Ż (original) (raw)
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Latin letter Z with dot above; used in Polish and Maltese
Z with overdot | |
---|---|
Ż ż | |
Usage | |
Type | alphabetic |
Language of origin | Polish |
Sound values | [ʐ], [ʂ], [ʒ], [z], [ð], [dð~dz] |
Alphabetical position | 32 |
History | |
Development | Ż ż |
Transliterations | Ƶ ƶ |
Other | |
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. |
Ż, ż (Z with overdot) is a letter, consisting of the letter Z of the ISO basic Latin alphabet and an overdot.
Signage on Polish municipal police (Straż Miejska) cars uses both the standard form (Ż, on the door) and the variant with horizontal stroke (Ƶ, on the roof sign)
In the Polish language, ż is the final, 32nd letter of the alphabet. It typically represents the voiced retroflex fricative ([ʐ]), somewhat similar to the pronunciation of ⟨g⟩ in "mirage"; however, in a word-final position or when followed by a voiceless obstruent, it is devoiced to the voiceless retroflex fricative ([ʂ]).
Its pronunciation is the same as that of the digraph ⟨rz⟩, except that ⟨rz⟩ (unlike ⟨ż⟩) also undergoes devoicing when preceded by a voiceless obstruent. The difference in spelling comes from their historical pronunciations: ż originates from a palatalized /ɡ/ or /z/, while ⟨rz⟩ evolved from a palatalized ⟨r⟩.[1]
The letter was originally introduced in 1513 by Stanisław Zaborowski in his book Ortographia.[2]
Occasionally, the letter Ƶ ƶ (Z with a horizontal stroke) is used instead of Ż ż for aesthetic purposes, especially in all-caps text and handwriting.
Kashubian ż is a voiced fricative like in Polish, but it is postalveolar ([ʒ]) rather than retroflex.
City limit sign of Żurrieq in Malta
In Maltese, ż represents the voiced alveolar sibilant [z], pronounced like "z" in English "maze". This contrasts with the letter ⟨z⟩, which represents the voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate [ts], like in the word "hats".
Character | Ż | ż | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | LATIN CAPITAL LETTERZ WITH DOT ABOVE | LATIN SMALL LETTERZ WITH DOT ABOVE | ||
character encoding | decimal | hex | decimal | hex |
Unicode | 379 | 017B | 380 | 017C |
UTF-8 | 197 187 | C5 BB | 197 188 | C5 BC |
Numeric character reference | Ż | Ż | ż | ż |
CP 852 | 189 | BD | 190 | BE |
CP 775 | 163 | A3 | 164 | A4 |
Mazovia | 161 | A1 | 167 | A7 |
Windows-1250, ISO-8859-2 | 175 | AF | 191 | BF |
Windows-1257, ISO-8859-13 | 221 | DD | 253 | FD |
Mac Central European | 251 | FB | 253 | FD |
- ^ Corbett, Greville; Comrie, Bernard (2003). The Slavonic Languages. Routledge. p. 690. ISBN 978-1-136-86137-6. The spelling difference reflects the historical difference between a palatalization of /r/ (for rz) and of /g/ or /z/ (for ż).
- ^ Edward Polański. "Reformy ortografii polskiej – wczoraj, dziś, jutro". Biuletyn Polskiego Towarzystwa Językoznawczego, vol. 60, p. 31. 2004. Warsaw: Energeia. ISSN 0032-3802. (in Polish)