Some Esperanto grammars, notably Plena Analiza Gramatiko de Esperanto,[2] consider dz to be a digraph for the voiced affricate [d͡z], as in edzo "husband". The case for this is "rather weak".[3] Most Esperantists, including Esperantist linguists (Janton,[4] Wells[5]), reject it.
⟨Dz⟩ and ⟨dzs⟩ were recognized as individual letters in the 11th edition of Hungarian orthography (1984).[6] Prior to that, they were analyzed as two-letter combinations ⟨d⟩+⟨z⟩ and ⟨d⟩+⟨zs⟩.
Length
Like most Hungarian consonants, the sound /dz/ can be geminated. However, the letter is only doubled in writing (to ⟨ddz⟩) when an assimilated suffix is added to the stem: eddze, lopóddzon.
In several words, it is pronounced long, e.g. bodza, madzag, edz, pedz. In some other ones, short, e.g. dzadzíki, dzéta, Dzerzsinszkij (usually at the beginning of words), though it is always short after another consonant (e.g. in brindza).
In several verbs ending in -dzik (approximately fifty), there is a free alternation with -zik, e.g. csókolódzik or csókolózik, lopódzik or lopózik. In other verbs, there is no variation: birkózik, mérkőzik (only with ⟨z⟩) but leledzik, nyáladzik (only with ⟨dz⟩, pronounced long). In some other verbs, there is a difference in meaning: levelez(ik) "to correspond", but leveledzik "to produce leaves".
Collation
Usage of this letter is similar to that of Polish and Slovak languages: though ⟨dz⟩ is a digraph composed of ⟨d⟩ and ⟨z⟩, it is considered one letter, and even acronyms keep the letter intact.
Polish
Dz generally represents [d͡z]. However, when followed by i it is palatalized to [d͡ʑ].
Dz is sometimes used in Vietnamese names as a pronunciation respelling of the letter D. Several common Vietnamese given names start with the letter D, including Dũng, Dụng, and Dương. Whereas D is pronounced as some sort of dental or alveolar stop in most Latin alphabets, an unadorned D in the Vietnamese alphabet represents either /z/ (Hanoian) or /j/ (Saigonese), while the letter Đ represents a voiced alveolar implosive (/ɗ/) or, according to Thompson (1959), a preglottalizedvoiced alveolar stop (/ʔd/).[7]Z is not included in the Vietnamese alphabet as a letter in its own right.
Many Vietnamese cultural figures spell their family names, pen names, or stage names with Dz instead of D, emphasizing the Hanoian pronunciation. Examples include the songwriter Dzoãn Mẫn, the poet Hồ Dzếnh, and the television chef Nguyễn Dzoãn Cẩm Vân.[8] Other examples include Bùi Dzinh and Trương Đình Dzu.
Some Overseas Vietnamese residing in English-speaking countries also replace D with Dz in their names. A male named Dũng may spell his name Dzung to avoid being called "dung" in social contexts.[1] Examples of this usage include Vietnamese-Americans Việt Dzũng and Dzung Tran. (Occasionally, D is instead replaced by Y to emphasize the Saigonese pronunciation, as with Yung Krall.[9])
Unicode
Dz is represented in Unicode as three separate glyphs within the Latin Extended-B block. It is one of the rare characters that has separate glyphs for each of its uppercase, title case, and lowercase forms.
Code
Glyph
Decimal
Description
U+01F1
DZ
DZ
Latin Capital Letter DZ
U+01F2
Dz
Dz
Latin Capital Letter D with Small Letter Z
U+01F3
dz
dz
Latin Small Letter DZ
The single-character versions are designed for compatibility with Yugoslav encodings supporting Romanization of Macedonian, where this digraph corresponds to the Cyrillic letter Ѕ.
Variants
Additional variants of the Dz digraph are also encoded in Unicode.
^van Oostendorp, Marc (1999). Syllable structure in Esperanto as an instantiation of universal phonology. Esperantologio / Esperanto Studies 1, 52 80. p. 68
^Pierre Janton, Esperanto: Language, Literature, and Community. Translated by Humphrey Tonkin et al. State University of New York Press, 1993. ISBN0-7914-1254-7.
^J. C. Wells, Lingvistikaj Aspektoj de Esperanto, Universala Esperanto-Asocio, 1978. ISBN92 9017 021 2.