Dzhe or Gea (Џ џ; italics: Џ џ) is a letter of the Cyrillic script used in Macedonian and varieties of Serbo-Croatian (Bosnian, Montenegrin, and Serbian) to represent the voiced retroflex affricate /ɖʐ/, something like the pronunciation of ⟨j⟩ in “jump”.
Contents
Dzhe corresponds in other Cyrillic alphabets to the digraphs ⟨дж⟩ or ⟨чж⟩, or to the letters Che with descender (Ҷ ҷ), Che with vertical stroke (Ҹ ҹ), Khakassian Che (Ӌ ӌ), Zhe with breve (Ӂ ӂ), Zhe with diaeresis (Ӝ ӝ), or Zhje (Җ җ).
In the Latin version of Serbo-Croatian, it corresponds with the digraph ⟨dž⟩ which, like the digraphs ⟨lj⟩ and ⟨nj⟩, is treated as a single letter, including in crossword puzzles and for purposes of collation.
Abkhaz uses it to represent the voiced retroflex affricate /ɖʐ/. The ligature џь is used to represent the /dʒ/ sound.
History
The letter Dzhe began in the 15th-century Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, as a modified form of the letter ⟨ч⟩. Serbian scribes began using it in the 17th century. Vuk Karadžić included it in his Cyrillic script reform, when the letter entered widespread use.