Sz (digraph)


Sz is a digraph of the Latin script, used in Hungarian, Polish, Kashubian and German, and in the Wade–Giles system of Romanization of Chinese.

Polish

In Polish orthography, sz represents a voiceless retroflex fricative. Although being a different consonant, it is usually approximated by English speakers with the "sh" sound. It usually corresponds to ш or š in other Slavic languages.
Like other Polish digraphs, it is not considered a single letter for collation purposes.
sz should not be confused with ś, termed "soft sh", a voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative.

Examples of sz



Compare ś:


Kashubian

In Kashubian, sz represents a voiceless postalveolar fricative, identical to the English "sh".

Examples

Sz is the thirty-second letter of the Hungarian alphabet. It represents and is called "esz". Thus, names like Liszt are pronounced list.
In Hungarian, even if two characters are put together to make a different sound, they are considered one letter, and even acronyms keep the letter intact.
Hungarian usage of s and sz is almost the reverse of the Polish usage. In Hungarian, s represents . Therefore, the Hungarian capital of Budapest is natively pronounced, rhyming with standard English fleshed rather than pest.
There is also a zs in Hungarian, which is the last letter of the alphabet, following z.

Examples

These examples are Hungarian words that use the letter sz, with the English translation following:
In German, it was used to represent after "long" vowels, later contracting to the ß ligature.

Wade–Giles

In the Wade–Giles system of Romanization of Chinese, is used to represent the syllabic with the "empty rime". See Wade–Giles → Empty rime.