Tsade

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 (inModern Hebrew, צד tsad means "[he] hunt[ed]", and in Arabic صاد ṣād means "[he] hunted").

The letter is named ṣād and in Modern Standard Arabicispronounced /sˤ/.

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

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 سorث, all of which are pronounced [s].

Hebrew spelling: צָדִיorצָדֵי.

InHebrew, the letter's name is tsadiorṣadi, depending on whether the letter is transliterated as Modern Israeli "ts" or Tiberian "ṣ". Alternatively, it can be called tsadikorṣadik, spelled צָדִּיק, influenced by its Yiddish name tsadek and the Hebrew word tzadik.

Ṣadi, like kaph, mem, pe, and nun, has a final form, used at the end of words. Its shape changes from צ‎ to ץ‎.

InModern Hebrew, צ tsade represents a voiceless alveolar affricate /t͡s/. This is the same in Yiddish. Historically, it represented either a pharyngealized /sˤ/ or an affricate such as the modern Hebrew pronunciation or the Ge’ez [t͡sʼ];^[3] which became [t͡s]inAshkenazi pronunciation. A geresh can also be placed after tsade (צ׳ ; ץ׳‎), giving it the sound [t͡ʃ] (or, in a hypercorrected pronunciation, a pharyngealized [ʃˤ]), e.g. צִ׳יפְּס‎ chips.

Ṣade appears as [sˤ] amongst Yemenite Jews and other Jews from the Middle East.

Some Sephardi Jews pronounce צ like a regular s, and this is the sound value it has in Judaeo-Spanish, as in "masa" (matzo) or "sadik" (tzadik).

Ingematria, 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 special crowns (called tagin) when written in a Sefer Torah. See shin, ‘ayin, tet, nun, zayin, and gimmel.

• Ṣ
• Z → Usage
• Tse (Cyrillic)