Đ (lowercase: đ, Latin alphabet), known as crossed D or dyet, is a letter formed from the base character D/d overlaid with a crossbar. Crossing was used to create eth (ð), but eth has an uncial as its base whereas đ is based on the straight-backed roman d, like in Sámi Languages and Vietnamese. Crossed d is a letter in the alphabets of several languages and is used in linguistics as a voiced dental fricative.

D with stroke
Đ đ
Usage
Typealphabetic
Phonetic usage
History
Development
Transliteration equivalents
Other
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and  , see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Appearance edit

In the lowercase, the crossbar is usually drawn through the ascender, but when used as a phonetic symbol it may be preferred to draw it through the bowl, in which case it is known as a barred d.[1] In some African languages' orthographies, such as that of Moro, the barred d is preferred.[2]

In the uppercase, the crossbar normally crosses just the left stem, but in Vietnamese and Moro it may sometimes cross the entire letter.[3]

The DE ligature should not be confused with the Đ. That ligature was used stylistically in pre-19th century Spanish as a contraction for de, as a D with an E superimposed. For example, Universidad DE Guadalajara.

Uses by language edit

 
A 9th century Latin manuscript. The abbreviation ſcđo (secundo, "second") occurs on the third line.

African languages edit

A lowercase đ appeared alongside a lowercase retroflex D in a 1982 revision of the African reference alphabet. This revision of the alphabet eliminated uppercase forms, so there was no conflict between ɖ and đ.

Latin edit

Đ was used in Medieval Latin to mark abbreviations of words containing the letter d. For example, hđum could stand for heredum "of the heirs". Similar crossbars were added to other letters to form abbreviations.[4]

South Slavic languages edit

The crossed d was introduced by the Serbian philologist Đuro Daničić in 1878 for use in Serbo-Croatian in his Dictionary of the Croatian or Serbian Language, replacing the older digraphs dj and gj.[5] Daničić modeled the letter after the Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon letter eth, albeit representing a different sound, the affricate [].[5] In 1892 it was officially introduced in Croatian and Slavonian schools (in the Habsburg Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia where the Croatian language was official) and so definitively added to Gaj’s Latin alphabet.[5] The letter thereafter gradually entered daily use,[5] spreading throughout Serbo-Croatian and then to Macedonian (its Latin transliterations are heavily influenced by Serbo-Croatian from the Yugoslav period).

The crossed d is today considered a distinct letter, and is placed between and E in alphabetical order. Its Cyrillic equivalent is Ђ ђ.[5] Its partial equivalent in Macedonian is Ѓ ѓ (because only some dialects contain the /dʑ/ sound). When a true đ is not available or desired, it is transcribed as dj in modern Serbo-Croatian, and as gj in Macedonian. The use of dj in place of đ used to be more common in Serbo-Croatian texts, but it is falling out of practice.

 
An example of đ being used for a voiced dental fricative in the phonetic transcription of early Germanic languages, alongside ƀ for bilabial and ʒ for velar, from Joseph Wright's Old High German Primer (1906).

Sámi languages edit

In the present-day orthographies of Northern Sámi, Inari Sámi and Skolt Sámi, đ represents the fricative [ð]. It is considered a distinct letter and placed between D and E in alphabetical order.

Vietnamese edit

 
A page from the đ section of de Rhodes's Dictioniarum Annamiticum, a 1651 Vietnamese-Portuguese-Latin dictionary. As with the B with flourish, Đ only appears in lowercase in de Rhodes's works.

Đ is the seventh letter of the Vietnamese alphabet, after D and before E.[6] Traditionally, digraphs and trigraphs like CH and NGH were considered letters as well, making Đ the eighth letter.[7] Đ is a letter in its own right, rather than a ligature or letter-diacritic combination; therefore, đá would come after in any alphabetical listing.

Đ represents a voiced alveolar implosive (/ɗ/) or, according to Thompson (1959), a preglottalized voiced alveolar stop (/ʔd/).[8] Whereas D is pronounced as some sort of dental or alveolar stop in most Latin alphabets, an unadorned D in Vietnamese represents either /z/ (Hanoian) or /j/ (Saigonese).

The Vietnamese alphabet was formally described for the first time in the 17th-century text Manuductio ad Linguam Tunckinensem, attributed to a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, possibly Francisco de Pina[9] or Filipe Sibin.[10] This passage about the letter Đ was later incorporated into Alexandre de Rhodes' seminal Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum:[11]

Another letter written with the symbol đ is completely different than our own and is pronounced by raising the tip of the tongue to the palate of the mouth, immediately removing it, without in any way touching the teeth, for example đa đa: partridge. And this letter is very commonly used at the beginning of a word.

— Manuductio ad Linguam Tunckinensem[note 1]

On older typewriters, Đ was located where Z would be in the French AZERTY layout.[13] Alternatively, a hyphen can be overstruck onto a D.

On computers without support for a Vietnamese character set or Unicode, Đ is encoded as DD and đ as dd according to the Vietnamese Quoted-Readable standard. Vietnamese computer users typically input Đ as DD in the Telex and VIQR input methods or as D9 in the VNI input method. In the absence of an input method, the TCVN 6064:1995 and Microsoft Windows Vietnamese keyboard layouts map ZA0-09 (0 on a U.S. keyboard) to đ, or Đ when holding down ⇧ Shift. The Windows layout also maps ZA0-11 (=) to ₫.

Other modes of communication also have dedicated representations of Đ. In Vietnamese Braille, it is , which corresponds to D in French Braille. In the Vietnamese manual alphabet, Đ is produced by touching the thumb to the index finger. In Morse code, it is rendered – · · – · ·, corresponding to Telex's "DD".[14]

Spanish edit

The Spanish language uses Đ as a ligature of the word "de" (Spanish for "of"). It is rarely typed, but commonly used on signs and in handwritten text.

Other uses edit

Phonetic transcription edit

The lowercase đ is used in some phonetic transcription schemes to represent a voiced dental fricative [ð] (English th in this). Eth (ð) is more commonly used for this purpose, but the crossed d has the advantage of being able to be typed on a standard typewriter, by overlaying a hyphen over a d.[15]

Currency symbols edit

A minuscule form of the letter, đ, is the symbol of the đồng, the currency of Vietnam, by a 1953 decree by Hồ Chí Minh.[16] The South Vietnamese đồng, on the other hand, was symbolized "Đ.", in majuscule. In Unicode, the Vietnamese đồng symbol is properly represented by U+20AB DONG SIGN, but U+0111 đ LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH STROKE is often used instead. In Vietnamese, the đồng sign is written after the amount in superscript, often underlined.

The uppercase form, Ð, is used as the currency symbol for the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.

Chemistry edit

Dispersity is represented by the symbol Đ, and is a measure of the heterogeneity of sizes of molecules or particles in a mixture, referring to either molecular mass or degree of polymerization.

Disambiguation edit

In Japanese handwriting, the letter D may be written as Đ to clearly distinguish it from the letter O or the digit 0. This is similar to writing Z or 7 with a bar to distinguish them from 2 and 1 respectively.

Computer encoding edit

Character information
Preview Đ đ
Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH STROKE LATIN SMALL LETTER D WITH STROKE
Encodings decimal hex dec hex
Unicode 272 U+0110 273 U+0111
UTF-8 196 144 C4 90 196 145 C4 91
Numeric character reference Đ Đ đ đ
Named character reference Đ đ
ISO Latin-2, -4, -10 208 D0 240 F0
Latin-6 169 A9 185 B9
PostScript Dcroat, Dslash dcroat, dmacron
LaTeX \DJ \dj

In Unicode, both crossed d and barred d are considered glyph variants of U+0111.[1]

Unicode has a distinct code point for the visually very similar capital eth, Ð, U+00D0, which can lead to confusion.

As part of WGL4, Đ and đ can be expected to display correctly even on older Windows systems.

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ As printed in Hồn Việt:[11] Alterum đ notatur eo signo, quia est omnino diversù à nostro et pronunciatur attollendo extremum linguae ad palatum oris illamque statim amovendo absque eo, quod ullo modo dentes attingat, ùt đa đa: perdrix. Et haec littera est valde in usu in principio dictionis.

    As paraphrased by de Rhodes:[12] ...estque vitium linguæ, aliud đ notatur eo signo quia est omninò diversum à nostro & pronunciatur attollendo extremum linguæ ad palatum oris, illamque statim amovendo, absque eo quod ullo modo dentes attingat ut đa đa, perdix: & hæc litera est valdè in usu in principio dictionis.

References edit

  1. ^ a b The Unicode Consortium (2003). The Unicode Standard, Version 4.0. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley Developers Press. p. 432.
  2. ^ ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2/WG 2 Revised Proposal to Encode Additional Latin Orthographic Character JTC1/SC2/WG2 N2847R
  3. ^ Example: Lê Bá Khanh; Lê Bá Kông (1991). Vietnamese-English/English-Vietnamese Dictionary (7th printing ed.). New York City: Hippocrene Books. ISBN 0-87052-924-2.
  4. ^ Bischoff, Bernhard (1990). Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. p. 150.
  5. ^ a b c d e Maretić, Tomislav. Gramatika i stilistika hrvatskoga ili srpskoga književnog jezika, p. 14-15. 1899.
  6. ^ "Bài Tập Tại Nhà #1" [Homework Practice #1] (PDF). Portland, Oregon: Lạc Hồng Vietnamese Language School. August 7, 2009. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 5, 2009. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
  7. ^ "Tài Liệu Cho Giáo Viên" [Teaching Materials] (PDF) (in Vietnamese). La Vang Vietnamese Language School. October 28, 2011. p. 1. Retrieved November 18, 2013.[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ Thompson, Laurence (1959). "Saigon phonemics". Language. 35 (3). Linguistic Society of America: 458–461. doi:10.2307/411232. JSTOR 411232.
  9. ^ Jacques, Roland (2002). Portuguese Pioneers of Vietnamese Linguistics. Bangkok: Orchid Press. ISBN 9748304779.
  10. ^ Gesammelte Studien. Bibliotheca Instituti Historici S.I. (in Portuguese). Vol. 21. Jesuit Historical Institute. 1963. p. 12. …e a « Manuductio ad linguam Tunckinensem » do Padre Filipe Sibin SI…
  11. ^ a b Nguyễn Minh Hoàng. "Alexandre de Rhodes có phải là cha đẻ của chữ Quốc ngữ?" [Was Alexandre de Rhodes the father of the Vietnamese alphabet?]. Hồn Việt (in Vietnamese). Archived from the original on October 17, 2014. Retrieved November 17, 2013.
  12. ^ de Rhodes, Alexandre (1651). "Lingue annamiticæ seu tunchinensis brevis declaratio". Dictionarium annamiticum lusitanicum, et latinum (in Latin). Rome: Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. p. 3.
  13. ^ VietNamese Typewriter on Flickr
  14. ^ "Morse Code". Albuquerque, New Mexico: Our Lady of La Vang Eucharistic Youth Society. 2011. Archived from the original on October 22, 2014. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
  15. ^ Pullum, Geoffrey K.; Ladusaw, William A. (1996). Phonetic Symbol Guide. University of Chicago Press. pp. 36–37.
  16. ^ Ho Chi Minh (May 20, 1953). "Sắc lệnh của Chủ tịch Nước Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa số 162/SL" [Decree number 162/SL of the President of Vietnam] (in Vietnamese). Democratic Republic of Vietnam.