| Že | |
|---|---|
| ژ | |
| Usage | |
| Writing system | Arabic script |
| Type | Abjad |
| Language of origin | Persian language |
| Sound values | ʒ and /t͡s/ (in Kashmiri) |
| Alphabetical position | 14 |
| History | |
| Development | |
| Other | |
| Writing direction | Right-to-left |
| Persian alphabet |
|---|
| ا ب پ ت ث ج چ ح خ د ذ ر ز ژ س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ک گ ل م ن و ه ی |
|
Perso-Arabic script |
| Urdu alphabet |
|---|
| ا (آ) ب پ ت ٹ ث ج چ ح خ د ڈ ذ ر ڑ ز ژ س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ک گ ل م ن (ں) و ہ (ھ) ء ی ے |
|
Extended Perso-Arabic script |
Že or Zhe (ژ), used to represent the phoneme /ʒ/ , is a letter in the Persian alphabet, based on Zāy (ز) with two additional diacritic dots. It is one of the five letters that the Persian alphabet adds to the original Arabic script, others being Če (چ), Gaf (گ), and Pe (پ), in addition the obsolete Ve (ڤ).[1] In name and shape, it is a variant of ze. Its numerical value is 4000 (see Abjad numerals).[2]
It is found with this value in other Arabic-derived scripts. It is used in Pashto, Kurdish, Balochi, Pashto, Luri, Uyghur, Ottoman Turkish (j in the modern Turkish alphabet), Arabic-script Azerbaijani, and Urdu, but not in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA).
In Kashmiri, this letter is called Tse and represents the phoneme /t͡s/ . Its aspirated form are the letters ژھ, which represents the phoneme /t͡sʰ/ .
In most of the Levant and the Maghreb, the letter ج ǧīm is used for /ʒ/. In Moroccan Arabic, the letter Že (ژ) is sometimes used to represent emphatic Z, such as in the word bež (بژ) meaning "children", as opposed to the normal Zay (ز), in order to differentiate between words that would look similar (for example bez (بز) meaning "forcing" or "to force").[3]
When representing this sound in transliteration of Persian into Hebrew, it is written as ז׳.
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
ژ | ـژ | ـژ | ژ |
Character encodings
| Preview | ژ | |
|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | PERSIAN LETTER JEH | |
| Encodings | decimal | hex |
| Unicode | 1688 | U+0698 |
| UTF-8 | 218 152 | DA 98 |
| Numeric character reference | ژ | ژ |
See also
References
- Orsatti, Paola (2019). "Persian Language in Arabic Script: The Formation of the Orthographic Standard and the Different Graphic Traditions of Iran in the First Centuries of the Islamic Era". Creating Standards (Book).
- "Zhe". Persian Language Online. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
- المدلاوي المنبهي, محمد (2019). العربية الدارجة (in Moroccan Arabic). Center for Development of Darija, Zagoura مركز تنمية الدارجة زاڭورة. p. 63. ISBN 9789920381970.