Sha (Cyrillic)

Not to be confused withЩ,ש,Ɯ,orա.

Sha,SheorShu,alternatively transliteratedŠa(Ш ш; italics:Ш ш) is a letter of theGlagoliticandCyrillicscripts. It commonly represents thevoiceless postalveolar fricative/ʃ/,like the pronunciation of sh in "ship ". More precisely, the sound in Russian denoted by ш is commonly transcribed as a palatoalveolar fricative but is actually avoiceless retroflex fricative/ʂ/.It is used in every variation of the Cyrillic Alpha bet forSlavicand non-Slavic languages.

Cyrillic letter Sha
Phonetic usage:	[ʂ], [ʃ], [ɕ]
TheCyrillic script
Slavicletters
А А́ А̀ А̂ А̄ Ӓ Б В Г Ґ Д Ђ Ѓ Е Е́ Ѐ Е̂ Е̄ Ё Є Ж З З́ Ѕ И І Ї Ꙇ И́ Ѝ И̂ Ӣ Й Ӥ Ј К Л Љ 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 Ꙏ Ъ Ъ̀ Ы Ы́ Ь Ѣ Э Э́ Ю Ю́ Ю̀ Я Я́ Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
Ӑ А̊ А̃ Ӓ̄ Ӕ Ә Ә́ Ә̃ Ӛ В̌ Ԝ Г̑ Г̇ Г̣ Г̌ Г̂ Г̆ Г̈ г̊ Ҕ Ғ Ӻ Ғ̌ ғ̊ Ӷ Г̡ Д́ Д̌ Д̈ Д̣ Д̆ Ӗ Е̃ Ё̄ Є̈ Ԑ Ԑ̈ Җ Ӝ Ӂ Ж̣ Ҙ Ӟ З̌ З̣ З̆ Ӡ И̃ Ҋ Қ Ӄ Ҡ Ҟ Ҝ К̣ к̊ қ̊ Ԛ ᴫ Л́ Ӆ Ԯ Ԓ Л̈ Ӎ ᵸ Н́ Ӊ Ң Ԩ Ӈ Ҥ О̆ О̃ Ӧ̄ Ө Ө̄ Ө́ Ө̆ Ӫ Ԥ П̈ Р̌ Ҏ С̌ Ҫ С̣ С̱ Т́ Т̈ Т̌ Т̇ Т̣ Ҭ Ᲊ У̃ Ӳ У̊ Ӱ̄ Ұ Ү Ү́ Х̣ Х̱ Х̮ Х̑ Х̌ Ҳ Ӽ х̊ Ӿ ӿ̊ Һ Һ̈ Ԧ Ц̌ Ц̈ Ҵ Ҷ Ҷ̣ Ӵ Ӌ Ҹ Ч̇ Ч̣ Ҽ Ҿ Ш̣ ꚜ Ы̆ Ы̄ Ӹ ꚝ Ҍ Ҩ Э̆ Э̄ Э̇ Ӭ Ӭ́ Ӭ̄ Ю̆ Ю̈ Ю̄ Я̆ Я̄ Я̈ Ӏ ʼ ˮ
Archaicor unused letters
А̨ Б̀ Б̣ Б̱ В̀ Г̀ Г̧ Г̄ Г̓ Ҕ̀ Ҕ̆ Ԁ Д̓ Д̀ Д̨ Ԃ Ꚁ Ꙣ Е̇ Е̨ Ж̀ Ж̑ Ꙃ Ꙅ Џ̆ Ꚅ Ꚅ̆ Ꙁ З̀ З̑ Ԅ Ԇ Ꚉ Ԫ Ꚃ Ꚕ І̂ І̣ І̨ Ј̵ Ј̃ Ꙉ К̓ К̀ К̆ Ӄ̆ К̑ К̇ К̈ К̄ Ԟ К̂ Л̀ Ԡ Ꙥ Ԉ Л̑ Л̇ Ԕ М̀ М̃ Ꙧ Н̀ Н̄ Н̧ Н̃ Ԋ Ԣ Н̡ Ѻ Ꙩ Ꙫ Ꙭ ꙮ Ꚙ Ꚛ П̓ П̀ П́ Ҧ П̧ П̑ Ҁ Ԛ̆ Р́ Р̀ Р̃ Ԗ С̀ С̈ Ԍ Ҫ̓ Т̓ Т̀ Ԏ Т̑ Ꚋ Т̧ Ꚍ Ꚍ̆ Ѹ Ꙋ У̇ У̨ ꙋ́ Ф̑ Ф̓ Х́ Х̀ Х̆ Х̇ Х̧ Х̾ Х̓ һ̱ Ѡ Ꙍ Ѽ Ѿ Ꙡ Ц̀ Ц́ Ц̓ Ꚏ Ꚏ̆ Ꚑ Ч́ Ч̀ Ч̆ Ч̑ Ч̓ Ԭ Ꚓ Ꚇ Ꚇ̆ Ҽ̆ Ш̀ Ш̆ Ш̑ Щ̆ Ꚗ Ꚗ̆ Ъ̄ Ъ̈ Ъ̈̄ Ꙑ Ы̂ Ы̃ Ѣ́ Ѣ̈ Ѣ̆ Ꙓ Э̨ Э̂ Ꙕ Ю̂ Ꙗ Я̈ Я̂ Я̨ Ԙ Ѥ Ѧ Ꙙ Ѫ Ꙛ Ѩ Ꙝ Ѭ Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ Ѷ Ꙟ
List of Cyrillic letters List of Cyrillic multigraphs

Sha,fromAlexandre Benois' 1904Alpha bet book.It showsShuty( "jesters") andsharʺ( "sphere").

In English, Sha isromanizedas sh or as š, the latter being the equivalent letter in the Latin Alpha bets ofCzech,Slovak,Slovene,Serbo-Croatian,Macedonian,LatvianandLithuanian.

History

Sha has its earliest origins inPhoenicianShinand is possibly linked closely to Shin'sGreekequivalent:Sigma(Σ, σ, ς). (The similar form of the modernHebrewShin(ש), which is probably where the Cyrillic letter was actually derived from, derives from the sameProto-Canaanitesource). Sha already possessed its current form inSaints Cyril and Methodius'sGlagolitic Alpha bet.Most Cyrillic letter-forms were derived from the Greek, but as there was no Greek sign for the Sha sound (modern Greek uses simply "Σ/σ/ς" to spell the sh-sound in foreign words and names), Glagolitic Sha (Ⱎ) was adopted unchanged. There is also a possibility that Sha was taken from theCoptic Alpha bet,which is the same as the Greek Alpha bet but with a few letters added at the end, including one called "shai" (Ϣϣ) which somewhat resembles both sha andshcha(Щ, щ) in appearance. There is also a possibility that Sha was taken from the Arabic letter ش.

Usage

Sha is used in the Alpha bets of allSlavic languagesusing a Cyrillic Alpha bet, and of most non-Slavic languages which use a Cyrillic Alpha bet. The position in the Alpha bet and the sound represented by the letter vary from language to language.

Language	Position in Alpha bet	Represented sound	Romanization
Belarusian	27th	voiceless retroflex fricative/ʂ/	sh
Bulgarian	25th	voiceless postalveolar fricative/ʃ/	sh
Macedonian	31st	voiceless postalveolar fricative/ʃ/	š or sh
Russian	26th	voiceless retroflex fricative/ʂ/	sh
Serbian	30th	voiceless retroflex fricative/ʂ/	š
Ukrainian	29th	voiceless postalveolar fricative/ʃ/	sh
Uzbek(1940–1994)	20th	voiceless postalveolar fricative/ʃ/	sh
Mongolian	28th	voiceless postalveolar affricate/ʃ/	š
Kazakh	34th	voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative/ɕ/	ş
Kyrgyz	29th	voiceless postalveolar fricative/ʃ/	ş
Dungan	32nd	voiceless retroflex fricative/ʂ/	sh
other non-Slavic languages		voiceless postalveolar fricative/ʃ/

Use in mathematics

The Cyrillic letter Ш is internationally used in mathematics for several concepts:

Inalgebraic geometry,theTate–Shafarevich groupof anAbelian varietyAover afieldKis denoted Ш(A/K), a notation first suggested byJ. W. S. Cassels.(Previously it had been denotedTS.) Presumably the choice comes from the first letter ofШафаре́вич= Shafarevich.

In a different mathematical context, some authors allude to the shape of the letter Sha when they use the termShah functionfor what is otherwise called aDirac comb.

Theshuffle productis often denoted by ш.

Related letters

• ش:Arabic letter ش
• श:Devanagari letter श
• ष:Devanagari letter ष
• श़:Devanagari letter श़
• Ⱎ:Glagolitic letter Sha/ša
• Ⱋ:Glagolitic letter Shta/šta or Shcha/šča
• Щ щ:Cyrillic letter Shcha
• ⧢:Shuffle product
• Ʃ ʃ:Latin letter Esh
• Š š:Latin letter S with caron
• Ŝ ŝ:Latin letter S with circumflex
• Ş ş:Latin letter S with cedilla
• Ș ș:Latin letter S with comma below

Computing codes

Character information

Preview	Ш		ш
Unicode name	CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER SHA		CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER SHA
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	1064	U+0428	1096	U+0448
UTF-8	208 168	D0 A8	209 136	D1 88
Numeric character reference	Ш	Ш	ш	ш
Named character reference	Ш		ш
KOI8-RandKOI8-U	251	FB	219	DB
Code page 855	246	F6	245	F5
Code page 866	152	98	232	E8
Windows-1251	216	D8	248	F8
ISO-8859-5	200	C8	232	E8
Macintosh Cyrillic	152	98	248	F8

External links

• The dictionary definition ofШat Wiktionary
• The dictionary definition ofшat Wiktionary