Sz (digraph)

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

Sz is the thirty-second letter of the Hungarian alphabet. It represents /s/ and is called "esz" /ɛs/. Thus, names like Liszt are pronounced /list/ list.

In Hungarian, even if two characters are put together to make a different sound, they are considered one letter (a true digraph), 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 /ʃ/. For example, the Hungarian capital of Budapest is natively pronounced (/ˈbudɒpɛʃt/).

There is also a zs in Hungarian, which is the last (forty-fourth) letter of the alphabet, following z.

These examples are Hungarian words that use the letter sz, with the English translation following:

In Kashubian, sz represents a voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/, identical to the English "sh". It corresponds to the voiceless retroflex fricative /ʂ/ in Polish.

In Polish orthography, sz represents a voiceless retroflex fricative /ʂ/. It usually corresponds to š or ш in other Slavic languages. It is usually approximated by English speakers with the "sh" (IPA: /ʃ/) sound (and conversely, Polish speakers typically approximate the English digraph sh with the "sz" sound), although the two sounds are not completely identical.