Zhe (Cyrillic)
Cyrillic letter Zha | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ꙕ | Ю̂ | ![]() | ![]() | Ꙗ | |||
Я̈ | Я̂ | Я̨ | Ԙ | Ѥ | Ѧ | Ꙙ | Ѫ |
Ꙛ | Ѩ | Ꙝ | Ѭ | Ѯ | Ѱ | Ѳ | Ѵ |
Ѷ | Ꙟ |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/Azbuka_Benois_-_%D0%96.jpg/220px-Azbuka_Benois_-_%D0%96.jpg)
Zhe, Zha, or Zhu, sometimes transliterated as Že (Ж ж; italics: Ж ж) is a letter of the
History
It is not known how the character for Zhe was derived. No similar letter exists in
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Glagolitic_capital_letter_Zhivete.svg/15px-Glagolitic_capital_letter_Zhivete.svg.png)
One possibility is that it was formed from the pronunciation of
Zhe may also be derived from the
/ in Coptic) and shape of the letter, which the Glagolitic counterpart Zhivete ⟨Ⰶ⟩ resembles even more closely.It may be a ligature, formed from combining two "K" letters (one backward form) sharing a common stem.[citation needed]
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
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, and Portuguese
- Ʒ ʒ : Latin letter Ezh
- Җ җ : Cyrillic letter Zhje
- Ӝ ӝ : Cyrillic letter Zhe with diaeresis
Computing codes
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 |