Sha 596906 224842022 2008-07-10T17:38:44Z Unmerklich 5898924 ka {{unreferenced|date=February 2007}}{{otheruses}} {{wiktionarypar2|Ш|ш}} {{Cyrillic alphabet navbox| Heading=Cyrillic letter Sha| Image=[[Image:Cyrillic letter Sha.png]]| uuc=0428|ulc=0448}} '''Sha''' (Ш, ш) is a letter of the [[Cyrillic alphabet]], representing the consonant sound {{IPA|/ʃ/}} or {{IPA|/ʂ/}}. It is roughly equivalent to ''sh'' in English, ''ch'' in French, ''sch'' in German, ''ש'' in Hebrew, ''ş'' in Turkish, or ''sz'' in Polish. In most Latin-alphabet Slavic languages (Czech, Slovak, Serbian, Slovene, Croatian) this sound is written ''š'', and linguists have adopted this symbol to [[transliteration|transliterate]] ш into the Latin alphabet. The printed Sha looks something like a [[W]] or, more exactly, like an [[E]] rotated to the left 90 degrees. It is used in virtually every national variation of the [[Cyrillic alphabet]], for Slavic and non-Slavic languages. In mathematics, the [[Tate-Shafarevich group]] is denoted Ш, a notation first suggested by [[J. W. S. Cassels]]. (Previously it had been unimaginatively denoted <i>TS</i>.) 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 sound {{IPA|/ʃ/}} is described as a [[voiceless postalveolar fricative]]. The postalveolar fricatives are the major reason why the [[Glagolitic]] and later the Cyrillic alphabet were invented, because they cannot be written with a simple Roman or Greek letter without diacritics or digraphs. Slavic languages are rich in postalveolar fricatives and [[affricate]]s, and Sha is one of the most typical letters of the Cyrillic alphabet. Sha has its earliest origins in [[Proto-Canaanite]] [[Shin (letter)|Shin]] and is linked closely to Shin's [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] equivalent: [[Sigma (letter)|Sigma]] (Σ, σ). (Note the similar form of the modern [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]] Shin (ש) which also derives from the same Proto-Canaanite source). Sha already possessed its current form in Saints [[Saint Cyril |Cyril]] and [[Saint Methodius | 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" to spell the sh-sound in foreign words and names), Glagolitic Sha was adopted unchanged. There is a possibility that Sha was taken from the [[Coptic alphabet]], which was the same as the Greek alphabet but had a few letters added at the end, including one called "shai" which somewhat resembles both sha and [[shcha]] in appearance. ==See also== *[[Š|Š, š]] *[[Esh (letter)|ʃ - Esh (letter)]] *[[Shcha|Щ, щ - Shcha (Cyrillic)]] *[[Voiceless retroflex fricative]] *[[Voiceless postalveolar fricative]] [[br:Ш (lizherenn)]] [[es:Ш (cirílico)]] [[et:Ш]] [[eo:Ŝa (cirila alfabeto)]] [[ko:Ш]] [[ka:Ш]] [[it:Ш (Cirillico)]] [[he:Ш]] [[ht:Ш]] [[nah:Ш]] [[ja:Ш]] [[no:Ш]] [[nn:Ш]] [[pl:Ш]] [[pt:Sha]] [[ru:Ш (кириллица)]] [[sr:Ш (ћириличко)]] [[fi:Ш]] [[sv:Ш]] [[th:Sha]] [[uk:Ш]] [[zh:Ш]]