Tsade
Tsade (also spelled Ṣade, Ṣādē, Ṣaddi, Ṣad, Tzadi, Sadhe, Tzaddik) is the eighteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Ṣādē
Tsadhe | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||
Phonemic representation | sˤ (t͡s) | |||||||||
Position in alphabet | 18 | |||||||||
Numerical value | 90 | |||||||||
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician | ||||||||||
|
The Phoenician letter is continued in the Greek San (Ϻ) and possibly Sampi (Ϡ), and in Etruscan 𐌑 Ś. It may have inspired the form of the letter Tse in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets.
The corresponding letter of the Ugaritic alphabet is 𐎕 ṣade.
The letter is named "tsadek" in Yiddish,[1] and Hebrew speakers often give it a similar name as well. This name for the letter probably originated from a fast recitation of the alphabet (i.e., "tsadi, qoph" → "tsadiq, qoph"), influenced by the Hebrew word tzadik, meaning "righteous person".[2]
Origins
The origin of ṣade is unclear. It may have come from a Proto-Sinaitic script based on a pictogram of a plant, perhaps a papyrus plant, or a fish hook (in Modern Hebrew, צד tsad means "[he] hunt[ed]", and in Arabic صاد ṣād means "[he] hunted").
Hebrew tsadi
Orthographic variants | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
position in word |
Various print fonts | Modern Cursive Hebrew |
Rashi script | ||
Serif | Sans-serif | Monospaced | |||
non-final | צ | צ | צ | ||
final | ץ | ץ | ץ |
Hebrew spelling: צָדִי or צָדֵי.
Name
In Hebrew, the letter's name is Tsadi or Ṣadi, depending on whether the letter is transliterated as Modern Israeli "ts" or Tiberian "ṣ".
Variations
Ṣadi, like Kaph, Mem, Pe, and Nun, has a final form, used at the end of words. Its shape changes from צ to ץ.
Pronunciation
In Modern Hebrew, צ tsade represents a voiceless alveolar affricate /t͡s/. This is the same in Yiddish. Historically, it likely represented a pharyngealized /t͡sˤ/; which became [t͡s] in Ashkenazi pronunciation. A geresh can also be placed after tsade (צ׳ ; ץ׳), giving it the sound [t͡ʃ], e.g. צִ׳יפְּס chips.
Ṣade appears as [sˤ] amongst Yemenite Jews and other Jews from the Middle East; the loss of affricatisation is likely due to influence from Arabic.
Some Sephardi Jews pronounce צ like a regular s.
Significance
In gematria, Ṣadi represents the number 90. Its final form represents 900, but this is rarely used, Taw, Taw, and Qof (400+400+100) being used instead.
As an abbreviation, it stands for ṣafon, North.
Ṣadi is also one of the seven letters that receive a special crown (called tagin) when written in a Sefer Torah. See Shin, ‘Ayin, Ṭet, Nun, Zayin, and Gimmel.
Arabic ṣād
The letter is named ṣād and in Modern Standard Arabic is pronounced /sˤ/.
It is written in several ways depending in its position in the word:
Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
---|---|---|---|---|
Glyph form: (Help) |
ص | ـص | ـصـ | صـ |
Surah Ṣād of the Quran is named forth letter, which begins the surah.
The phoneme is not native to Persian, Ottoman Turkish, or Urdu, and its pronunciation in Arabic loanwords in those languages is not distinguishable from س or ث, all of which are pronounced [s].
Character encodings
Preview | צ | ץ | ص | ܨ | ࠑ | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | HEBREW LETTER TSADI | HEBREW LETTER FINAL TSADI | ARABIC LETTER SAD | SYRIAC LETTER SADHE | SAMARITAN LETTER TSAADIY | |||||
Encodings | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex |
Unicode | 1510 | U+05E6 | 1509 | U+05E5 | 1589 | U+0635 | 1832 | U+0728 | 2065 | U+0811 |
UTF-8 | 215 166 | D7 A6 | 215 165 | D7 A5 | 216 181 | D8 B5 | 220 168 | DC A8 | 224 160 145 | E0 A0 91 |
Numeric character reference | צ | צ | ץ | ץ | ص | ص | ܨ | ܨ | ࠑ | ࠑ |
Preview | 𐎕 | 𐡑 | 𐤑 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | UGARITIC LETTER SADE | IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER SADHE | PHOENICIAN LETTER SADE | |||
Encodings | decimal | hex | decimal | hex | decimal | hex |
Unicode | 66453 | U+10395 | 67665 | U+10851 | 67857 | U+10911 |
UTF-8 | 240 144 142 149 | F0 90 8E 95 | 240 144 161 145 | F0 90 A1 91 | 240 144 164 145 | F0 90 A4 91 |
UTF-16 | 55296 57237 | D800 DF95 | 55298 56401 | D802 DC51 | 55298 56593 | D802 DD11 |
Numeric character reference | 𐎕 | 𐎕 | 𐡑 | 𐡑 | 𐤑 | 𐤑 |
See also
Notes
- Weinreich, Uriel (1968). Modern English-Yiddish Yiddish-English Dictionary. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co. p. 453. ISBN 07-0690380-3.
- "The Letter Tsade: Righteousness and Modesty" (in Hebrew). Retrieved 5 December 2010.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tsade (letter). |