Sz (digraph)


Sz is a digraph of the Latin script, used in Polish, Kashubian and Hungarian, and in various romanizations of Mandarin and the Hong Kong government romanization of Cantonese.

Polish

In Polish orthography, sz represents a voiceless retroflex fricative. It usually corresponds to š or ш in other Slavic languages. It is usually approximated by English speakers with the "sh" sound, although the two sounds are not completely identical.
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". It corresponds to the voiceless retroflex fricative in Polish.

Examples

  • szãtopiérz = bat
  • szczawa = sorrel
  • szczãka = jaw
  • szczëka = pike
  • szerszéń = ''hornet''

Hungarian

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. For example, the Hungarian capital of Budapest is natively pronounced.
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:
  • szabó = tailor
  • szép = beautiful
  • szikla = rock
  • szőke = blonde
  • szülő = parent
  • szusi = sushi
  • Olaszország = Italy
  • Szudán = ''Sudan''

Standard Mandarin

Both the Yale romanization of Mandarin and Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II use the digraph sz to represent the syllable .

Cantonese

In the unpublished romanisation scheme employed by the Hong Kong government, sz is sometimes used in combination with e to represent the syllable, as in Sheung Sze Wan .
Sz also appears in the sequence tsz, representing the syllables and, as in Tsz Tin Tsuen and Tsz Wan Shan .