Editing Shcha

{{short description|Cyrillic letter}}
{{For|the latin-script tetragraph|Shch}}
{{distinguish|Schwa{{!}}schwa (ə)}}
{{Infobox grapheme
| script = [[Cyrillic]]
| type = [[Alphabet]]
| typedesc = ic
| name = Shcha
| image = Cyrillic letter Shcha - uppercase and lowercase.svg
| imagealt = 
| phonemes = [{{IPA link|ɕ}}], [{{IPA link|ʃ}}{{IPA link|tʃ}}], [{{IPA link|ʃ}}{{IPA link|t}}]
| number = 
| fam1 = Ⱋ ⱋ
| equivalents = Shch shch, Šč šč, Ŝ ŝ
| letter = Щ щ
| language = [[Old Church Slavonic]]
| unicode = U+0429, U+0449
}}
[[File:Азбука_красноармейца._Щ.jpg|thumb|''Shcha'', from the ''Alphabet Book оf the Red Army Soldier'' (1921). The illustration depicts {{lang|ru|щук}} (''shchuk''), "[[pike (fish)|pike]]".]]
'''Shcha''' (Щ&nbsp;щ; italics: <span style="font-family: times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: larger">''Щ&nbsp;щ''</span>), '''Shta''', or '''Scha''' is a letter of the [[Cyrillic script]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cyrillic script |url=https://omniglot.com/writing/cyrillic.htm |access-date=2022-06-21 |website=omniglot.com}}</ref> In [[Russian language|Russian]], it represents the [[Length (phonetics)|long]] [[voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative]] {{IPA|/ɕː/}}, similar to the pronunciation of '''one''' of the {{angbr|sh}}s in ''Wel'''sh'''''-'''''sh'''eep''. In [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]] and [[Rusyn language|Rusyn]], it represents the consonant cluster {{IPA|/ʃt͡ʃ/}}, something like ''ca'''sh-ch'''est''. In [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]], it represents the consonant cluster {{IPA|/ʃt/}}, 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 {{IPA|/ʃ/}}, an approximation of the Russian pronunciation of the letter, and is often omitted when teaching those languages.

In English, Russian Shcha is [[Romanization of Russian|romanized]] as {{angbr|shch}}, {{angbr|ŝ}}, {{angbr|šč}} or occasionally as {{angbr|sch|}}, all reflecting the historical Russian pronunciation of the letter (as a combined ''Ш'' and ''Ч'').<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Maier |first=Ingrid |date=2021 |title=Russian Pronunciation Rules in the Alphabetum Russarum (Stockholm, Peter van Selow) |url=http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-462754 |journal=Slovo: Journal of Slavic Languages, Literatures and Cultures |volume=62 |pages=39–60}}</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==
The Cyrillic letter Shcha was derived from the [[Glagolitic alphabet|Glagolitic]] letter Shta {{script|Glag|Ⱋ}} ([[Image:Glagolitic shta.svg|20px|]]).<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Zhang |first1=Xiangning |last2=Zhang |first2=Ruolin |title=Proceedings of the 2018 4th International Conference on Economics, Social Science, Arts, Education and Management Engineering (ESSAEME 2018) |chapter=Evolution of Ancient Alphabet to Modern Greek, Latin and Cyrillic Alphabets and Transcription between Them |date=July 2018 |chapter-url=https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/essaeme-18/25900400 |language=en |publisher=Atlantis Press |pages=156–162 |doi=10.2991/essaeme-18.2018.30 |isbn=978-94-6252-549-8|doi-access=free }}</ref>

The name in the [[Early Cyrillic alphabet]] was {{Script|Cyrs|шта}} (''šta'') and is preserved in modern [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]]; it is pronounced {{lang|bg|штъ}}.

This letter was also used in [[Komi language|Komi]] {{IPA|/t͡ʃ/}} (⟨Ч⟩ was & still is used for /t͡ɕ/), which is now represented by the [[Digraph (orthography)|digraph]] {{angle bracket|тш}}.

==Form==
The form of the letter shcha is considered to have originated as a [[Ligature (writing)|ligature]] of the letters Ш and Т.<ref>{{Cite book |first1=Alexandre |last1=Chodzko |first2=Aleksander Borejko |last2=Chodźko |url=https://archive.org/details/grammairepalosl00chodgoog |title=Grammaire paléoslave, suivie de textes paléoslaves |date=1869 |publisher=[s. n.] |via=Oxford University collection|language=French}}</ref> However in later orthographies it began to be depicted as the letter [[Sha (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic Sha (Ш ш)]] with a [[descender]]. The descender (also used in [[Tse (Cyrillic)|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 : [[Ш|Cyrillic letter Sha]]
*С́ с́ : Montenegrin [[Sje]]
*Ŝ ŝ : Latin letter [[Ŝ]]
*Ś ś : Latin letter [[Ś]]

{{anchor|Encodings}}

==Computing codes==

{{charmap
|0429|name1=Cyrillic Capital Letter Shcha
|0449|name2=Cyrillic Small Letter Shcha
|map1=[[KOI8-R]] and [[KOI8-U]] |map1char1=FD |map1char2=DD
|map2=Code page 855 |map2char1=FA |map2char2=F9
|map3=[[Code page 866]] |map3char1=99 |map3char2=E9
|map4=[[Windows-1251]] |map4char1=D9 |map4char2=F9
|map5=[[ISO-8859-5]] |map5char1=C9 |map5char2=E9
|map6=[[Macintosh Cyrillic encoding|Macintosh Cyrillic]] |map6char1=99 |map6char2=F9
}}

==See also==
* [[Mama ŠČ!]]
* [[romanization of Russian#Transliteration table|Transliteration table for romanization of Russian]], provides versions {{angbr|ŝ|}} (note [[circumflex]] vs. caron/háček in {{angbr|šč|}}), {{angbr|shh|}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Wiktionary-inline|Щ}}
*{{Wiktionary-inline|щ}}

{{Cyrillic navbox}}

[[Category:Cyrillic letters]]