Notes On Muscovite Affairs - Tsar Vs Czar

Tsar Vs Czar

One final thing for which Herberstein and his book was noted, though not widely understood, was his contribution to a spelling confusion which did not emerge until the end of the 19th century and still causes disagreement: he recorded the spelling of tsar as czar. This cz spelling is used only in the Polish language; although the spelling varies, most Slavonic languages use the ts pronunciation, and usually that spelling in the Romanised form. English and French moved from the cz spelling to the ts spelling in the 19th century. Note that cz was as good a spelling as any at the time Herberstein recorded it.