ش

See also: ـش, س, and س-

ش	U+0634, ش ARABIC LETTER SHEEN

← س
[U+0633]

Arabic

ص →
[U+0635]

ﺵ	U+FEB5, ﺵ ARABIC LETTER SHEEN ISOLATED FORM

← ﺴ
[U+FEB4]

Arabic Presentation Forms-B

ﺶ →
[U+FEB6]

ﺶ	U+FEB6, ﺶ ARABIC LETTER SHEEN FINAL FORM

← ﺵ
[U+FEB5]

Arabic Presentation Forms-B

ﺷ →
[U+FEB7]

ﺷ	U+FEB7, ﺷ ARABIC LETTER SHEEN INITIAL FORM

← ﺶ
[U+FEB6]

Arabic Presentation Forms-B

ﺸ →
[U+FEB8]

ﺸ	U+FEB8, ﺸ ARABIC LETTER SHEEN MEDIAL FORM

← ﺷ
[U+FEB7]

Arabic Presentation Forms-B

ﺹ →
[U+FEB9]

Arabic

Etymology

From Proto-Semitic *šinn- (“tooth”), the source of سن (sinn). The association of "tooth" with this letter was the result of folk etymology and based on the corresponding Phoenician letter, 𐤔 (š), having a shape resembling a tooth. The letter originally depicted a composite bow, which usually has the tips curving away from the archer when unstrung.^[1]^[2]

Related to Classical Syriac ܫ, Hebrew ש, Phoenician 𐤔 (š), Russian ш (š), Aramaic ܫ. More at Shin. It is the only letter of the Arabic alphabet with three dots with a letter corresponding to a letter in the Northwest Semitic abjad or the Phoenician alphabet.

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /ʃiːn/
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /ʃ/

Letter

ش / ش‍ / ‍ش‍ / ‍ش • (šīn)

The thirteenth letter of the Arabic alphabet. It is preceded by س (s) and followed by ص (ṣ).

Symbol

ش / ش‍ / ‍ش‍ / ‍ش • (šīn)

The twenty-first letter in traditional abjad order, which is used in place of numerals for list numbering (abjad numerals). It is preceded by ر (r) and followed by ت (t).

References

^ “shin”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
^ Albright, W. F. (1948). "The Early Alphabetic Inscriptions from Sinai and their Decipherment". Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 110 (110): 6–22 [p. 15].

Balti

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʃ/, [ʃ]

Letter

ش (transliteration needed)

The twenty-fifth letter of the Balti alphabet, written in the Perso-Arabic script

Burushaski

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɕ/, [ɕ]

Letter

ش (ś)

The twenty-fourth letter of the Burushaski alphabet, written in the Perso-Arabic script

Chinese

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʂ/, [ʂ], [ɕ]

Letter

ش

The eighteenth letter of the Xiao'erjing abjad.

Usage notes

This letter is also used to represent Pinyin initial x-.

Egyptian Arabic

Etymology 1

Inherited from Arabic ش (š).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʃ/, [ʃ]
IPA^(key): /ʒ/, [ʒ] (voice-assimilated)

Letter

ش • (š)

The thirteenth letter of the Arabic alphabet, named شين (šīn).

Etymology 2

Shortened from Arabic شَيْء (šayʔ, “thing”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʃ/, [ʃ]
IPA^(key): /ʃi/, [ʃi]
IPA^(key): /iʃ/, [eʃ] (after a consonant cluster)

Suffix

ـش • (-š)

Negates a verb. [with ما- (ma-, + verb)]

Iraqi Arabic

Etymology

Clipping of شنو (šinu). Compare Moroccan Arabic ش (š, “what”), Maltese x’ (“what”)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʃ/

Pronoun

ش (š)

(interrogative) what
شاسمك ؟ (to a male) ― šismak? ― What's your name?

Kashmiri

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /ʃiːn/
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /ʃ/

Letter

ش • (ś)

The twenty-fourth letter of the traditional alphabet chart of Kashmiri.

Forms

Isolated form	Final form	Medial form	Initial form
ش	ـش	ـشـ	شـ

Kazakh

Alternative scripts
Arabic	ش
Cyrillic	Ш, ш
Latin	Ş, ş

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /ʃiːn/
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /ʃ/

Letter

ش • (ş)

The twelfth letter of the Kazakh in Arabic Script. It represents the Cyrillic letter Ш.

Forms

Isolated form	Final form	Medial form	Initial form
ش	ـش	ـشـ	شـ

Khowar

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /ʃin/
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /ʃ/

Letter

ش (šīn)

The twenty-fourth letter of the Khowar abjad.

Forms

Isolated form	Final form	Medial form	Initial form
ش	ـش	ـشـ	شـ

Malay

Malay Wikipedia has an article on:

ش

Wikipedia ^ms

Pronunciation

(Name of letter) IPA^(key): [ʃin]
(Phoneme) IPA^(key): [ʃ]

Letter

ش / ش‍ / ‍ش‍ / ‍ش

The fourteenth letter of the Malay alphabet, written in the Arabic script.

North Levantine Arabic

Etymology 1

Clipping of شِي (šī, “thing”) from the construction ما (ma, “not”) +‎ ... +‎ شي (šī, “one bit”), bleached in the process of Jespersen's Cycle.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /-ʃ/, /-iʃ/

Suffix

ـش • (-š)

(regional, rural) Negates verbs

Usage notes

Lengthens final vowels and stresses them as other suffixes do, except around the Lebanese area of Keserwan, where it attaches directly to short final vowels without affecting their length. Compare:
- Unnegated forms: يحكوا (yiḥku, yiḥko, “(that) they talk”), يزيدو لا (yzīdūla, “(that) they add to it”)
- Traditional negation around Keserwan: ما يحكُش (ma yiḥkoš, “so that they don't talk”), ما يزيدولَش (ma yzīdūlaš, “so they don't add to it”)
- Negation typical of other regions: ما يحكوش (ma yiḥkūš, “so that they don't talk”), ما يزيدولاش (ma yzīdūlāš, yzīdūlēš, “so that they don't add to it”).
Most Levantine dialects have dropped the historic ـه (-h) of the third-person masculine pronoun after word-final vowels, as in بياكلوه (byāklū, “they eat it”). The final vowel's residual length and stress are the only remaining cues of the pronoun's presence. However, ـش (-š) tends to resurface the ـه (-h). For example, the negated form of بياكلوه (byāklū, “they eat it”) is typically بياكلوهوش (byāklūhūš, “they don't eat it”), and in South Lebanon بياكلُهش (byākluhš, byēkluhš, “they don't eat it”).
ـش (-š) is typically used in a circumfix construction with ما (ma, negator) or أ (ʔa-, negator). Alternatively, it may also be used by itself with no preceding negator, which is especially characteristic of South Lebanon. This third option is allowed in the past tense, unlike in general South Levantine usage as described below.

Etymology 2

The prefixed form is said to be from substrate Aramaic ש־ (š-, causative prefix), whose use was evidently later extended to Arabic-origin verbs as well. Its eventual ancestor, Proto-Semitic *ša- (causative prefix), also yielded the Arabic أَ (ʔa-) of form IV, which was generally reduced to zero in North Levantine dialects, and the ـسـ (-s-) at the beginning of Form X that still survives in Levantine varieties.

The suffixed form, restricted to the three derived terms listed,^[1] may be from the prefixed form via a kind of metathesis.

Prefix

شـ • (š-)

(no longer productive) Extension for triliteral roots that imparts a causative meaning

Derived terms

شخلع (šaḵlaʕ, “to disrobe”)
شقلب (šaʔlab, “to turn over, flip”)

Suffix

ـش • (-š)

(not productive) Extension for triliteral roots

Derived terms

فرطش (farṭaš, “to break, smash”)
قرطش (ʔarṭaš, “to trim, prune”)
لقمش (laʔmaš, “to snack”)

References

^ أَنِيس خُورِي فْرَيْحَة [Anis Khuri Frayha, Anis Freiha] (August 1935), “ش”, in Quadrilaterals from the dialect of Ras al-Matn (Lebanon) (Ph. D. Thesis), University of Chicago, Illinois, published 1938, →OCLC, Faʿlash, page 39

Pashto

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /ʃin/
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /ʃ/

Letter

ش • (šin)

The twenty-second letter of the Pashto alphabet.

Forms

Isolated form	Final form	Medial form	Initial form
ش	ـش	ـشـ	شـ

Persian

Letter

شٍ • (šin)

The sixteenth letter of the Perso-Arabic alphabet. It is preceded by س and followed by ص. Its name is شین.

Punjabi

Alternative forms

Gurmukhi letter: ਸ਼ (śa)

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /ʃiːn̪/
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /ʃᵊ/

Letter

ش • (šīn)

The nineteenth letter of Punjabi in the Shahmukhi script.

Forms

Isolated form	Final form	Medial form	Initial form
ش	ـش	ـشـ	شـ

Sindhi

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /ʃiːn/
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /ʃ/

Letter

ش • (śīn)

The thirtieth letter of the Sindhi abjad.

Forms

Isolated form	Final form	Medial form	Initial form
ش	ـش	ـشـ	شـ

South Levantine Arabic

Etymology

Clipping of شِي (šī, “thing”) from the construction ما (ma, “not”) +‎ ... +‎ شي (šī, “one bit”), bleached in the process of Jespersen's Cycle.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ʃ/, [ʃ]

Suffix

ـش • (-š)

don't, didn't (negation of verbs)
Synonyms: ما (mā), (imperative) لا (la)

بحكيش إنكليزي ― biḥkīš ʔinglīzi ― he doesn't speak English

Audio (Ramallah): (file)

ما بحكيش إنكليزي ― ma biḥkīš ʔinglīzi ― he doesn't speak English

Audio (Ramallah): (file)

تنساش ― tinsāš ― don't forget

Audio (Ramallah): (file)

ما تنساش ― ma tinsāš ― don't forget

Audio (Ramallah): (file)

ما كتبش ― ma katabš ― he didn't write

Audio (Ramallah): (file)

Usage notes

ـش (-š) shifts the stress to the end of the verbal phrase, lengthening final vowels.
ـش (-š) may be used by itself or together with ما (ma); in the past tense, however, ما (ma) is required.

Urdu

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

(letter name): (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /ʃiːn/
(phoneme): (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /ʃ/

Letter

ش • (śīn)

The nineteenth letter of the Urdu abjad.

Forms

Isolated form	Final form	Medial form	Initial form
ش	ـش	ـشـ	شـ

Etymology 2

From Classical Persian (-iš).

Suffix

ـش • (-iś)

A suffix used in many nouns borrowed from Persian, and also in certain native words. This is a rough equivalent of -tion or -ment, making a noun for the action of the verb.

Usage notes

Persian nouns ending in a long vowel that add ـیـ (-y-) in Persian before this suffix, usually become ـئـ (-i-) due to modified pronunciation. In certain instances, ـیـ (-i-) remains or is one of the acceptable spellings. For example, Persian آزمایش (âzmâyeš) is normally spelled as Urdu آزمائش (āzmāiś).

Uyghur

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /ʃe/
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /ʃ/

Letter

ش • (she)

The fourteenth letter of the Uyghur alphabet.

Forms

Isolated form	Final form	Medial form	Initial form
ش	ـش	ـشـ	شـ

Yoruba

Pronunciation

(letter name): IPA^(key): /ʃí/
(phoneme): IPA^(key): /ʃ/

Letter

ش (ṣ)

The twenty-first letter of the Yoruba alphabet in the ajami script, equivalent to Latin script ṣ.

Forms

Isolated form	Final form	Medial form	Initial form
ش	ـش	ـشـ	شـ