Tsade (also spelled , , , , tzadi, sadhe, tzaddik) is the eighteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ṣādē , Hebrew ṣādi , Aramaic ṣāḏē , Syriac ṣāḏē ܨ, Ge'ez ṣädäy ጸ, and Arabic . Its oldest phonetic value is debated, although there is a variety of pronunciations in different modern Semitic languages and their dialects. It represents the coalescence of three Proto-Semitic "emphatic consonants" in Canaanite. Arabic, which kept the phonemes separate, introduced variants of and to express the three (see , ). In Aramaic, these emphatic consonants coalesced instead with ʿayin and ṭēt, respectively, thus Hebrew ereṣ ארץ (earth) is araʿ ארע in Aramaic. The Phoenician letter is continued in the Greek san (Ϻ) and possibly sampi (Ϡ), and in Etruscan 𐌑 Ś. It may have inspired the form of the letter tse in the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets. The corresponding letter of the Ugaritic alphabet is 𐎕 ṣade. The letter is named "tsadek" in Yiddish, and Hebrew speakers often give it a similar name as well. This name for the letter probably originated from a fast recitation of the alphabet (i.e., "tsadi, qoph" → "tsadiq, qoph"), influenced by the Hebrew word tzadik, meaning "righteous person". Origins The origin of is unclear. It may have come from a Proto-Sinaitic script based on a pictogram of a plant, perhaps a papyrus plant, or a fish hook (in Modern Hebrew, means "[he] hunt[ed]", and in Arabic means "[he] hunted"). Hebrew tsadi Hebrew spelling: or . Name In Hebrew, the letter's name is tsadi or ṣadi, depending on whether the letter is transliterated as Modern Israeli "ts" or Tiberian "ṣ". Alternatively, it can be called tsadik or ṣadik, spelled צָדִּיק, influenced by its Yiddish name tsadek and the Hebrew word tzadik. Variations , like kaph, mem, pe, and nun, has a final form, used at the end of words. Its shape changes from to . Pronunciation In Modern Hebrew, צ tsade represents a voiceless alveolar affricate . This is the same in Yiddish. Historically, it likely represented a pharyngealized ; which became in Ashkenazi pronunciation. A geresh can also be placed after tsade (), giving it the sound (or, in a hypercorrected pronunciation, a pharyngealized ), e.g. chips. Ṣade appears as amongst Yemenite Jews and other Jews from the Middle East. Some Sephardi Jews pronounce צ like a regular s, and this is the sound value it has in