(Ж, ж) is the ), similar to the ''s'' in the
English word trea''s''ure.
Zhe is the seventh letter of the
Bulgarian and
Belarusian alphabets, the eighth letter in the
Macedonian ,
Russian and
Serbian alphabets, and the ninth in the
Ukrainian alphabet. It is also found in most non-
Slavic languages written in the Cyrillic script, representing either , , or . In the old Cyrillic alphabet, zhe was the seventh letter. Its name was (zhivěte, 'live' ''imp.''), and it did not have a numerical value.
It is not known what zhe was derived from. No similar letter exists in ש, the bottom one inverted. Several Cyrillic letters derive directly from Hebrew letters and ''
ш '', which represents the unvoiced counterpart of zhe, is one of these.
Zhe is most often
Transliterated as ''zh'', more rarely as ''zx'', except in
Serbian and
Macedonian where it is most often transliterated as ''ž'', or, lacking diacritics, simply as ''z''.
The closest
Polish counterpart is ''ż''.
Zhe is one of the first letters learned by children who learn to write in
Slavic Languages , because it looks quite like a young
Frog floating in a
Pond , and in these languages the word meaning "frog" or "toad" is written "жаба".
Zhe can also be used in
Leet Speak in place of the letter ''
X ''. The rap group
Kris Kross has a logo of two ''
K '''s placed back-to-back similar to zhe.
Its
HTML Entities are: Ж or Ж for capital and ж or ж for small letter.
