Shcha
Template:Short description Template:For Template:Distinguish Template:Infobox grapheme
Shcha (Щ щ; italics: Щ щ or Щ щ; italics: Щ щ), Shta, or Scha is a letter of the Cyrillic script.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In Russian, it represents the long (sometimes short) voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, similar to the pronunciation of sh in 'sheep'. In Ukrainian and Rusyn, it represents the consonant cluster {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. In Bulgarian, it represents the consonant cluster {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, like the pronunciation of “scht” in Borscht. Most other non-Slavic languages written in Cyrillic use this letter to spell the few loanwords that use it or foreign names; it is usually pronounced {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, an approximation of the Russian pronunciation of the letter, and is often omitted when teaching those languages.
In English, Russian Shcha is romanized as Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr or occasionally as Template:Angbr, all reflecting the historical Russian pronunciation of the letter (as a combined Ш and Ч).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> English-speaking learners of Russian are often instructed to pronounce it in this way although it is no longer the standard pronunciation in Russian (it still is in Ukrainian and Rusyn, as above). The letter Щ in Russian and Ukrainian corresponds to ШЧ in related words in Belarusian.
History
Cyrillic Щ (Early Cyrillic form: File:Early Cyrillic letter Shta.svg) is derived from the Glagolitic letter shta Template:Script,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> which was a ligature of sha Template:Script (= Cyrillic Ш, pronounced Template:IPAblink), and tverdo Template:Script (= Cyrillic Т, pronounced Template:IPAblink).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The original pronunciation, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, is maintained in Bulgarian.
This letter was also used in the Komi language as {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, but it has fallen out of use in favour of digraph Template:Angle bracket.
Form
The form of the letter shcha is considered to have originated as a ligature of the letters Ш and Т.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However in later orthographies it began to be depicted as the letter Cyrillic Sha (Ш ш) with a descender. The descender (also used in Ц) has been reinterpreted as a diacritic and used in several letters for non-Slavic languages, such as Ң and Қ.
Related letters and other similar characters
- Ш ш : Cyrillic letter Sha
- С́ с́ : Montenegrin Sje
- Ŝ ŝ : Latin letter Ŝ
- Ś ś : Latin letter Ś
Computing codes
See also
- Mama ŠČ!
- Transliteration table for romanization of Russian, provides versions Template:Angbr (note circumflex vs. caron/háček in Template:Angbr), Template:Angbr