Dž

Dž (titlecase form; all-capitals form DŽ, lowercase dž) is the seventh letter of the Croatian and Bosnian alphabets, and the Latin forms of Serbian and Macedonian, after D and before Đ. It is pronounced as IPA|/ʤ/. Dž is a digraph that corresponds to the letter Dzhe (Џ/џ) of the Cyrillic alphabet used for writing the Serbian and Macedonian Languages.

Note that when the letter is the initial of a capitalized word (like "Džungla" or "Džemper", or personal names like "Dženana" or "Džamonja"), the ž is not uppercase, unless the word is written in uppercase. However, when a word is written vertically rather than horizontally (on signs, for instance), "dž" is written horizontally as a single letter; in particular, "dž" occupies a single square in crossword puzzles. Also, in cases where words are written with a space between each letter, "dž" is written together without a space between "d" and "ž". These characteristics are also shared by Lj and Nj. Similarly, when a name beginning with Dž is reduced to initial, the entire letter is initial, not just D. For example, Dženan Ljubović becomes Dž. Lj. and not D. L.

The Dž ligature is found in Unicode at code points 0x01C4 (uppercase, unicode|DŽ), 0x01C5 (titlecase, unicode|Dž), and 0x01C6 (lowercase, unicode|dž). The ligatures are very rarely used in digital media, which tends to favor the corresponding two-character combinations. Croatian computer keyboards and typewriters do not include a single key for the letter.

See also

* Џ