D-comma (majuscule: D̦, minuscule: d̦) is a letter that was part of the
Romanian alphabet to represent the sound or if it was derived from a
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
''d'' (e.g. , pronounced came from Latin , day). It was the equivalent of the
Cyrillic
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 ...
letters
З and
Ѕ.
This letter was first introduced by
Petru Maior in his 1819 book : "".
In 1844,
Ioan Eliade introduced ''d̦'' again, in his magazine , as a substitute for ''
з''.
On 23 October 1858, the of
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia (; ro, Țara Românească, lit=The Romanian Land' or 'The Romanian Country, ; archaic: ', Romanian Cyrillic alphabet: ) is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and s ...
issued a decree in which, among other rules, ''d̦'' was for the third time adopted instead of Cyrillic ''
з''. However, the rule would not be fully adopted until later.
Taking the matter in his hands, internal affairs minister
Ion Ghica
Ion Ghica (; 12 August 1816 – 7 May 1897) was a Romanian statesman, mathematician, diplomat and politician, who was Prime Minister of Romania five times. He was a full member of the Romanian Academy and its president many times (1876–1882, ...
stated on 8 February 1860 that whoever in his order ignored the new transitional alphabet would be fired.
In
Moldavia
Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centr ...
, the transitional alphabet and the letter ''d̦'' was adopted much later. In his grammar, published in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
in 1865,
Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri (; 21 July 182122 August 1890) was a Romanian patriot, poet, dramatist, politician and diplomat. He was one of the key figures during the 1848 revolutions in Moldavia and Wallachia. He fought for the unification of the Romani ...
adopted this sign instead of ''
з'', viewing the comma below ''
d'' as a small ''
s'' (''d̦'' was often pronounced , . This was also the case with
ș—''ss'' and
ț—''ts'').
[Vîrtosu, p. 245.]
This letter was abandoned in 1904 and is no longer in use.
Ḑ ḑ is part of the
Livonian alphabet but is written with a cedilla.
Computer encoding
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...
does not include
precomposed character
A precomposed character (alternatively composite character or decomposable character) is a Unicode entity that can also be defined as a sequence of one or more other characters. A precomposed character may typically represent a letter with a diacri ...
s for D̦ d̦—they must be represented with a
combining diacritic, which may not align properly in some
fonts. Nevertheless, the sequence of base character + combining diacritic is given a unique name. Otherwise, the
D-cedilla (Ḑ ḑ) is somewhat to be a substitute as part of the Unicode standards because the typographic point of view of D-cedilla is very similar that has a comma.
See also
*
S-comma
S-comma (majuscule: Ș, minuscule: ș) is a letter which is part of the Romanian alphabet, used to represent the sound , the voiceless postalveolar fricative (like ''sh'' in ''shoe'').
History
The letter was proposed in the ''Buda Lexicon' ...
*
T-comma
T-comma (majuscule: Ț, minuscule: ț) is a letter which is part of the Romanian alphabet, used to represent the Romanian language sound , the voiceless alveolar affricate (like the letter C in Slavic languages that use the Latin alphabet). It is ...
Notes
References
* Negruzzi, Constantin, , in vol. "", , Bucharest, 1969.
* Vîrtosu, Emil, , Bucharest, 1968.
{{Romanian language
Latin letters with diacritics
Romanian language
1819 introductions