View source for Že

{{refimprove|date=September 2008}}
{{Phoenician glyph|letname=Zhe|previouslink=Che (Persian letter)|previousletter=Che|nextlink=Gaf|nextletter=Gaf|perchar=ژ|ipa=ʒ|num=31|gem=4000}}
{{Arabic-script sidebar|Persian}}
'''Že''' or '''Zhe''' (<big>{{lang|fa|ژ|size=2em|rtl=yes}}</big>), used to represent the phoneme {{IPAslink|ʒ|audio=yes}}, is a letter in the [[Persian alphabet]], based on ''[[Zayin|{{transliteration|ar|DIN|zayn}}]]'' (<big>{{lang|ar|ز}}</big>) with two additional [[dot (diacritic)|diacritic dots]]. It is one of the five letters that the [[Persian alphabet]] adds to the original Arabic script, others being <big>{{lang|fa|چ}}</big> ,<big>{{lang|fa|پ}}</big> and <big>{{lang|fa|گ}}</big>, in addition the obsolete <big>{{lang|fa|ڤ}}</big>.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Orsatti |first=Paola |date=2019 |title=Persian Language in Arabic Script: The Formation of the Orthographic Standard and the Different Graphic Traditions of Iran in the First Centuries of the Islamic Era |journal=Creating Standards (Book)}}</ref> In name and shape, it is a variant of ''[[zayin|ze]]''. Its numerical value is 4000 (see [[Abjad numerals]]).
It is found with this value in other Arabic-derived scripts. It is used in [[Pashto language|Pashto]], [[Kurdish language|Kurdish]], other [[Iranian languages]], [[Uyghur Language|Uyghur]], [[Ottoman Turkish language|Ottoman Turkish]] (''j'' in the modern [[Turkish alphabet]]), [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]] and [[Urdu]], but not in [[Arabic language|Arabic]].
In [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]], this letter is called "tse" and represents the phoneme [t͡s].
In most of the [[Levant]] and [[Northwestern Africa]], the letter {{lang|ar|ج}} {{transliteration|ar|DIN|ǧīm}} is used for {{IPAslink|ʒ}}. In [[Moroccan Arabic]], the letter ژ is sometimes used to represent emphatic Z, such as in the word {{lang|ary|بژ}} meaning "children", as opposed to the normal [[Zayin|ز]], in order to differentiate between words that would look similar (for example {{lang|ary|بز}} meaning "forcing, to force").<ref>{{Cite book |title=العربية الدارجة |last=المدلاوي المنبهي |first=محمد |publisher=Center for Development of Darija, Zagoura مركز تنمية الدارجة زاڭورة |year=2019 |isbn=9789920381970 |pages=63 |language=ary}}</ref>
{{Arabic alphabet shapes|ژ}}
When representing this sound in transliteration of Persian into Hebrew, it is written as ז׳.
==Character encodings==
{{charmap
|0698|name1=Persian Letter Jeh}}
==In other scripts==
===Devanagari===
In [[Devanagari]] the letters {{script|Deva|झ़}} and {{script|Deva|श़}} (with a [[nuqta]]) are used to represent the sound of /ʒ/, e.g. {{lang|hi|टेलीविझ़न}} / {{lang|hi|टेलीविश़न}} {{lang|hi-Latn|ṭēlivižan}} 'television'. The letter corresponds to the [[Urdu]] Perso-Arabic {{lang|ur|ژ}}.
===Bengali===
In [[Bengali language|Bengali]] the sound of /ʒ/ may be represented as জ়়, i.e. the letter [[Bengali alphabet|Ja]] with two dots.
===Cyrillic===
The letter [[ж]], common in some [[Slavic languages]], has an equivalent sound to the "s" in "television" e.g. [[Zharkov]] ([[Russian Cyrillic]]: Жарков).
== See also ==
* [[Pe (Persian letter)|پ - Pe]]
* [[Che (Persian letter)|ﭺ - Che]]
* [[Ve (Arabic letter)|ﭪ - Ve]]
* [[Gaf|گ - Gaf]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ze}}
[[Category:Persian letters]]
[[Category:Urdu letters]]
{{arabic-script-stub}}