Ĵ or
ĵ (J
circumflexThe circumflex ' is a diacritic mark used in written Afrikaans, Breton, Croatian, Esperanto, French, Frisian, Italian, Romanized Japanese, Norwegian, Romanized Persian, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Turkish, Vietnamese, Welsh and other languages...
) is a
consonantIn articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx...
in
Esperanto orthographyEsperanto is written in a Latin alphabet of twenty-eight letters, with upper and lower case. This is supplemented by punctuation marks and by various logograms, such as the numerals 0–9, currency signs such as $, and mathematical symbols....
, representing a
voicedVirtual Organization for Innovative Conceptual Engineering Design is a virtual organization that promotes innovation in engineering design. This project is the collaborative work of researchers at five universities across the United States, and is funded by the National Science Foundation...
postalveolar fricative (either palato-alveolar or retroflex), and is equivalent to the
voiced postalveolar fricativeThe voiced palato-alveolar fricative or domed postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is <>, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is Z. An alternative symbol used in some...
, , or the
voiced retroflex fricativeThe voiced retroflex fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is z`.Like all the retroflex consonants, the IPA symbol is formed by adding a...
, .
While Esperanto orthography uses a
diacriticA diacritic is an ancillary glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective...
for its four postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based
SlavicThe Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
alphabets, the base letters are Romano-Germanic.
Ĵ is based on the
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
letter
j to better preserve the shape of borrowings from that language (such as
ĵurnalo from
journal) than Slavic
ž would.
Where type with diacritics is not available,
L. L. ZamenhofLudwik Łazarz Zamenhof was an ophthalmologist, philologist, and the inventor of Esperanto, a constructed language designed for international communication....
allowed its substitution by
jh. Recently, the use of
jx instead of ĵ has also become popular; see x-convention.
See also
- Ĉ
Ĉ or ĉ is a consonant in Esperanto orthography, representing a voiceless postalveolar affricate , and is equivalent to the voiceless postalveolar affricate, , or the voiceless retroflex affricate,...
- Ĝ
G is the seventh letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled gee.-History:The letter G was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of C to distinguish Latin voiced velar from voiceless...
- Ĥ
H is the eighth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. Its name in both British and American English is aitch , plural aitches, though it is also pronounced haitch in some dialects .-History:...
- Ŝ
S is the nineteenth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled ess, or usually es- when part of a compound word; the plural is esses.- Usage :...
- Ŭ
U is the twenty-first letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled u; the plural is ues, though this is rare.-History:...