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Ẓāʾ

Ẓāʾ

Ẓāʾ, orḏ̣āʾ(ظ), is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet (the others beingṯāʾ,ḫāʾ,ḏāl,ḍād,ġayn). In Classical Arabic, it represents a velarized voiced dental fricative [ðˠ], and in Modern Standard Arabic, it can also be a pharyngealized, [ðˤ] voiced dental fricative or voiced alveolar fricative [zˤ]. In name and shape, it is a variant ofṭāʾ. Its numerical value is 900 (see Abjad numerals).

Ẓāʾdoes not change its shape depending on its position in the word:

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form:
(Help)		 ظ‎ ـظ‎ ـظـ‎ ظـ‎

Ẓāʾ

Ghayn →
Phonemic representation ðˤ~zˤ, dˤ
Position in alphabet 27
Numerical value 900
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician
Ẓāʾ
ظ
Usage
Writing system Arabic script
Type Abjad
Language of origin Arabic language
Phonetic usage ðˤ~zˤ,dˤ
History
Development
  • ظ
Other

Pronunciation

In Classical Arabic, it represents a velarized voiced dental fricative [ðˠ], and in Modern Standard Arabic, it can also be a pharyngealized, [ðˤ] voiced dental fricative or voiced alveolar fricative [zˤ].

In most Arabic vernaculars ظẓāʾand ضḍādhave been merged quite early.[1]The outcome depends on the dialect. In those varieties (such as Egyptian, Levantine and Hejazi), where the dental fricatives /θ/, /ð/ are merged with the dental stops /t/, /d/,ẓāʾis pronounced /dˤ/ or /zˤ/ depending on the word; e.g. ظِل is pronounced /dˤilː/ but ظاهِر is pronounced /zˤaːhir/, In loanwords from Classical Arabicẓāʾis often /zˤ/, e.g. Egyptianʿaẓīm(< Classical عظيمʿaḏ̣īm) “great”.[1][2][3]

in the varieties (such as Bedouin and Iraqi), where the dental fricatives are preserved, bothḍādandẓāʾare pronounced /ðˤ/.[1][2][4][5]However, there are dialects in South Arabia and in Mauritania where both the letters are kept different but not consistently.[1]

“De-emphaticized” pronunciation of the both letters in the form of the plain /z/ entered into other non-Arabic languages such as Persian, Urdu, Turkish.[1]However, there do exist Arabic borrowings into Ibero-Romance languages as well as Hausa and Malay, whereḍādandẓāʾare differentiated.[1]

Statistics

Ẓāʾis the rarest phoneme of the Arabic language. Out of 2,967 triliteral roots listed by Hans Wehr in his 1952 dictionary, only 42 (1.4%) contain ظ.[6]

In other Semitic languages

In some reconstructions of Proto-Semitic phonology, there is an emphatic interdental fricative,ṱ([θˤ] or [ðˤ]), featuring as the direct ancestor of Arabicẓāʾ, while it merged withṣin most other Semitic languages, although the South Arabian alphabet retained a symbol forẓ.

Writing in the Hebrew alphabet

When representing this sound in transliteration of Arabic into Hebrew, it is written as ט׳.

Character encodings

Character ظ
Unicode name ARABIC LETTER ZAH
Encodings decimal hex
Unicode 1592 U+0638
UTF-8 216 184 D8 B8
Numeric character reference ظ ظ

See also

References

[1]

Citation Linkbooks.google.comVersteegh, Kees (1999). “Loanwords from Arabic and the merger of ḍ/ḏ̣”. In Arazi, Albert; Sadan, Joseph; Wasserstein, David J. (eds.).Compilation and Creation in Adab and Luġa: Studies in Memory of Naphtali Kinberg (1948–1997). pp. 273–286.

Sep 23, 2019, 1:14 AM
[2]

Citation Linkbooks.google.comVersteegh, Kees (2000). “Treatise on the pronunciation of theḍād“. In Kinberg, Leah; Versteegh, Kees (eds.).Studies in the Linguistic Structure of Classical Arabic. Brill. pp. 197–199. ISBN 9004117652.

Sep 23, 2019, 1:14 AM
[3]

Citation Linkbooks.google.comRetsö, Jan (2012). “Classical Arabic”. In Weninger, Stefan (ed.).The Semitic Languages: An International Handbook. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 785–786. ISBN 978-3-11-025158-6.

Sep 23, 2019, 1:14 AM
[4]

Citation Link//doi.org/10.2307%2F410601Ferguson, Charles (1959). “The Arabic koine”.Language.35(4): 630. doi:10.2307/410601.

Sep 23, 2019, 1:14 AM
[5]

Citation Linkbooks.google.comFerguson, Charles Albert (1997) [1959]. “The Arabic koine”. In Belnap, R. Kirk; Haeri, Niloofar (eds.).Structuralist studies in Arabic linguistics: Charles A. Ferguson’s papers, 1954–1994. Brill. pp. 67–68. ISBN 9004105115.

Sep 23, 2019, 1:14 AM
[6]

Citation Linkopenlibrary.orgWehr, Hans (1952).Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart.

Sep 23, 2019, 1:14 AM
[7]

Citation Linkbooks.google.com“Loanwords from Arabic and the merger of ḍ/ḏ̣”

Sep 23, 2019, 1:14 AM
[8]

Citation Linkbooks.google.com“Treatise on the pronunciation of theḍād“

Sep 23, 2019, 1:14 AM
[9]

Citation Linkbooks.google.com“Classical Arabic”

Sep 23, 2019, 1:14 AM
[10]

Citation Linkdoi.org10.2307/410601

Sep 23, 2019, 1:14 AM
[11]

Citation Linkbooks.google.com“The Arabic koine”

Sep 23, 2019, 1:14 AM
[12]

Citation Linken.wikipedia.orgThe original version of this page is from Wikipedia, you can edit the page right here on Everipedia.Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Additional terms may apply.See everipedia.org/everipedia-termsfor further details.Images/media credited individually (click the icon for details).

Sep 23, 2019, 1:14 AM