Zhe (Cyrillic)

Cyrillic letter Zhe
File:Cyrillic letter Zhe - uppercase and lowercase.svg
Phonetic usage:	[ʐ], [ʒ], [ʑ], [t͡ʃ], [d͡ʒ]
Name (Early Cyrillic alphabet):	живѣтє
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
А А́ А̀ А̂ А̄ Ӑ Ӓ Б В Г Ґ Д Ђ Ѓ Е Е́ Ѐ Е̂ Е̄ Ё Є Ж З З́ Ѕ И І І́ Ї Ꙇ И́ Ѝ И̂ Ӣ Й Ӥ Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О О́ О̀ О̂ Ō Ӧ П Р С С́ Т Ћ Ќ У У́ У̀ У̂ Ӯ Ў Ӱ Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш Щ Ꙏ Ъ Ъ̀ Ы Ы́ Ь Ѣ Э Э́ Ю Ю́ Ю̀ Я Я́ Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
А̊ А̃ Ӓ̄ Ӕ Ә Ә́ Ә̃ Ӛ В̌ Ԝ Г̑ Г̇ Г̣ Г̌ Г̂ Г̆ Г̈ г̊ Ҕ Ғ File:Cyrillic capital letter Ghe with stroke and descender.svg Ӻ Ғ̌ ғ̊ Ӷ Г̡ Д́ Д̌ Д̈ Д̣ Д̆ Ӗ Е̃ Ё̄ Є̈ Ԑ Ԑ̈ Җ Ӝ Ӂ Ж̣ Ҙ Ӟ З̌ З̣ З̆ Ӡ И̃ Ҋ Қ Ӄ Ҡ Ҟ Ҝ К̣ к̊ қ̊ Ԛ ᴫ Л́ Ӆ Ԯ Ԓ Л̈ Ӎ ᵸ Н́ Ӊ Ң Ԩ Ӈ Ҥ О̆ О̃ Ӧ̄ Ө Ө̄ Ө́ Ө̆ Ӫ Ԥ П̈ Р̌ Ҏ С̌ Ҫ С̣ С̱ Т́ Т̈ Т̌ Т̇ Т̣ Ҭ Ᲊ У̃ Ӳ У̊ Ӱ̄ Ұ Ү Ү́ Х̣ Х̱ Х̮ Х̑ Х̌ Ҳ Ӽ х̊ Ӿ ӿ̊ Һ Һ̈ Ԧ Ц̌ Ц̈ Ҵ Ҷ Ҷ̣ Ӵ Ӌ File:Cyrillic capital letter Che with hook.svg Ҹ Ч̇ Ч̣ Ҽ Ҿ Ш̣ ꚜ Ы̆ Ы̄ Ӹ ꚝ Ҍ Ҩ Э̆ Э̄ Э̇ Ӭ Ӭ́ Ӭ̄ Ю̆ Ю̈ Ю̄ Я̆ Я̄ Я̈ Ӏ ʼ ˮ
Archaic or unused letters
File:Cyrillic capital letter script A.svg А̨ Б̀ Б̣ Б̱ В̀ Г̀ Г̧ Г̄ Г̓ Г̆ Ҕ̀ Ҕ̆ File:Cyrillic capital letter split by middle ring Ghe.svg Ԁ Д̓ Д̀ Д̨ File:Cyrillic capital letter archaic Dje.svg Ԃ Ꚁ Ꙣ Е̇ Е̨ Ж̀ Ж̑ File:Cyrillic small letter Zhe with stroke.svg File:Cyrillic capital letter Je with inverted belt.svg Ꙃ Ꙅ File:Cyrillic small letter Dje with high right breve serif.svg Џ̆ Ꚅ Ꚅ̆ Ꙁ З̀ З̑ Ԅ Ԇ Ꚉ Ԫ Ꚃ Ꚕ File:Cyrillic capital letter Shha with Cil top.svg File:Cyrillic capital letter Shha with high right breve serif.svg І̂ І̣ І̨ File:Cyrillic capital letter byelorussian-ukrainian I with curve at bottom.svg Ј̵ Ј̃ Ꙉ К̓ К̀ К̆ Ӄ̆ К̑ К̇ К̈ К̄ Ԟ К̂ File:Cyrillic capital letter Ka with loop.svg File:Cyrillic small letter ka with ascender.svg Л̀ Ԡ Ꙥ Ԉ Л̑ Л̇ Ԕ File:Cyrillic small letter El with retroflex hook.svg File:Cyrillic small letter El Er.svg File:Cyrillic small letter Te El with retroflex hook.svg М̀ М̃ Ꙧ Н̀ Н̄ Н̧ Н̃ Ԋ Ԣ Н̡ Ѻ Ꙩ Ꙫ Ꙭ ꙮ Ꚙ Ꚛ File:Cyrillic small letter O with notch at top.svg File:Cyrillic capital letter O with notch at bottom.svg File:Cyrillic capital letter O with left notch.svg П̓ П̀ П́ Ҧ П̧ П̑ Ҁ Ԛ̆ File:Cyrillic capital letter Shha with hook.svg Р́ Р̀ Р̃ File:Cyrillic small letter split at right Er.svg Ԗ С̀ С̈ Ԍ Ҫ̓ File:Cyrillic capital letter long Es.svg Т̓ Т̀ Ԏ Т̑ Ꚋ Т̧ Ꚍ Ꚍ̆ File:Cyrillic small letter Te El.svg File:Cyrillic small letter voiceless L.svg File:Cyrillic small letter voiceless L with comma above.svg Ѹ Ꙋ File:Cyrillic capital letter script U.svg У̇ У̨ ꙋ́ Ф̑ Ф̓ Х́ Х̀ Х̆ Х̇ Х̧ Х̾ Х̓ File:Cyrillic capital letter bashkir Ha.svg һ̱ Ѡ Ꙍ Ѽ Ѿ Ꙡ Ц̀ Ц́ Ц̓ File:Cyrillic capital letter Tse with long left leg.svg Ꚏ Ꚏ̆ File:Cyrillic capital letter Cil.svg File:Cyrillic capital letter Cil with bar.svg Ꚑ Ч́ Ч̀ Ч̆ Ч̑ Ч̓ File:Cyrillic capital letter Char.svg File:Cyrillic small letter Char with high right breve serif.svg Ԭ Ꚓ Ꚇ Ꚇ̆ Ҽ̆ Ш̀ Ш̆ Ш̑ Щ̆ Ꚗ Ꚗ̆ File:Cyrillic capital letter Che Sha.svg Ъ̄ Ъ̈ Ъ̈̄ Ꙑ Ы̂ Ы̃ File:Cyrillic small letter Yeru with connecting stroke.svg Ѣ́ Ѣ̈ Ѣ̆ Ꙓ Э̨ Э̂ Ꙕ Ю̂ File:Cyrillic capital letter iotified monograph uk.svg File:Cyrillic capital letter iotified monograph uk with breve.svg Ꙗ Я̂ Я̨ Ԙ Ѥ Ѧ Ꙙ Ѫ Ꙛ Ѩ Ꙝ Ѭ Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ Ѷ Ꙟ
List of Cyrillic letters List of Cyrillic multigraphs

File:Azbuka Benois - Ж.jpg

Zhe, from Alexandre Benois' 1904 alphabet book

Zhe, Zha, or Zhu, sometimes transliterated as Že (Ж ж; italics: Ж ж) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. It commonly represents the voiced retroflex sibilant /ʐ/ (listen) or voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/, like the pronunciation of the ⟨s⟩ in "measure". It is also often used with D (Д) to approximate the sound in English of the Latin letter J with a ДЖ combination. Zhe is romanized as ⟨zh⟩, ⟨j⟩ or ⟨ž⟩.

History

It is not known how the character for Zhe was derived. No similar letter exists in Greek, Latin or any other alphabet of the time, though there is some graphic similarity with its Glagolitic counterpart Zhivete ⟨Ⰶ⟩ (Image: File:Glagolitic capital letter Zhivete.svg) which represents the same sound. However, the origin of Zhivete, like that of most Glagolitic letters, is unclear. One possibility is that it was formed from the pronunciation of Hebrew letter Zayin ⟨ז⟩ combined with the Hebrew letter Shin ⟨ש⟩ letter, to eventually form the Modern Hebrew letter of Zhayin ⟨'ז⟩, with a geresh ⟨'⟩ on top for distinction. Zhe may also be derived from the Coptic letter janjia ⟨Ϫ⟩, supported by the phonetic value (janjia represents the sound /d͡ʒ/ in Coptic) and shape of the letter, which the Glagolitic counterpart Zhivete ⟨Ⰶ⟩ resembles even more closely. The form of the letter also may be derived from an Egyptian hieroglyph depicting a drill:

It may be a ligature, formed from combining two "K" letters (one backward form) sharing a common stem. Some Ukrainian scholars argue that it is shape of beetle, since Zhe is the first phoneme in the Slavic word жукъ (žuk), meaning "beetle". In the Early Cyrillic alphabet the name of Zhe was живѣтє (živěte), meaning "live" (imperative). Zhe was not used in the Cyrillic numeral system.

Usage

Zhe is used in the alphabets of all Slavic languages using a Cyrillic alphabet, and of most non-Slavic languages which use a Cyrillic alphabet. The position in the alphabet and the sound represented by the letter vary from language to language.

Language	Position in alphabet	Represented sound	Romanization
Belarusian	8th	voiced retroflex fricative /ʐ/	zh
Bulgarian	7th	voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/	zh
Macedonian	8th	voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/	ž or zh
Russian	8th	voiced retroflex fricative /ʐ/	zh
Serbian	8th	voiced retroflex fricative /ʐ/	ž
Ukrainian	9th	voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/	zh
Uzbek (1940–1994)	8th	voiced postalveolar affricate /dʒ/ or voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/ (in Russian loanwords only)	j
Mongolian	8th	voiceless postalveolar affricate /tʃ/	j
Kazakh	10th	voiced alveolo-palatal fricative /ʑ/, sometimes voiced postalveolar affricate /dʒ/ in speech	j
Kyrgyz	8th	voiced postalveolar affricate /dʒ/	j
Dungan	8th	voiced retroflex fricative /ʐ/	r
other non-Slavic languages		voiced postalveolar fricative /ʒ/

Zhe can also be used in Leet speak or faux Cyrillic in place of the letter ⟨x⟩, or to represent the symbol of the rap duo Kris Kross (a ligature of two back-to-back letter K's).

Transliteration

Ж is most often transliterated as the digraph ⟨zh⟩ for English-language readers (as in Doctor Zhivago, Доктор Живаго, or Georgy Zhukov, Георгий Жуков). In linguistics and for Central European readers, it is most often transliterated as ⟨ž⟩, with a háček. The scientific transliteration convention comes from Czech spelling and is also used in the Latin alphabets of several other Slavic languages (Slovak, Sorbian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene). Thus, Leonid Brezhnev's surname (Леонид Брежнев) could be transliterated as "Brežnev", as it is spelled in a number of Slavic languages. Polish uses its own convention for transliteration of Cyrillic according to which ж is transliterated with the Polish letter ż (which is pronounced /ʐ/ in Polish). Ж is often transliterated ⟨j⟩ in Mongolian because of its pronunciation as [t͡ʃ].

Related letters and other similar characters

• Ӂ ӂ : Cyrillic letter Zhe with breve
• Ź ź : Latin letter Z with acute
• Ž ž : Latin letter Z with caron
• Ż ż : Latin letter Z with dot above
• J j : Latin letter J - the same sound in Romanian, Turkish, Azerbaijani, French, Portuguese, and Catalan
• Ʒ ʒ : Latin letter Ezh
• Җ җ : Cyrillic letter Zhje
• Ӝ ӝ : Cyrillic letter Zhe with diaeresis

Computing codes

Character information

Preview	Ж		ж
Unicode name	CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER ZHE		CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER ZHE
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	1046	U+0416	1078	U+0436
UTF-8	208 150	D0 96	208 182	D0 B6
Numeric character reference	Ж	Ж	ж	ж
Named character reference	Ж		ж
KOI8-R and KOI8-U	246	F6	214	D6
Code page 855	234	EA	233	E9
Code page 866	134	86	166	A6
Windows-1251	198	C6	230	E6
ISO-8859-5	182	B6	214	D6
Macintosh Cyrillic	134	86	230	E6

External links

• File:Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg The dictionary definition of Ж at Wiktionary
• File:Wiktionary-logo-en-v2.svg The dictionary definition of ж at Wiktionary