Sha (Cyrillic)

Sha or Shu (Ш ш; italics: Ш ш) is a letter of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts. It commonly represents the voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/. More precisely, the sound in Russian denoted by ш is commonly transcribed as a palatoalveolar fricative but is actually a voiceless retroflex fricative /ʂ/. It is used in every variation of the Cyrillic alphabet for Slavic and non-Slavic languages.

Not to be confused with Щ, ש, Ɯ, or ա.
Cyrillic letter Sha
Phonetic usage:[ʂ], [ʃ], [ɕ]
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
АА́А̀А̂А̄ӒБВ
ГҐДЂЃЕЕ́Ѐ
Е̄Е̂ЁЄЄ́ЖЗЗ́
ЅИІІ́ЇЇ́ꙆИ́
ЍИ̂ӢЙЈКЛЉ
МНЊОО́О̀О̂Ō
ӦПРСС́ТЋЌ
УУ́У̀У̂ӮЎӰФ
ХЦЧЏШЩꙎЪ
Ъ̀ЫЫ́ЬѢЭЭ́Ю
Ю́Ю̀ЯЯ́Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
ӐА̊А̃Ӓ̄ӔӘӘ́Ә̃
ӚВ̌ԜГ̑Г̇Г̣Г̌Г̂
Г̆Г̈ҔҒӺҒ̌Ӷ
Д́Д̌Д̈Д̣Д̆ӖЕ̃
Ё̄Є̈ҖӜӁЖ̣ҘӞ
З̌З̣З̆ԐԐ̈ӠИ̃Ӥ
ҊҚӃҠҞҜК̣Ԛ
ᴫЛ́ӅԮԒЛ̈Ӎᵸ
Н́ӉҢԨӇҤО̆О̃
Ӧ̄ӨӨ̄Ө́Ө̆ӪԤҦ
П̈Р̌ҎС̌ҪС̣С̱Т́
Т̈Т̌Т̇Т̣ҬУ̃Ӳ
У̊Ӱ̄ҰҮҮ́Х̣Х̱Х̮
Х̑Х̌ҲӼӾҺҺ̈Ԧ
Ц̌Ц̈ҴҶҶ̣ӴӋ
ҸЧ̇Ч̣ҼҾШ̈Ш̣ꚜ
Ы̆Ы̄ӸꚝҌҨЭ̆Э̄
Э̇ӬӬ́Ӭ̄Ю̆Ю̈Ю̈́Ю̄
Я̆Я̄Я̈Я̈́Ӏ
Archaic or unused letters
А̨Б̀Б̣Б̱В̀Г̀Г̧
Г̄Г̓Г̆Ҕ̀Ҕ̆ԀД̓
Д̀Д̨ԂꚀꙢЕ̇Е̨
Ж̀Ж̑ꙂꙄЏ̆
ꚄꚄ̆ꙀЗ̀З̑ԄԆꚈ
ԪꚂꚔІ̂І̣І̨
Ј̵Ј̃ꙈК̓К̀К̆Ӄ̆
К̑К̇К̈К̄ԞК̂
Л̀ԠꙤԈЛ̑Л̇Ԕ
М̀М̃ꙦН̀Н̄Н̧Н̃
ԊԢН̡ѺꙨꙪꙬꙮ
ꚘꚚП̓П̀П́П̧
П̑ҀԚ̆Р́Р̀Р̃Ԗ
С̀С̈ԌҪ̓Т̓Т̀Ԏ
Т̑ꚊТ̧ꚌꚌ̆
ѸꙊУ̇У̨ꙋ́Ф̑Ф̓
Х́Х̀Х̆Х̇Х̧Х̓һ̱
ѠꙌѼѾꙠЦ̀Ц́Ц̓
ꚎꚎ̆ꚐЧ́Ч̀
Ч̆Ч̑Ч̓ԬꚒꚆ
Ꚇ̆Ҽ̆Ш̀Ш̆Ш̑Щ̆ꚖꚖ̆
ꙐЫ̂Ы̃Ѣ́Ѣ̈Ѣ̆Ꙓ
Э̨Э̂ꙔЮ̂ꙖЯ̈
Я̂Я̨ԘѤѦꙘѪꙚ
ѨꙜѬѮѰѲѴѶ
Ꙟ
Sha, from Alexandre Benois' 1904 alphabet book. It shows Shuty ("jesters") and sharʺ ("sphere").

In English, Sha is romanized as sh or as š, the latter being the equivalent letter in the Latin alphabets of Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Latvian and Lithuanian.

History

Sha has its earliest origins in Phoenician Shin and is possibly linked closely to Shin's Greek equivalent: Sigma (Σ, σ, ς). (The similar form of the modern Hebrew Shin (ש), which is probably where the Cyrillic letter was actually derived from, derives from the same Proto-Canaanite source). Sha already possessed its current form in Saints Cyril and Methodius's Glagolitic alphabet. 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 the Coptic alphabet, which is the same as the Greek alphabet but with a few letters added at the end, including one called "shai" (Ϣϣ) which somewhat resembles both sha and shcha (Щ, щ) in appearance.

Use in mathematics

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

In algebraic geometry, the Tate–Shafarevich group of an Abelian variety A over a field K is denoted Ш(A/K), a notation first suggested by J. W. S. Cassels. (Previously it had been denoted TS.) Presumably the choice comes from the first letter of Шафаре́вич = Shafarevich.

In a different mathematical context, some authors allude to the shape of the letter Sha when they use the term Shah function for what is otherwise called a Dirac comb.

The shuffle product is often denoted by ш.[1]

Computing codes
Character information
PreviewШш
Unicode name CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER SHA CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER SHA
Encodingsdecimalhexdechex
Unicode1064U+04281096U+0448
UTF-8208 168D0 A8209 136D1 88
Numeric character referenceШШшш
Named character referenceШш
KOI8-R and KOI8-U251FB219DB
Code page 855246F6245F5
Code page 86615298232E8
Windows-1251216D8248F8
ISO-8859-5200C8232E8
Macintosh Cyrillic15298248F8

References
  1. "Unicode Character 'SHUFFLE PRODUCT' (U+29E2)".
  • The dictionary definition of Ш at Wiktionary
  • The dictionary definition of ш at Wiktionary
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