Dz (digraph)

Dz is a digraph of the Latin script, consisting of the consonants D and Z. It may represent /d͡z/, /t͡s/, or /z/, depending on the language.

Usage by language

Dz generally represents /d͡z/ in Latin alphabets, including Hungarian, Kashubian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, and Slovak. However, in Dene Suline (Chipewyan) and Cantonese Pinyin it represents /t͡s/, and in Vietnamese it is a pronunciation respelling of the letter D to represent /z/.

Esperanto

Some Esperanto grammars, notably Plena Analiza Gramatiko de Esperanto, consider dz to be a digraph for the voiced affricate [d͡z], as in "edzo" "husband". The case for this is "rather weak". Most Esperantists, including Esperantist linguists (Janton, Wells), reject it.

Hungarian

⟨Dz⟩ is the seventh letter of the Hungarian alphabet. It is called dzé (IPA: [d͡zeː]) as a letter of the alphabet, where it represents the voiced alveolar affricate phoneme /dz/.

Length

Like most Hungarian consonants, the sound /dz/ can be geminated. However, the letter is only doubled in writing (to ⟨ddz⟩) when an assimilated suffix is added to the stem: eddze, lopóddzon.

In several words, it is pronounced long, e.g.

• bodza, madzag, edz, pedz

In some other ones, short, e.g.

• brindza, dzadzíki, dzéta, Dzerzsinszkij

In several verbs ending in -dzik (approximately fifty), it can be pronounced either short or long, e.g.

• csókolódzik, lopódzik, takaródzik

Alternation

In some verbs ⟨dz⟩ can be replaced by ⟨z⟩: csókolózik, lopózik, takarózik, in free variation. In other verbs, there is no variation: birkózik, mérkőzik (only with ⟨z⟩) but leledzik, nyáladzik (only with ⟨dz⟩, pronounced long). In some other verbs, there is a difference in meaning: levelez(ik) "to correspond", but leveledzik "to produce leaves".

Collation

Usage of this letter is similar to that of Polish and Slovak languages: though ⟨dz⟩ is a digraph composed of ⟨d⟩ and ⟨z⟩, it is considered one letter, and even acronyms keep the letter intact.

Polish

dz generally represents [d͡z]. However, when followed by i it is palatalized to [d͡ʑ].

Examples of dz

<phonos file="Pl-dzwon-2.ogg">dzwon</phonos> (bell)
<phonos file="Pl-rodzaj.ogg">rodzaj</phonos> (kind, type)

Compare dz followed by i:
<phonos file="Pl-dziecko.ogg">dziecko</phonos> (child)
<phonos file="pl-dziewczyna.ogg">dziewczyna</phonos> (girl, girlfriend)

Slovak

In Slovak, the digraph dz is the ninth letter of the Slovak alphabet. Example words with this phoneme include:

• medzi = between, among
• hrádza = dam, dike

The digraph may never be divided by hyphenation:

• medzi → me-dzi
• hrádza → hrá-dza

However, when d and z come from different morphemes, they are treated as separate letters, and must be divided by hyphenation:

• odzemok = type of folk dance → od-ze-mok
• nadzvukový = supersonic → nad-zvu-ko-vý

In both cases od- (from) and nad- (above) are a prefix to the stems zem (earth) and zvuk (sound).

Vietnamese

California State Route 39 in Little Saigon, Orange County, is named after Vietnamese-American singer-songwriter Việt Dzũng, born Nguyễn Ngọc Hùng Dũng.

Dz is sometimes used in Vietnamese names as a pronunciation respelling of the letter D. Several common Vietnamese given names start with the letter D, including Dũng, Dụng, and Dương. Whereas D is pronounced as some sort of dental or alveolar stop in most Latin alphabets, an unadorned D in the Vietnamese alphabet represents either /z/ (Hanoian) or /j/ (Saigonese), while the letter Đ represents a voiced alveolar implosive (/ɗ/) or, according to Thompson (1959), a preglottalized voiced alveolar stop (/ʔd/). Z is not included in the Vietnamese alphabet as a letter in its own right.

Many Vietnamese cultural figures spell their family names, pen names, or stage names with Dz instead of D, emphasizing the Hanoian pronunciation. Examples include the songwriter Dzoãn Mẫn, the poet Hồ Dzếnh, and the television chef Nguyễn Dzoãn Cẩm Vân. Other examples include Bùi Dzinh and Trương Đình Dzu.

Some Overseas Vietnamese residing in English-speaking countries also replace D with Dz in their names. A male named Dũng may spell his name Dzung to avoid being called "dung" in social contexts. Examples of this usage include Vietnamese-Americans Việt Dzũng and Dzung Tran. (Occasionally, D is instead replaced by Y to emphasize the Saigonese pronunciation, as with Yung Krall.)

Unicode

DZ is represented in Unicode as three separate glyphs within the Latin Extended-B block. It is one of the rare characters that has separate glyphs for each of its uppercase, title case, and lowercase forms.

Code	Glyph	Decimal	Description
U+01F1	DZ	DZ	Latin Capital Letter DZ
U+01F2	Dz	Dz	Latin Capital Letter D with Small Letter Z
U+01F3	dz	dz	Latin Small Letter DZ

The single-character versions are designed for compatibility with Yugoslav encodings supporting Romanization of Macedonian, where this digraph corresponds to the Cyrillic letter Ѕ.

Variants

Additional variants of the Dz digraph are also encoded in Unicode.

• DŽ, Dž and dž (Dz with a caron over z), a digraph used in the Croatian, Bosnian, and Slovak alphabets as a letter in its own right, are encoded at U+01C4, U+01C5 and U+01C6 respectively.
• ʣ, a ligature of lowercase dz, historically used to represent the Voiced alveolar affricate in the International Phonetic Alphabet, is encoded at U+02A3.
• ʥ, a ligature of lowercase dz with a curl on the z, histoircally used to represent the Voiced alveolo-palatal affricate in the IPA, is encoded at U+02A5.
• ʤ (dezh), a ligature of lowercase d and ezh (a z with a tail), is encoded at U+20A4