Ƨ

Ƨ (minuscule: ƨ) is a letter of the Latin alphabet; depending on the context the letter is used, it is based on the numeral 2 or the Latin letter S.

Ƨ was used in the Zhuang alphabet from 1957 to 1986 to indicate the second, or falling, tone (IPA: [˧˩]), due to its resemblance to the numeral 2. It is possible that this letter is based on the italic form of the Cyrillic letter Ge ⟨г⟩, as the Zhuang alphabet had also borrowed the Cyrillic letters Ze ⟨З з⟩ and Che ⟨Ч ч⟩ due to their resemblances to ⟨3⟩ and ⟨4⟩. In 1986, Ƨ was replaced by the similarly shaped, but fully Latin, Z, when the alphabet was simplified for use in computers.

As a reversed S, Ƨ was also used as a fractional Roman numeral, where it stood for the fraction 1/72.

The proposed Metelko alphabet, devised by Franc Serafin Metelko, used the letter Ƨ to represent the schwa ə sound; it is unclear what inspiration Metelko used for the character (possibly from the Georgian letter ჷ used in the Laz and Svan languages spoken in the Southern Caucasus).