Shcha

" (acc. pl.). Shcha (Щ щ; italics: Щ щ or Щ щ ; italics: Щ щ ), Shta, or Scha is a letter of the Cyrillic script. In Bulgarian, it represents the consonant cluster and is named Shta. While in Russian the letter represents the long voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative , similar to the pronunciation of in "sheep", in Ukrainian and Rusyn, represents the consonant cluster (a hard followed by , as in "borscht"). This pronunciation preserves the historical character of as a combination of sounds, consistent with its Old Church Slavonic origins, unlike the modern Russian pronunciation. The official Ukrainian transliteration system renders the letter as , reflecting this two-component structure. This is also reflected in Belarusian, where the letter was abolished in favour of the phonetic spelling to represent the similar sound cluster . Most other non-Slavic languages written in Cyrillic use this letter for loanwords or foreign names; in these contexts, it is often pronounced , an approximation of the Russian pronunciation. In English, is romanized as , , or occasionally as . English-speaking learners are often instructed to pronounce it as a cluster, although this no longer reflects the standard modern Russian phonetic realization.

" (acc. pl.).]] Shcha (Щ щ; italics: Щ щ or Щ щ ; italics: Щ щ ), Shta, or Scha is a letter of the Cyrillic script. In Bulgarian, it represents the consonant cluster and is named Shta. While in Russian the letter represents the long voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative , similar to the pronunciation of in "sheep", in Ukrainian and Rusyn, represents the consonant cluster (a hard followed by , as in "borscht"). This pronunciation preserves the historical character of as a combination of sounds, consistent with its Old Church Slavonic origins, unlike the modern Russian pronunciation. The official Ukrainian transliteration system renders the letter as , reflecting this two-component structure. This is also reflected in Belarusian, where the letter was abolished in favour of the phonetic spelling to represent the similar sound cluster . Most other non-Slavic languages written in Cyrillic use this letter for loanwords or foreign names; in these contexts, it is often pronounced , an approximation of the Russian pronunciation. In English, is romanized as , , or occasionally as . English-speaking learners are often instructed to pronounce it as a cluster, although this no longer reflects the standard modern Russian phonetic realization. ==History== Cyrillic Щ (Early Cyrillic form: ) is derived from the Glagolitic letter shta , which was a ligature of sha (= Cyrillic Ш, pronounced ), and tverdo (= Cyrillic Т, pronounced ). The original pronunciation, , is maintained in Bulgarian. This letter was also used in the Komi language as , but it has fallen out of use in favour of digraph . ==Form== The form of the letter shcha is considered to have originated as a ligature of the letters Ш and Т. 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 (note circumflex vs. caron/háček in ), ==External links==

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