Dzhe or Gea (Џ џ; italics: ''Џ џ'') is a letter of the

Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking co ...

used in Macedonian and

varieties Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

( Bosnian, Montenegrin, and Serbian) to represent the

voiced postalveolar affricate The voiced palato-alveolar sibilant affricate, voiced post-alveolar affricate or voiced domed postalveolar sibilant affricate, is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic ...

, like the pronunciation of j in “jump”. Dzhe corresponds in other Cyrillic alphabets to the digraphs дж or чж, or to the letters

Che with descender Che with descender (Ҷ ҷ; italics: ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. Its form is derived from the Cyrillic letter Che (Ч ч ). In the ISO 9 system of romanization, Che with descender is transliterated using the Latin letter ...

(Ҷ ҷ),

Che with vertical stroke Che with vertical stroke (Ҹ ҹ; italics: ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. Its form is derived from the Che (Cyrillic), Cyrillic letter Che (Ч ч ''Ч ч''). Che with vertical stroke is used in the alphabet of the Azeri l ...

(Ҹ ҹ),

Khakassian Che Khakassian Che (Ӌ ӌ; italics: ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. Its form is derived from the Cyrillic letter Che (Ч ч ). It is used in the alphabet of the Khakas language, as its name suggests, and represents the voiced po ...

(Ӌ ӌ),

Zhe with breve Zhe with breve (Ӂ ӂ; italics: ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script, created by Soviet linguists for the cyrillization of non-Slavic languages. Its form is derived from the Cyrillic letter Zhe (Ж ж ) by an addition of a Breve. Z ...

(Ӂ ӂ),

Zhe with diaeresis Zhe with diaeresis (Ӝ ӝ; italics: ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. Its form is derived from the Cyrillic letter Zhe (Ж ж ). Zhe with diaeresis is used only in the alphabet of the Udmurt language, where it represents the v ...

(Ӝ ӝ), or

Zhje Zhje or Zhe with descender (Җ җ; italics: ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script. Its form is derived from the Cyrillic letter Zhe (Ж ж ) with an addition of a descender on its right leg. Zhje is used in the alphabets of the Dun ...

(Җ җ). In the Latin version of

, it corresponds with the digraph dž which, like the digraphs lj and nj, is treated as a single letter, including in crossword puzzles and for purposes of

collation Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. Collation is a fundamental element of most office filin ...

. Abkhaz uses it to represent the

voiced retroflex affricate The voiced retroflex sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , sometimes simplified to or . It occurs in such language ...

. The ligature џь is used to represent the sound.

History

The letter Dzhe was first used in the 15th-century

Romanian Cyrillic alphabet Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește ...

, as a modified form of the letter ч.Maretić, Tomislav. ''Gramatika i stilistika hrvatskoga ili srpskoga književnog jezika''. 1899. Serbian scribes began using it in the 17th century.Petar Đorđić, "Istorija srpske ćirilice", Belgrade 1970, p. 203

Vuk Karadžić Vuk Stefanović Karadžić ( sr-Cyrl, Вук Стефановић Караџић, ; 6 November 1787 (26 October OS)7 February 1864) was a Serbian philologist, anthropologist and linguist. He was one of the most important reformers of the moder ...

included it in his

reform, when the letter entered widespread use.

Related letters and other similar characters

*Dž : Digraph Dž *J j : Latin letter J *G g : Latin letter soft G, the romanization and Latin equivalent of in the Romanian Cyrillic alphabet *Ӂ ӂ : Cyrillic letter Ӂ *Ӝ ӝ : Cyrillic letter Ӝ *Җ җ : Cyrillic letter Җ *Ҷ ҷ : Cyrillic letter Ҷ *Ӌ ӌ : Cyrillic letter Ӌ *Ҹ ҹ : Cyrillic letter Ҹ

References

External links

* *{{Wiktionary-inline, џ