Shcha (Щ)

Cyrillic script • phonetic specimen
Cyrillic letter Shcha (Щ) specimen

Classification
Cyrillic letter (Щ / щ), commonly transliterated as Shcha, Shta, or Scha.

Phonetics
In Russian, it represents /ɕː/, a long voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative. In Ukrainian and Rusyn, it corresponds to /ʃt͡ʃ/. In Bulgarian, it is realized as /ʃt/.

Usage notes
In most non-Slavic Cyrillic orthographies, it appears primarily in loanwords and names, often approximated as /ʃ/.