Editing Tsade (section)

{{short description|Eighteenth letter of the Semitic scripts}}
{{Infobox Semitic letter|letname=Tsade|previouslink=Pe (Semitic letter)|previousletter=Pe|nextlink=Qoph|nextletter=Qoph|archar=ص|sychar=ܨ|hechar=צ|amchar=𐡑|gechar=ጸ|phchar=𐤑|grchar=[[Ϻ]], [[Ψ]], [[ϡ]]|cychar=[[Tse (Cyrillic)|Ц]], [[Che (Cyrillic)|Ч]], [[Џ]], [[Ѱ]]|ipa={{IPA link|sˤ}} ({{IPA link|t͡s}})|num=18|gem=90}}
'''Tsade''' (also spelled '''{{lang|sem-Latn|ṣade}}''', {{lang|sem-Latn|'''ṣādē'''}}, '''{{lang|sem-Latn|ṣaddi}}''', '''{{Transliteration|ar|ṣad}}''', '''tzadi''', '''sadhe''', '''tzaddik''') is the eighteenth [[Letter (alphabet)|letter]] of the [[Semitic abjads]], including [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] ''ṣādē'' 𐤑, [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]] ''ṣādī'' {{Script|Hebr|צ}}, [[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]] ''ṣāḏē'' 𐡑, [[Syriac alphabet|Syriac]] ''ṣāḏē'' ܨ, [[Ge'ez script|Ge'ez]] ''ṣädäy'' ጸ, and [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] ''ṣād'' {{Script|Arabic|ص}}. It is related to the [[Ancient North Arabian]] 𐪎‎‎, [[Ancient South Arabian script|South Arabian]] {{lang|sem-x-oldsoara|𐩮}}, and [[Geʽez script|Ge'ez]] {{lang|gez|ጸ}}. The corresponding letter of the [[Ugaritic alphabet]] is 𐎕  ''ṣade''.

Its oldest phonetic value is debated, although there is a variety of pronunciations in different modern Semitic languages and their dialects. It represents the coalescence of three [[Proto-Semitic]] "[[emphatic consonant]]s" in [[Canaanite language|Canaanite]]. [[Arabic language|Arabic]], which kept the phonemes separate, introduced variants of {{Transliteration|ar|DIN|ṣād}} and {{Transliteration|ar|DIN|[[ṭāʾ]]}} to express the three (see {{Transliteration|ar|DIN|[[ḍād]]}}, {{Transliteration|ar|DIN|[[ẓāʾ]]}}). In Aramaic, these emphatic consonants coalesced instead with ''[[Ayin|ʿayin]]'' and ''[[Teth|ṭēt]]'', respectively, thus Hebrew ''ereṣ'' {{lang|he|rtl=yes|ארץ}} (earth) is ''araʿ'' {{Script|Hebr|ארע}} in Aramaic.

The Phoenician letter is continued in the [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] [[San (letter)|san]] (Ϻ) and possibly [[sampi]] (Ϡ),  and in [[Old Italic alphabet|Etruscan]] 𐌑 ''Ś''. It may have inspired the form of the letter [[Tse (letter)|tse]] in the [[Glagolitic alphabet|Glagolitic]] and [[Cyrillic alphabet]]s.

The letter is named "'''tsadek'''" in Yiddish,<ref>{{cite book |last=Weinreich |first=Uriel |date=1968 |title=Modern English-Yiddish Yiddish-English Dictionary |location=New York |publisher=McGraw-Hill Book Co. |page=453 |isbn=07-0690380-3}}</ref> and Hebrew speakers often give it a similar name as well. This name for the letter probably originated from a fast recitation of the alphabet (i.e., "''tsadi'', ''[[qoph]]''" → "''tsadiq'', ''qoph''"), influenced by the Hebrew word ''[[tzadik]]'', meaning "righteous person".<ref>{{Cite web
  | title=The Letter Tsade: Righteousness and Modesty
  | url=http://www.arachim.org/Index.asp?ArticleID=794&CategoryID=164
  | language=he
  | access-date=5 December 2010
  | archive-date=31 May 2024
  | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531100351/https://www.arachim.org/ArticleDetail.asp?ArticleID=794
  | url-status=live
  }}</ref>