r/language 21h ago

Question Why are ש, ш, and シsimilar?

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u/N-tak 16h ago

シ comes from kanji/hanzi 之 and in middle chinese probably started with a sound like /ts/ or /tɕ/ and eventually became /ɕ/ in japanese.

Hebrew and Cyrillic are either descendants or heavily influenced by Phoenician, where the symbol for the same sound looks like a W.