__NOTOC__ Tshe (or Tje) (Ћ ћ; italics: ''Ћ ћ'') is a letter of the

Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, ...

, used only in the

Serbian Cyrillic alphabet The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet ( sr, / , ) is a variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language, updated in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two alphabets used to write ...

, where it represents the

voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate The voiceless alveolo-palatal sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbols in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represent this sound are , , and , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbols are t_s ...

, somewhat like the pronunciation of in "chew"; however, it must not be confused with the

voiceless retroflex affricate The voiceless retroflex sibilant affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , sometimes simplified to or , and the equivalent X-SAMPA ...

Che (Ч ч), which represents and which also exists in Serbian Cyrillic script. The sound of Tshe is produced from the

voiceless alveolar plosive The voiceless alveolar, dental and postalveolar plosives (or stops) are types of consonantal sounds used in almost all spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental, alveolar, and postal ...

iotation In Slavic languages, iotation (, ) is a form of palatalization that occurs when a consonant comes into contact with a palatal approximant from the succeeding phoneme. The is represented by iota (ι) in the Cyrillic alphabet and the Greek alpha ...

. Tshe is the 23rd letter in the Serbian alphabet. It was first used by

Dositej Obradović Dositej Obradović ( sr-Cyrl, Доситеј Обрадовић; 17 February 1739 – 7 April 1811) was a Serbian writer, biographer, diarist, philosopher, pedagogue, educational reformer, linguist, polyglot and the first minister of education ...

as a revival of the old Cyrillic letter

Djerv Djerv (Majuscule: Ꙉ, Minuscule: ꙉ ) is one of the Cyrillic alphabet letters that was used in Old Cyrillic. It was used in many early Serbo-Croatian monuments to represent the sounds and (modern đ/ђ and ć/ћ).Maretić, Tomislav. ''Gramati ...

(Ꙉ), and was later adopted in the 1818 Serbian dictionary of Vuk Stefanović Karadžić. The equivalent character to Tshe in

Gaj's Latin alphabet Gaj's Latin alphabet ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Gajeva latinica, separator=" / ", Гајева латиница}, ), also known as ( sh-Cyrl, абецеда, ) or ( sh-Cyrl, гајица, link=no, ), is the form of the Latin script used for writing Serb ...

is Ć. Despite being a Cyrillic letter, Tshe was also used in Latin-based

Slovincian Slovincian may refer to: * Slovincian language * Slovincians Slovincians, also known as Łeba Kashubians, is a near-extinct ethnic subgroup of the Kashubian people, who originated from the north western Kashubia, located in the Pomeranian Voivodes ...

phonetic transcriptions with the same value as in Serbian. Being part of the most common Serbian last names, the

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

of Tshe to the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the o ...

is very important; however, there are many ways to transliterate it. It is typically transliterated as , as per the Serbo-Croatian Latin alphabet or, without the

diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...

, as ; less frequent transliterations are , , , , , (also used for Che), and , (the last one in Hungarian only, but and are more common). It looks similar to the Shha (Һ һ) but stroked. As it is one of the letters unique to the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, and also the first letter of the Serbian word for Cyrillic (), Tshe is often used as the basis for

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

s for various groups involved with the Cyrillic alphabet.

Related letters and other similar characters

*Т т : Cyrillic letter Te *Ч ч : Cyrillic letter Che *Ђ ђ : Cyrillic letter Dje *Һ һ : Cyrillic letter Shha *Ќ, ќ : Cyrillic letter Kje *Ć ć : Latin letter C with acute *Ħ ħ : Latin letter H with stroke

Computing codes

References

External links

* *{{Wiktionary-inline, ћ South Slavic languages Serbian letters