Che (Cyrillic)

Not to be confused with Turned h in Latin script.

Che, Cha or Chu (Ч ч; italics: Ч ч) is a letter of the Cyrillic script.

Cyrillic letter Che
Phonetic usage:	[tʃ], [tʃʰ], [tɕʰ], [tʂ], [tɕ]
Name (Early Cyrillic alphabet):	чрьвь (črĭvĭ)
Numeric value:	90, 60†
The Cyrillic script
Slavic letters
А А́ А̀ А̂ А̄ Ӓ Б В Г Ґ Д Ђ Ѓ Е Е́ Ѐ Е̂ Е̄ Ё Є Ж З З́ Ѕ И І Ї Ꙇ И́ Ѝ И̂ Ӣ Й Ј К Л Љ М Н Њ О О́ О̀ О̂ Ō Ӧ П Р С С́ Т Ћ Ќ У У́ У̀ У̂ Ӯ Ў Ӱ Ф Х Ц Ч Џ Ш Щ Ꙏ Ъ Ъ̀ Ы Ы́ Ь Ѣ Э Э́ Ю Ю́ Ю̀ Я Я́ Я̀
Non-Slavic letters
Ӑ А̊ А̃ Ӓ̄ Ӕ Ә Ә́ Ә̃ Ӛ В̌ Ԝ Г̑ Г̇ Г̣ Г̌ Г̂ Г̆ Г̈ г̊ Ҕ Ғ Ӻ Ғ̌ ғ̊ Ӷ Д́ Д̌ Д̈ Д̣ Д̆ Ӗ Е̃ Ё̄ Є̈ Ԑ Ԑ̈ Җ Ӝ Ӂ Ж̣ Ҙ Ӟ З̌ З̣ З̆ Ӡ И̃ Ӥ Ҋ Қ Ӄ Ҡ Ҟ Ҝ К̣ к̊ қ̊ Ԛ ᴫ Л́ Ӆ Ԯ Ԓ Л̈ Ӎ ᵸ Н́ Ӊ Ң Ԩ Ӈ Ҥ О̆ О̃ Ӧ̄ Ө Ө̄ Ө́ Ө̆ Ӫ Ԥ П̈ Ҏ Р̌ С̌ Ҫ С̣ С̱ Т́ Т̈ Т̌ Т̇ Т̣ Ҭ Ᲊ У̃ Ӳ У̊ Ӱ̄ Ұ Ү Ү́ Х̣ Х̱ Х̮ Х̑ Х̌ Ҳ Ӽ х̊ Ӿ ӿ̊ Һ Һ̈ Ԧ Ц̌ Ц̈ Ҵ Ҷ Ҷ̣ Ӵ Ӌ Ҹ Ч̇ Ч̣ Ҽ Ҿ Ш̣ ꚜ Ы̆ Ы̄ Ӹ ꚝ Ҍ Ҩ Э̆ Э̄ Э̇ Ӭ Ӭ́ Ӭ̄ Ю̆ Ю̈ Ю̄ Я̆ Я̄ Я̈ Ӏ ʼ ˮ
Archaic or unused letters
А̨ Б̀ Б̣ Б̱ В̀ Г̀ Г̧ Г̄ Г̓ Г̆ Ҕ̀ Ҕ̆ Ԁ Д̓ Д̀ Д̨ Ԃ Ꚁ Ꙣ Е̇ Е̨ Ж̀ Ж̑ Ꙃ Ꙅ Џ̆ Ꚅ Ꚅ̆ Ꙁ З̀ З̑ Ԅ Ԇ Ꚉ Ԫ Ꚃ Ꚕ І̂ І̣ І̨ Ј̵ Ј̃ Ꙉ К̓ К̀ К̆ Ӄ̆ К̑ К̇ К̈ К̄ Ԟ К̂ Л̀ Ԡ Ꙥ Ԉ Л̑ Л̇ Ԕ М̀ М̃ Ꙧ Н̀ Н̄ Н̧ Н̃ Ԋ Ԣ Н̡ Ѻ Ꙩ Ꙫ Ꙭ ꙮ Ꚙ Ꚛ П̓ П̀ П́ Ҧ П̧ П̑ Ҁ Ԛ̆ Р́ Р̀ Р̃ Ԗ С̀ С̈ Ԍ Ҫ̓ Т̓ Т̀ Ԏ Т̑ Ꚋ Т̧ Ꚍ Ꚍ̆ Ѹ Ꙋ У̇ У̨ ꙋ́ Ф̑ Ф̓ Х́ Х̀ Х̆ Х̇ Х̧ Х̾ Х̓ һ̱ Ѡ Ꙍ Ѽ Ѿ Ꙡ Ц̀ Ц́ Ц̓ Ꚏ Ꚏ̆ Ꚑ Ч́ Ч̀ Ч̆ Ч̑ Ч̓ Ԭ Ꚓ Ꚇ Ꚇ̆ Ҽ̆ Ш̀ Ш̆ Ш̑ Щ̆ Ꚗ Ꚗ̆ Ъ̄ Ъ̈ Ъ̈̄ Ꙑ Ы̂ Ы̃ Ѣ́ Ѣ̈ Ѣ̆ Ꙓ Э̨ Э̂ Ꙕ Ю̂ Ꙗ Я̈ Я̂ Я̨ Ԙ Ѥ Ѧ Ꙙ Ѫ Ꙛ Ѩ Ꙝ Ѭ Ѯ Ѱ Ѳ Ѵ Ѷ Ꙟ
List of Cyrillic letters List of Cyrillic multigraphs

Che, from Alexandre Benois' 1904 alphabet book; it depicts a stuffed animal (chuchelo)

It commonly represents the voiceless postalveolar affricate /tʃ/, like ⟨tch⟩ in "switch" or ⟨ch⟩ in "choice".

In English, it is romanized most often as ⟨ch⟩ but sometimes as ⟨tch⟩, like in French. In German, it can be transcribed as ⟨tsch⟩. In linguistics, it is transcribed as ⟨č⟩ so "Tchaikovsky" (Чайковский in Russian) may be transcribed as Chaykovskiy or Čajkovskij.

Form

The letter Che (Ч ч) resembles an upside-down lowercase Latin h, as well as resembling the digit 4, especially in digital or open-ended form.

History

The name of Che in the Early Cyrillic alphabet was Чрьвь (črĭvĭ), meaning "worm".

In the Cyrillic numeral system, Che has a value of 90.

Usage

Slavic languages

Except for Russian and Serbian, all Cyrillic-alphabet Slavic languages use Che to represent the voiceless postalveolar affricate /tʃ/ (the ch sound in English).

In Russian, Che usually represents the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate /t͡ɕ/ (like the Mandarin pronunciation of j in pinyin). It is occasionally exceptionally pronounced as:

• the voiceless retroflex affricate /tʂ/ (like Mandarin pinyin zh), like in Russian: лучше, or
• the voiceless retroflex fricative /ʂ/ (like Mandarin pinyin sh), like in Russian: что, чтобы, нарочно.

In Serbian, Che is always pronounced as /tʂ/ (Latin: č), as the letter Tshe (Ћ/ћ; Latin: ć), which is unique to Serbian, is always used for the /t͡ɕ/ sound. Loanwords using /tʃ/ are typically transliterated to Che rather than Tshe.

In China

The 1955 version of Hanyu pinyin contained the Che for the sound [tɕ] (for which later the letter j was used), apparently because of its similarity to the Bopomofo letterㄐ.

The Latin Zhuang alphabet used a modified Hindu-Arabic numeral 4, strongly resembling Che, from 1957 to 1986 to represent the fourth (falling) tone. In 1986, it was replaced by the Latin letter X.

Related letters and other similar characters

• 4 : 4 - Number that very closely resembles Che, especially in digital or open ended form
• C c : Latin letter C - the same sound in Malay, Indonesian, Italian
• Č č : Latin letter C with caron
• Ç ç : Latin letter C with cedilla - an Albanian, Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Turkish, and Turkmen letter
• Ĉ ĉ : Latin letter C with circumflex, used in Esperanto language
• Tx : Digraph Tx, used in Basque and Catalan.
• Ch : Digraph Ch
• Cs : Digraph Cs
• Cz : Digraph Cz
• Ҷ ҷ : Cyrillic letter Che with descender
• Ӵ ӵ : Cyrillic letter Che with diaeresis
• Ҹ ҹ : Cyrillic letter Che with vertical stroke
• Ꚇ ꚇ : Cyrillic letter Cche
• Ɥ ɥ : Latin letter turned H
• Վ վ : Armenian letter Vev
• Կ կ : Armenian letter Ken

Computing codes

Character information

Preview	Ч		ч
Unicode name	CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER CHE		CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER CHE
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	1063	U+0427	1095	U+0447
UTF-8	208 167	D0 A7	209 135	D1 87
Numeric character reference	Ч	Ч	ч	ч
Named character reference	Ч		ч
KOI8-R and KOI8-U	254	FE	222	DE
Code page 855	252	FC	251	FB
Code page 866	151	97	231	E7
Windows-1251	215	D7	247	F7
ISO-8859-5	199	C7	231	E7
Macintosh Cyrillic	151	97	247	F7

References

Explanatory footnotes

^† In some varieties of Western Cyrillic, Ҁ was used for 90, and Ч was used for 60 instead of Ѯ.

External links

• The dictionary definition of Ч at Wiktionary
• The dictionary definition of ч at Wiktionary