Shcha

"Shch" redirects here. For the latin-script tetragraph, see Shch (tetragraph).

Not to be confused with schwa (ə).

Shcha (Щ щ; italics: Щ щ), Shta or Sha with descender is a letter of the Cyrillic script.^[1] In Russian, it represents the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative /ɕː/, similar to the pronunciation of ⟨sh⟩ in sheep (but longer). In Ukrainian and Rusyn, it represents the consonant cluster /ʃt͡ʃ/. In Bulgarian, it represents the consonant cluster /ʃt/. 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 /ʃ/ and is often omitted when teaching those languages.

Cyrillic letter Shcha
Phonetic usage:	[ɕ], [ʃtʃ], [ʃt]
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
А А́ А̀ А̂ А̄ Ӓ Б В Г Ґ Д Ђ Ѓ Е Е́ Ѐ Е̂ Е̄ Ё Є Є́ Ж Ӂ З З́ Ѕ И І І́ Ї И́ Ѝ И̂ Ӣ Й Ј К Л М Н Њ О О́ О̀ О̂ Ō Ӧ П Р С С́ Т Ћ Ќ У У́ У̀ У̂ Ӯ Ў Ӱ Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш Щ Ъ Ъ̀ Ы Ы́ Ь Ѣ Э Э́ Ю Ю́ Ю̀ Я Я́ Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
Ӑ А̊ А̃ Ӓ̄ А̨ Ә Ә́ Ә̀ Ә̃ Ӛ Ә̄ В̌ Ғ Г̑ Г̣ Г̌ Г̂ Г̆ Г̈ Ҕ Ӻ Ғ̌ Ӷ Д́ Д̀ Д̌ Д̈ Д̣ Д̆ Ӗ Е̃ Ё̄ Є̈ Җ Ӝ Ж̣ Ҙ Ӟ З̌ З̣ З̆ Ԑ Ԑ́ Ԑ̈ Ӡ И̃ Ҋ Ӥ І̄́ І̨ Ј̵ Қ К̈ Ӄ Ҡ Ҟ Ҝ К̣ Ԛ Л́ Л̀ Ӆ Ԯ Ԓ Л̈ Ӎ Н́ Н̀ Н̃ Н̄ Ӊ Ң Ԩ Ӈ Ҥ О̆ О̃ Ӧ̄ Ө Ө̄ Ө́ Ө̆ Ӫ Ҩ Ԥ П̈ Р́ Р̌ Ҏ С̀ С̌ Ҫ С̣ Т́ Т̈ Т̌ Т̣ Ҭ Т‍Ь У̃ Ӳ У̊ Ӱ̄ Ү Ү́ Ү̈ Ұ Х̣ Х̱ Х̮ Х̑ Х̌ Ҳ Ӽ Ӿ Һ Һ̈ Һ̌ Ԧ Ц́ Ц̌ Ц̈ Ҵ Ч̀ Ҷ Ҷ̣ Ӵ Ӌ Ҹ Ч̇ Ч̣ Ҽ Ҿ Ш̆ Ш̈ Ш̣ Ы̆ Ы̄ Ӹ Ҍ Э̆ Э̄ Э̇ Ӭ Ӭ́ Ӭ̄ Ю̆ Ю̈ Ю̈́ Ю̄ Я̆ Я̄ Я̈ Я̈́ Ԝ Ӏ
Archaic letters
Ꙁ Ꙃ Ꙅ Ꙇ Ꙉ Ҁ Ҁ° Ѻ Ѹ Ꙋ Ѡ Ꙍ Ѿ Ꙏ Ꙑ Ѣ́ Ѣ̈ Ѣ̆ Ꙓ Ꙕ Ꙗ Ѥ Ѧ Ꙙ Ѫ Ꙛ Ѩ Ꙝ Ѭ Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ Ѷ Ԙ Ꙟ Ꙡ Ꙣ Ꙥ Ꙧ Ꙩ Ꙫ Ꙭ ꙮ Ꚙ Ꚛ Ԁ Ԕ Ԗ Ԡ Ԣ Ҧ Ꚋ Ꚁ Ꚅ Ꚍ Ꚕ Ꚏ Ꚗ Ꚃ Ԃ Ԅ Ԉ Ԋ Ԍ Ԏ Ԇ Ꚑ Ꚉ Ꚇ Ꚓ Ԟ Ԫ Ԭ Б̣ Г̧ Г̄ К̂ К̅ З̀ Т̀ §
List of Cyrillic letters Cyrillic digraphs
v t e

In English, Shcha is romanized as ⟨shch⟩ or ⟨šč⟩ (with háčeks) or occasionally as ⟨sch⟩, all reflecting the historical Russian pronunciation of the letter (as a combined Ш and Ч).^[2] 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

The Cyrillic letter Shcha was derived from the Glagolitic letter Shta Ⱋ ( ).^[3]

The name in the Early Cyrillic alphabet was шта (šta) and is preserved in modern Bulgarian; it is pronounced "штъ".

This letter was also used in Komi /t͡ʃ/ (harder than ч), which is now represented by the digraph тш.

Form

The form of the letter Shcha is the letter Cyrillic Sha (Ш ш) with a descender (cf. the Cyrillic letters De (Д д), Tse (Ц ц), Ka with descender (Қ қ), and En with descender (Ң ң).

Related letters and other similar characters

• Ш ш : Cyrillic letter Sha
• С́ с́ : Montenegrin Cyrillic letter Sje
• Ŝ ŝ : Latin letter Ŝ
• Ś ś : Latin letter Ś

Computing codes

Character information

Preview	Щ		щ
Unicode name	CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER SHCHA		CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER SHCHA
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	1065	U+0429	1097	U+0449
UTF-8	208 169	D0 A9	209 137	D1 89
Numeric character reference	Щ	Щ	щ	щ
Named character reference	Щ		щ
KOI8-R and KOI8-U	253	FD	221	DD
Code page 855	250	FA	249	F9
Code page 866	153	99	233	E9
Windows-1251	217	D9	249	F9
ISO-8859-5	201	C9	233	E9
Macintosh Cyrillic	153	99	249	F9

See also

• Transliteration table for romanization of Russian, provides versions ⟨ŝ⟩ (note circumflex vs. caron/háček in ⟨šč⟩), ⟨shh⟩

References

1. "Cyrillic script". omniglot.com. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
2. Maier, Ingrid (2021). "Russian Pronunciation Rules in the Alphabetum Russarum (Stockholm, Peter van Selow)". Slovo: Journal of Slavic Languages, Literatures and Cultures. 62: 39–60.
3. Zhang, Xiangning; Zhang, Ruolin (July 2018). "Evolution of Ancient Alphabet to Modern Greek, Latin and Cyrillic Alphabets and Transcription between Them". Proceedings of the 2018 4th International Conference on Economics, Social Science, Arts, Education and Management Engineering. Atlantis Press: 156–162. doi:10.2991/essaeme-18.2018.30. ISBN 978-94-6252-549-8.

External links

•   The dictionary definition of Щ at Wiktionary
•   The dictionary definition of щ at Wiktionary