Tsade

← Pe Tsade Qoph →
Phoenician	𐤑‎
Hebrew	צץ‎
Samaritan	Template:Script/Samaritan
Aramaic	Template:Script/Aramaic
Syriac	ܨTemplate:Script/doc/id-unk
Nabataean	𐢙Template:Script/doc/id-unk
Arabic	ص‎
South Arabian	𐩮Template:Script/doc/id-unk
Geʽez	ጸTemplate:Script/doc/id-unk
North Arabian	𐪎Template:Script/doc/id-unk
Ugaritic	𐎕
Phonemic representation
Position in alphabet	18
Numerical value	90
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician
Greek	Ϻ, Ψ, Ϡ
Latin	ʭ,ǂ
Cyrillic	Ц, Ч, Џ, Ѱ

Tsade (also spelled , , , , tzadi, sadhe, tzaddik) is the eighteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ṣādē 𐤑, Hebrew ṣādī צ‎, Aramaic ṣāḏē 𐡑, Syriac ṣāḏē ܨ, Ge'ez ṣädäy ጸ, and Arabic ṣād ص‎. It is related to the Ancient North Arabian 𐪎‎‎, South Arabian , and Ge'ez . The corresponding letter of the Ugaritic alphabet is 𐎕 ṣade.

Its oldest phonetic value is debated, although there is a variety of pronunciations in different modern Semitic languages and their dialects. It represents the coalescence of three Proto-Semitic "emphatic consonants" in Canaanite. Arabic, which kept the phonemes separate, introduced variants of and to express the three (see , ). In Aramaic, these emphatic consonants coalesced instead with ʿayin and ṭēt, respectively, thus Hebrew ereṣ (earth) is araʿ ארע‎ in Aramaic.

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 letter is named "tsadek" in Yiddish, 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".

Origins

The origin of 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 (Modern Hebrew and Arabic both can mean "[he] hunted" or, alternatively, "a side").

Arabic ṣād

See also: the derived letter ().

Template:Infobox graphemeThe letter is named and in Modern Standard Arabic is pronounced . It may be formed from a ligature of dotless nūn and the bottom part of the letter ṭa.

It is written in several ways depending on its position in the word:

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	ص‎	ـص‎	ـصـ‎	صـ‎

Chapter 38 of the Quran is named for this letter, which begins the chapter.

The phoneme is not native to Persian, Ottoman Turkish, or Urdu, and its pronunciation in Arabic loanwords in those languages is not distinguishable from or , all of which are pronounced [s].

Hebrew tsadi

Orthographic variants
position in word	Various print fonts			Modern Cursive Hebrew	Rashi script
	Serif	Sans-serif	Monospaced
non-final	צ	צ	צ	File:Hebrew letter Tsadik handwriting.svg	File:Tsadik-nonfinal (Rashi-script - Hebrew letter).svg
final	ץ	ץ	ץ	File:Hebrew letter Tsadik-final handwriting.svg	File:Tsadik-final (Rashi-script - Hebrew letter).svg

Hebrew spelling: or .

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". Alternatively, it can be called tsadik or ṣadik, spelled צָדִּיק, influenced by its Yiddish name tsadek and the Hebrew word tzadik.

Variations

, 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, tsade represents a voiceless alveolar affricate /t͡s/. This is the same in Yiddish. Historically, it represented either a pharyngealized or an affricate such as the Modern Hebrew pronunciation or Geʽez [t͡sʼ]; which became [t͡s] in Ashkenazi Hebrew. A geresh can also be placed after tsade (צ׳ ; ץ׳‎), which is pronounced [t͡ʃ] (or, in a hypercorrected pronunciation, a pharyngealized [ʃˤ]), e.g. צִ׳יפְּס‎ chips.

Ṣade appears as in Yemenite Hebrew and other Jews from the Middle East, and sometimes appears in the Modern Hebrew pronunciation of Yemenite Jews.

Sephardi Hebrew pronounces צ‎ like a regular s, and this is the sound value it has in Judaeo-Spanish, as in "masa" (matzo) or "sadik" (tzadik), and rarely appears in this form in the Modern Hebrew pronunciation of Sephardic Jews.

Significance

In gematria, 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.

is also one of the seven letters that receive special crowns (called tagin) when written in a Sefer Torah. See shin, ‘ayin, , nun, zayin, and gimmel.

In relation with Arabic

Hebrew corresponds to the letters , , and in Arabic

Examples

• : the word for "thirst" in Classical Arabic is and in Hebrew.
• : the word for "Egypt" in Classical Arabic is and in Hebrew.
• : the word for "egg" in Classical Arabic is and in Hebrew.

When representing this sound in transliteration of Arabic into Hebrew, it is written as or samekh with a geresh.

Syriac sade

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	ܨ‎‎	ـܨ‎‎	ـܨ‎ـ‎	ܨ‎ـ‎

See also

• Ṣ
• Z → Usage
• Tse (Cyrillic)