Ż, ż (Z with overdot) is a letter, consisting of the letter Z of the ISO basic Latin alphabet and an overdot.

Usage

Polish

In the Polish language, ż is the final, 32nd letter of the alphabet. It typically represents the voiced retroflex fricative (), somewhat similar to the pronunciation of  in "mirae"; however, in a word-final position or when followed by a voiceless obstruent, it is devoiced to the voiceless retroflex fricative ().

Its pronunciation is the same as that of the digraph , except that  (unlike ) also undergoes devoicing when preceded by a voiceless obstruent. The difference in spelling comes from their historical pronunciations: ż originates from a palatalized  or , while  evolved from a palatalized . 

The letter was originally introduced in 1513 by Stanisław Zaborowski in his book Ortographia

Occasionally, the letter Ƶ ƶ (Z with a horizontal stroke) is used instead of Ż ż for aesthetic purposes, especially in all-caps text and handwriting.

Kashubian
Kashubian ż is a voiced fricative like in Polish, but it is postalveolar () rather than retroflex.

Maltese

In Maltese, ż represents the voiced alveolar sibilant , pronounced like "z" in English "mae". This contrasts with the letter , which represents the voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate , like in the word "pia".

Computing codes

See also 
 Ź and Ž
 Polish alphabet
 Polish phonology
 Dot (diacritic)

References

Latin letters with diacritics
Maltese language
Z-d