Ż
Ż is a letter in the Polish, Kashubian and Maltese alphabets.
ż represents a voiced retroflex fricative (IPA: [/ʐ/]), similar to English "s" as in pleasure. It usually corresponds to ж or ž in other Slavic languages.
Its pronunciation is the same as the rz (digraph), the only difference being that rz evolved from a palatalized r.
ż occasionally devoices to /ʂ/ (voiceless retroflex fricative), particularly in final position.
ż should not be confused with ź (or z followed by i), termed "soft zh", a voiced alveolopalatal fricative (IPA: [/ʑ/]).
Examples of ż
(yellow)
(wife)
Compare ź:
(wrongly, badly)
(foal)
Occasionally, capital Ƶ (Z with horizontal stroke) is used instead of capital Ż for aesthetic purposes, especially in all-caps text and handwriting. It is often common to see capital Ƶ with dot above, used to easily distinguish it from capital Z or Ź.
Kashubian ż is a voiced fricative like in Polish, but it is postalveolar ( IPA: [/ʒ/]) rather than retroflex.
In Maltese ż is pronounced like "z" in English "maze".
Computer use
See also
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