Zayin#Hebrew zayin

The Proto-Sinaitic glyph may have been called {{Transliteration|mis|ziqq}}, may not have been based on a hieroglyph, and may have depicted a "fetter".{{cite journal|last1=Colless|first1=Brian E.|year=2014|title=The origin of the alphabet: an examination of the Goldwasser hypothesis|journal=Antiguo Oriente|volume=12|pages=71–104|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/32623054.pdf|access-date=2023-05-06|archive-date=2022-10-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221014202936/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/32623054.pdf|url-status=live}}

An alternative view is that it is based on the "copper ingot" hieroglyph (𓈔) in the form of an axeblade, after noting that the name "zayin" has roots in Aramaic to refer to "Arms," "Armor," and "Metal used for arms."Cross, F. M. (1980) Newly Found Inscriptions in Old Canaanite and Early Phoenician Scripts. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 238, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.2307/1356511 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190715024051/https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.2307/1356511 |date=2019-07-15 }}

The Phoenician letter appears to be named after a sword or other weapon. In Hebrew, {{Transliteration|he|zayin}} ({{script/Hebrew|זין}}) means "weapon", the verb {{Transliteration|he|lĕzayyēn}} ({{script/Hebrew|לזיין}}) means "to arm", and the verb {{Transliteration|he|lĕhizdayyēn}} ({{script/Hebrew|להזדיין}}) means "to arm oneself".

{{Infobox grapheme

| name = Zāy زاي

| letter = ز

| script = Arabic script

| type = Abjad

| language = Arabic language

| phonemes = {{IPA link|z}}

| alphanumber = 11

| direction = Right-to-left

| fam2 = 𐡆

| fam3 = 𐢉‎

| fam4 = ر

| fam1 = 𐤆

}}The letter is named {{Transliteration|ar|ALA|zāy}}. It has two forms, depending on its position in the word:

{{Arabic alphabet shapes|ز}}

The similarity to {{Transliteration|ar|ALA|rāʼ }} {{lang|ar|ر}}  is likely a function of the original Syriac forms converging to a single symbol, requiring that one of them be distinguished as a dot; a similar process occurred to Gimel (letter) and Heth (letter). In Maltese, the corresponding letter to {{lang|ar|ز}} is {{lang|mt|ż}}.

{{Main|Že}}

A variant letter of Heth (letter) named že is used in Persian with three dots above instead of just one dot above. The letter is used in a number of languages, such as Persian, Pashto, Kurdish, Urdu and Uyghur (see K̡ona Yezik̡).

{{Arabic alphabet shapes|ژ}}

In modern Hebrew, the frequency of the usage of zayin, out of all the letters, is 0.88%.

Hebrew spelling: {{lang|he|זַיִן}}

In modern Hebrew, the combination {{Script/Hebrew|ז׳}} (zayin followed by a geresh) is used in loanwords and foreign names to denote {{IPAblink|ʒ}} as in vi{{strong|si}}on.

In gematria, zayin represents the number seven,{{cite web|url=http://www.inner.org/gematria/gemchart.htm|title=Gematria Chart|access-date=2011-11-29|archive-date=2011-12-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111226164309/http://www.inner.org/gematria/gemchart.htm|url-status=dead}} and when used at the beginning of Hebrew years it means 7000 (i.e. {{lang|he|זתשנד}} in numbers would be the future date 7754).

Zayin, in addition to ʻayin, gimel, teth, nun, shin, and tzadi, is one of the seven letters which receive a special crown (called a tagin) when written in a Sefer Torah (Torah scroll).

Zain is a consonant with the {{ipa|/z/}} sound which is a voiced alveolar fricative.

{{Arabic alphabet shapes|ܙ‎}}

{{charmap

|05D6|name1=Hebrew Letter Zayin

|0632|name2=Arabic Letter Zain

|0719|name3=Syriac Letter Zain

|0806|name4=Samaritan Letter Zen

}}

{{charmap

|10387|name1=Ugaritic Letter Zeta

|10846|name2=Imperial Aramaic Letter Zayin

|10906|name3=Phoenician Letter Zai

}}

• ژ - že

{{commons category|Zayin (letter)}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Arabic language}}

{{Hebrew language}}

{{Northwest Semitic abjad}}

Category:Phoenician alphabet

Category:Arabic letters

Category:Hebrew letters

Category:Urdu letters