LingoflyՇ շ — sha
«sha» is a consonant of the Western Armenian script, the aybuben, read as “sh”. A soft sh, with the tongue a little higher — between English "sh" and "shh". The Western Armenian alphabet has 38 letters in total. It appears, for example, in the word “Շնորհակալութիւն” (shnorhagalut'yun) — thank you.
In short
| Character | Շ շ |
| Name | sha |
| Sound | sh |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 23rd of 40: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are դ and ժ, appears in 377 words of this site.
How to type Շ շ
- On a phone: add the Armenian keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+0577 and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 0577.
- Unicode code points: շ — U+0577, Շ — U+0547. With them, the characters can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
A soft sh, with the tongue a little higher — between English "sh" and "shh"
The character in the “other consonants” group
Sixteen signs, read the same way as in the eastern norm. The exception is յ at the start of a word: there it sounds h. The pair ր and ռ differs by rolling: ր is a soft single tap, ռ is a full trill.
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound, see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 38 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Western Armenian character շ read?
As “sh” — it is a consonant of the Western Armenian script, the aybuben. A soft sh, with the tongue a little higher — between English "sh" and "shh".
What is the letter շ called?
Sha. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Western Armenian script: it is called “sha” and reads as “sh”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.