the rendering of specific phonetic elements in religious and scholarly materials. Dze was employed to represent the /dz/ or related sounds, particularly in loanwords borrowed from Polish or Turkish, aligning with broader East Slavic conventions influenced by , where dze denoted a voiced akin to a of "д" and "з." Regional variations persisted in Ruthenian scripts through the , with dze retained in Ukrainian and Belarusian manuscripts until around 1798, often varying in as /dz/ or /z/ in certain dialects. Lavrentiy Zyzaniy's Slavic Grammar (1596) described dze as combining sounds of "д" and "з," underscoring its systematic place in East Slavic orthographic practice during this era. Its inclusion in Fedorov's and Ruthenian codices highlights dze's function in preserving phonetic nuances amid evolving scripts.

Decline and Modern Absence

The decline of the letter dze (Ѕ ѕ) in East Slavic orthographies began in the , with its removal from Russian civil script around 1735 following earlier reforms under Peter I that reassigned or eliminated it. This was further entrenched by the Russian orthographic reform of 1918, which standardized spelling to favor digraphs such as дз for the /dz/ sound, though dze was already obsolete in secular Russian writing by then. Soviet language policies in the 1920s and 1930s extended this simplification to Ukrainian and Belarusian, where orthographic conferences and reforms prioritized phonetic consistency and alignment with Russian norms, excluding dze from standardized alphabets to promote literacy and ideological uniformity across the union republics. Despite these changes, dze persisted in Church Slavonic liturgical texts through the mid-20th century, as the traditional orthography preserved early Cyrillic forms for religious continuity; the last printed instances appear in émigré publications from the 1940s, such as Orthodox prayer books produced by Russian diaspora communities in Europe. In the , purist movements among East Slavic linguists and intellectuals increasingly labeled dze as an archaic remnant of influence, advocating for its removal to modernize vernacular orthographies and reduce perceived etymological clutter from medieval scripts.

Usage in South Slavic Languages

Role in Macedonian

The letter Ѕ (uppercase) and ѕ (lowercase), known as dze, has been an official part of the Macedonian Cyrillic alphabet since its in 1945, where it occupies the tenth position and represents the /d͡z/. This sound is distinct from the voiceless counterpart /t͡s/ rendered by the letter Ц (tse) and the /z/ by З (ze), ensuring phonetic precision in based on the central dialects of the Prilep-Veles-Kičevo-Brod . In Macedonian vocabulary, Ѕ appears in words such as ѕид (zid, meaning "wall"), ѕвезда (zvezda, meaning "star"), and ѕвоно (zvonо, meaning "bell"), where it captures the akin to "ds" in English "kids." These usages highlight its role in rendering the /d͡z/ , upholding the one-letter-per-sound principle central to Macedonian spelling. Unlike digraphs such as дз employed in early post-war printings due to limitations, the standalone Ѕ promotes consistency across dialects. The inclusion of Ѕ during the 1945 codification by the commission appointed after the Anti-Fascist Assembly of the National Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM) declaration served to affirm Macedonian linguistic identity, particularly by preserving dialectal /d͡z/ features absent or merged into /z/ in neighboring Serbian Cyrillic conventions. This choice, debated at the 1944 codification conference and favoring the revived Church Slavonic form over digraphs, promoted consistency across dialects with no significant phonetic variations reported in standard usage. By embedding such unique elements, the orthography distanced Macedonian from Serbian influences, fostering a standardized literary language formalized on May 3, 1945, and published in Nova Makedonija.

Presence in Other South Slavic Variants

In Bulgarian orthography, the letter dze (Ѕ ѕ) was not part of the standard alphabet and appeared only sporadically in historical or archaic contexts, but it was not adopted for the /dz/, which is marginal and typically rendered with the digraph дз. It fell out of use with the orthographic reforms culminating in 1945, which streamlined the alphabet to 30 letters. In Serbian linguistic reforms led by Vuk Karadžić in , dze was evaluated as a potential single-letter representation for /dz/ but was ultimately rejected, with the digraph дз adopted instead due to the sound's marginal role in the native phonology. This decision influenced subsequent South Slavic orthographies, limiting dze's adoption beyond specialized or historical contexts. The equivalent of dze, known as dzelo in the Glagolitic script, appears rarely in preserved Croatian liturgical texts from Dalmatia and other South Slavic regions in the 15th century, where it represented /dz/ in religious manuscripts before the widespread shift to Cyrillic. These instances reflect transitional uses in Glagolitic-derived traditions, which persisted in Croatian coastal regions until the early modern period. In Montenegrin orthography, which aligns closely with Serbian standards, dze has no dedicated role in Cyrillic; instead, during script transitions to Latin, digraphs like "dj" (for related palatalized sounds) or "dz" have supplanted any potential single-letter dze, maintaining phonemic clarity without archaic forms.

Usage in Romanian

Adoption in Cyrillic Orthography

The letter dze (Ѕ ѕ) was introduced into Romanian Cyrillic orthography in the 16th century, particularly within Transylvanian religious and literary texts, where scribes adapted forms from Church Slavonic to denote the /d͡z/ phoneme prevalent in Slavic loanwords. This adaptation reflected the broader evolution of Cyrillic scripts in the region, drawing on established Slavic conventions to accommodate Romanian phonetic needs. By the mid-17th century, dze appeared in printed materials from and , such as the printed in Belgrad in 1648, which employed the letter to transcribe vernacular elements alongside influences. The letter's phonetic role centered on rendering the Romanian affricate /d͡z/, as seen in adaptations of foreign terms borrowed from Slavic or other sources.

Phasing Out with Latin Transition

In the early 19th century, Ion Heliade Rădulescu initiated reforms to the Romanian orthography through his 1828 grammar, introducing a transitional alphabet that blended Cyrillic and Latin elements to facilitate a shift toward a Latin-based script. In this hybrid system, the Cyrillic letter dze (Ѕ), which represented the /dz/ affricate, was replaced by Latin digraphs such as "dz" or the tied form "ḑ" to better align with emerging phonetic principles and visual familiarity for readers accustomed to Western scripts. The full abandonment of the Cyrillic alphabet, including dze, occurred following the official adoption of the Latin alphabet in 1860, driven by efforts to emphasize Romanian's Romance linguistic heritage and simplify orthography for its phonology, which contrasted with the Slavic influences of Cyrillic. Post-transition, dze persisted sporadically in scholarly reprints and historical publications into the early 20th century, serving as a remnant in academic contexts before complete obsolescence in mainstream Romanian usage. In the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic, a variant of the incorporating dze was enforced from 1938 to 1989 as part of policies, with the letter appearing in official texts to denote /dz/ sounds. This usage ended abruptly in 1989 when reinstated the Latin alphabet amid nationalistic movements, suppressing Cyrillic forms including dze in favor of Latin "dz" equivalents.

Other Language Uses

Abkhazian Variant

The Abkhazian variant of Dze, designated as uppercase Ӡ and lowercase ӡ, forms part of the extended Cyrillic orthography adopted for the Abkhaz language in 1954, marking a return to Cyrillic after a period of using a modified Georgian script from 1938 to 1953. This system, comprising 62 letters to accommodate Abkhaz's complex consonant inventory, addressed the need for precise representation of Northwest Caucasian phonemes following earlier Soviet-era shifts between Cyrillic, Latin, and Georgian alphabets. The introduction of this orthography aimed to standardize writing for education and administration in the Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Graphically, Abkhazian Dze features a descender on both cases, with the uppercase resembling a Z extended downward and the lowercase a curved tail below the baseline, setting it apart from the Macedonian Dze (Ѕ ѕ), which adopts a more zeta-like form without such extension. This design enhances legibility in handwritten and printed Abkhaz texts, where the letter specifically denotes the voiced alveolar affricate /dz/, akin to the "ds" in English "kids." It provides phonetic distinction from the standard Cyrillic Ze (З з), which represents the fricative /z/, thereby preventing ambiguity in Abkhaz's ejective and affricate-rich phonology. For instance, the letter appears in derivations like "a-dzə," used in place names and compounds to capture the affricate onset. In the contemporary Abkhaz Republic, established after the 1992–1993 war and recognized by in 2008, this variant remains integral to official orthography, supporting in schools and publications. Post-Soviet reforms have preserved the system with minor adjustments, as seen in textbooks that employ Ӡ and ӡ for accurate transcription of everyday vocabulary, , and toponyms, fostering cultural continuity amid geopolitical isolation.

Miscellaneous Historical Contexts

In early Cyrillic orthographies, the letter Dze (Ѕ ѕ), derived from the archaic form known as dzelo or zelo, appeared sporadically in Old Church Slavonic texts to denote the voiced affricate /dz/, particularly in South Slavic manuscript traditions where it coexisted with numeral functions valued at 6. A reversed variant of Dze (Ꙅ ꙅ) is attested in select medieval manuscripts, such as the 11th-century Bulgarian NBKM 880 and the Russian State Library's Sevast’janov 17 collection, illustrating graphical diversity in isolated paleographic contexts. This form's phonetic origins trace to the Early Cyrillic alphabet's dzelo, adapted for affricate sounds in pre-modern Slavic writing systems.

Similar Cyrillic Forms

The Cyrillic letter Dze (Ѕ ѕ) exhibits visual resemblance to Ze (З з), sharing a similar looped structure in early forms, and to a lesser degree to (Е е) through shared horizontal strokes, but Dze is distinctly marked by a descending that emphasizes its role in representing the sound rather than the of Ze or the vowel of E. This serves as a typographic and phonetic differentiator, preventing confusion in and printed texts across Slavic traditions. A notable variant, Reversed Dze (Ꙅ ꙅ), appears in Old Church Slavonic manuscripts, particularly within the Ustav recension, where its mirrored orientation provides stylistic emphasis or regional variation without altering the underlying phonetic value. This form, treated as a tertiary graphical variant of Ze in some early contexts, highlights the fluidity of Cyrillic letter evolution in liturgical and historical documents. In orthographies without a dedicated Dze, the /dz/ is conveyed through the digraph дз, combining De (Д д) and Ze (З з), as seen in languages like Ukrainian and Belarusian, where this combination maintains phonemic clarity without introducing a single-letter form. Typographically, Dze in contemporary fonts like PT Serif features a refined, curved tail for readability in digital and print media, differing markedly from the broader, angular uncial renditions in historical Ustav scripts, which reflect 9th–14th century Greek influences and a more monumental style.

Cross-Script Equivalents

In the , the sound /d͡z/ conveyed by the Cyrillic Dze (Ѕ ѕ) is most directly represented by the digraph "dz". This equivalence is standard in transliterations of languages using Dze, such as Macedonian, where official romanization systems map uppercase Ѕ to "DZ" and lowercase ѕ to "dz" to preserve the pronunciation. Similarly, in , "dz" functions as a digraph for /d͡z/, appearing in native words like dzwon (bell, pronounced approximately /dzvɔn/) and distinguishing it from softer or harder in the language's inventory. In and Montenegrin Latin variants, "dz" denotes the /dz/ sequence or cluster, often in loanwords or phonetic adaptations, though these languages prioritize "dž" for the related /dʒ/ and treat /d͡z/ as non-phonemic. In the Greek script, the digraph "τζ" (tau followed by zeta) serves as the primary equivalent for /d͡z/ in modern Greek, blending into an affricate sound akin to that of Dze and used in words like τζάκι (hearth). The standalone Greek letter Zeta (Ζ ζ), which typically denotes /z/, acts as a distant analog in certain borrowings or historical phonetic mappings where affricate influences appear, though it lacks the stop component of /d͡z/. Phonetically, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) provides the tied symbol [d͡z] as the precise transcription for the affricate, directly matching Dze's articulation without reliance on any specific orthographic script. In historical contexts, such as 19th-century Romanian materials during the shift from Cyrillic to Latin, Dze represented /d͡z/.

Computing and Encoding

Unicode Representation

The standard Cyrillic letter dze is encoded in Unicode as U+0405 (Ѕ, CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER DZE) for the uppercase form and U+0455 (ѕ, CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER DZE) for the lowercase form. These code points are part of the Cyrillic block (U+0400–U+04FF) in the Basic Multilingual Plane. The Abkhazian variant of dze has distinct encodings: U+04E0 (Ӡ, CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER ABKHASIAN DZE) for uppercase and U+04E1 (ӡ, CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER ABKHASIAN DZE) for lowercase. These also reside in the Cyrillic block and represent a form used specifically in Abkhaz orthography. Both the standard and Abkhazian dze were included in Unicode version 1.1, released in June 1993, as part of the initial support for the Cyrillic script. Later versions, such as Unicode 5.0, expanded the Cyrillic block with additional extended characters, though the core dze encodings remained unchanged. In collation, the standard dze (Ѕ ѕ) follows de (Д д) in Slavic locales, including Macedonian, according to tailored rules in the Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR). This ordering aligns with the Default Collation Element Table (DUCET), where dze's primary weight (e.g., [.0B2B.0020.0002]) succeeds de's (e.g., [.0B2A.0020.0002]), ensuring linguistically appropriate sorting in applications supporting these locales.

Font and Input Support

The letter dze (Ѕ, U+0455) enjoys full support in contemporary open-source font families designed for broad Unicode coverage, such as DejaVu Sans, which includes the glyph among its extensive Cyrillic character set. Similarly, Google’s Noto Sans Cyrillic provides complete rendering of dze, ensuring consistent display across digital platforms without fallback substitutions. In contrast, legacy Windows system fonts prior to 2000, such as those bundled with Windows 95 and 98, offered only partial Cyrillic support focused on common Russian characters via codepage 1251, often lacking glyphs for less frequent letters like dze and requiring third-party extensions for proper rendering. Inputting dze on modern systems typically occurs through dedicated keyboard layouts rather than complex combinations, with the standard Macedonian layout in Windows mapping the uppercase Ѕ to the semicolon (;) key and the lowercase ѕ to Shift+; for direct entry. On-screen keyboards and virtual input tools in Microsoft Windows and other operating systems further facilitate access to dze for Macedonian users, bypassing physical key limitations. While Input Method Editors (IMEs) are primarily for East Asian scripts, Cyrillic input in Windows relies on locale-specific layouts, avoiding dead key sequences for standard letters like dze. In older systems using 8-bit encodings, dze encountered frequent mojibake issues when text in ISO 8859-5 (where dze maps to position A5) was misinterpreted by viewers assuming Latin-based encodings like ISO 8859-1, resulting in garbled output such as vertical bars or unrelated symbols. This problem was particularly acute in pre-Unicode environments for cross-platform text exchange involving Macedonian content. Contemporary typesetting tools have integrated dze seamlessly; for instance, the LaTeX cyrillic package, part of standard distributions like TeX Live, supports the glyph through T2* and X2 font encodings, enabling reliable inclusion in documents via commands like \cyrdz. Since the 2010s, online text converters such as 2cyr.com and convertcyrillic.com have provided Unicode-aware processing for dze, allowing users to transform legacy encodings or transliterations into properly rendered Cyrillic without loss.

References

  1. https://www.unicode.org/charts/nameslist/n_0400.html
  2. https://www.omniglot.com/writing/macedonian.htm
  3. https://preply.com/en/blog/macedonian-alphabet/
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  5. https://www.unicode.org/notes/tn41/tn41-1.pdf
  6. https://www.academia.edu/42843387/Kiev_Missal_Diplomatic_and_Facsimile_Edition_
  7. https://typejournal.ru/en/articles/Cyrillic-Letterforms-Development
  8. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2007/07003r-n3194r-cyrillic.pdf
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  21. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d0a390340f0b620054bad58/ROMANIZATION_OF_ABKHAZ.pdf
  22. https://abkhazworld.com/aw/abkhazians/language/2346-from-the-history-of-abkhaz-romanized-alphabets-v-chirikba
  23. https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2006/06042-cleminson-cyrillic.pdf
  24. https://www.academia.edu/54155032/Some_properties_of_the_Ukrainian_writing_system
  25. https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/macedonian.pdf
  26. https://culture.pl/en/article/a-foreigners-guide-to-the-polish-alphabet
  27. https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb12-2/tb32krstev.pdf
  28. https://cmes.arizona.edu/sites/cmes.arizona.edu/files/Modern%2520Greek%2520Alphabet%2520And%2520Phonetics.pdf
  29. https://www.unicode.org/cldr/charts/45/collation/mk.html
  30. https://www.unicode.org/Public/UCA/latest/allkeys.txt
  31. https://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/font/dejavu_sans/list.htm
  32. https://graphemica.com/%25D1%2595
  33. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/globalization/fonts-layout/font-support
  34. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/globalization/keyboards/kbdmac
  35. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/globalization/input/input-method-editors
  36. https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty//man7/iso-8859-5.7.html
  37. https://ctan.org/pkg/latex-cyrillic?lang=en
  38. https://2cyr.com/decode/
  39. https://convertcyrillic.com/
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