Djerv

Djerv (ꙉєрвъ)
Ꙉ ꙉ
Usage
Writing systemCyrillic
TypeAlphabetic
Sound values/dʑ/, /tɕ/
History
DescendantsЋ ћ
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.

Djerv or Đerv (/dʒɜːrv/, JƏRV; Majuscule: Ꙉ, Minuscule: ꙉ) is one of the Cyrillic alphabet letters that was used in Old Cyrillic. It was used in many early Serbo-Croatian monuments to represent the sounds /dʑ/ and /tɕ/ (modern đ/ђ and ć/ћ). It exists in the Cyrillic Extended-B table as U+A648 and U+A649. It is the basis of the modern letters Ћ and Ђ; the former was in fact a direct revival of djerv and was considered the same letter.

Djerv is also commonly used in Serbian Cyrillic, where it was an officially used letter. When placed before the letters н and л it represented the sounds /ɲ/ and /ʎ/, which are represented by Њ and Љ today, respectively.

It can be transliterated as Ǵ.

Spelling reforms and forming of the letters Ћ and Ђ

Serbian Cyrillic script, with djerv. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 16th century

The letter Ђ was formed in 1818 by Vuk Stefanović Karadžić after several proposals of reforming Djerv by Lukijan Mušicki and Gligorije Geršić. However the letter Ћ (also based on djerv) was first used by Dositej Obradović in a direct reform of djerv.

Computing codes

Character information
PreviewꙈꙉ
Unicode name CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER DJERV CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER DJERV
Encodingsdecimalhexdechex
Unicode42568U+A64842569U+A649
UTF-8234 153 136EA 99 88234 153 137EA 99 89
Numeric character referenceꙈꙈꙉꙉ

References

  1. 1 2 3 Maretić, Tomislav. Gramatika i stilistika hrvatskoga ili srpskoga književnog jezika, p. 14-15. 1899.
  2. ↑ Savić, Viktor (2016). "Српска редакција црквенословенског језика : од св. Климента, епископа словенског, до св. Саве, архиепископа српског". dais.sanu.ac.rs. p. 265-266. Retrieved 2026-09-23. За́то је само код Срба актуализовано слово ђерв из глагољице. [That is why the Glagolitic letter 'đerv' was revived only among the Serbs.]
  3. ↑ Petrović, Aleksandar (2022). СВЕТИ ЋИРИЛО И МЕТОДИЈЕ И ПРОБЛЕМ ПИСМА (PDF). Matica Srpska. pp. 123–124. Има га само српска ћирилица где се јавља као угласто и обло (као чаша) ђерв. [It exists only in the Serbian Cyrillic script, where it appears as both an angular and a rounded (cup-shaped) đerv.]
  4. ↑ Savić, Viktor. РАНИ СТАРОСЛОВЕНСКИ ЈЕЗИК И СРПСКА РЕДАКЦИЈСКА ПИСМЕНОСТ (PDF). Matica Srpska. p. 51. Петар Ђорђић је с правом истакао да историја српске ћирилице почиње с појавом слова „ђерв", као њој особенога словнога знака. [Petar Đorđić correctly pointed out that the history of the Serbian Cyrillic script begins with the appearance of the letter đerv as a character distinctive to it.]
  5. ↑ Берак, Вера Б. (2025). "Типови и особине писма записâ Силоановог четворојеванђеља". Српски језик : студије српске и словенске. 30 (1): 415–433. doi:10.18485/sj.2025.30.1.22. ISSN 0354-9259.
  6. ↑ Lunt, Horace (1974). Old Church Slavonic Grammar. The Hague: Mouton. p. 16.
  7. ↑ Lalević, Miodrag S. (1953). Potsetnik iz srpskohrvatskog jezika i pravopisa: s pravopisnim i jezičkim savetnikom. Rad. p. 75. Облик му је у Вуковој азбуци дао песник Лукијан Мушицки
  8. ↑ Петар Ђорђић. Историја српске ћирилице. Београд, 1971.
  9. ↑ Maretić, Tomislav. Gramatika i stilistika hrvatskoga ili srpskoga književnog jezika. 1899.
  10. ↑ Campbell, George L.; Moseley, Christopher (2013-05-07). The Routledge Handbook of Scripts and Alphabets. Routledge. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-135-22296-3.

Further reading