Voiceless postalveolar fricative
This is also known as a voiceless palatal fricative /ʃ/, but not a true palatal, such as ç. In many languages, this is written as a digraph, but it's not always the case. The symbol is derived from the older form of writing s, which was used in the German Fraktur alphabet.
Natlangs
Germanic Languages
Anglo-Saxon
In Anglo-Saxon, the digraph sc when around a front vowel becomes /ʃ/.
Modern English
Modern English has several digraphs which can be used to form the sound /ʃ/. The most basic form is the spelling sh. However, there are others spellings. The digraph ch is used as /ʃ/ in words from French (such as chef and champagne). In the noun ending -tion, most of the time the initial sound is turned into a /ʃ/ (combination, redemption, and creation). Related to that is the digraph -ti- in several words (such as initial). The last one is often the spelling ss or simple s (such as tissue, fissure, or sure). In some German loanwords, the combination sch is used (schadenfreude, schnapps schnauzer).
High German and Low German
In High and Low German, the trigraph sch is used to form the sound /ʃ/.
Dutch
The digraph sj is used for /ʃ/. It should be noted that the trigraph sch is pronounced /sx/ rather than /ʃ/.
Norwegian
In Norwegian, this sound is produced by the combination sk before j, i, or y or sj. Some dialects vary on this.
Swedish
In Swedish, the digraph ch is used for /ʃ/, especially when it's after a front vowel (i, y, e, ä, or ö).
Romance Languages
French
The digraph ch is pronounced /ʃ/ in French.
Italian
Italian has a digraph which differs by the frontness of the vowel. The digraph sc when preceding an i or e becomes /ʃ/. Words like coscienza (conscience) /cɔʃjɛnʦa/, or riusciva (it succeeded) /rjuʃiva/.
Romanian
The letter Ş,ş is used for /ʃ/ in Romanian. The nickname of the legendary ruler, Vlad Ţepeş (Vlad the Impaler), was pronounced /vlad ʦepeʃ/.
Slavic Languages
Russian
In the Cyrillic alphabet, /ʃ/ is represented by Ш ш, although in some dialects other sounds such as /ɕ/ or sometimes /ç/ are pronounced for this symbol.
Also, Щ, щ is pronounced /ʃʧ/, which can be split up when inside in bi-syllabic conditions.
Polish
In Polish, the sound /ʃ/ is represented by sz. Not to be mixed up with the combination si or the symbol ś which are both pronounced /ɕ/. The combination szcz is equivalent to Russian щ and is pronounced /ʃʧ/.
Semitic
Arabic
The Arabic form of this sound is ش.
Hebrew
The Hebrew symbol for /ʃ/ is שׁ or just ש.
Turkish
The symbols used for this sound are similar to Romanian, Ş, ş.
Sound changes
To
/ʃ/ usually comes from something involving /s/:
- In English, /sk/ and /sj/ became /ʃ/, with exeptions.
- In Balto-Slavic, Albanian, Armenian, and Indo-Iranian, s → ʃ /[r, u, k, i]_ (Ruki sound law)
- In Lithuanian, /ʃ/ came from /kʲ/.
Sources
This page is by Timothy Patrick Snyder.
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