шь & щ

[ugly-boy.livejournal.com]

Are шь and щ the same? Also, is this analogy correct:

щ : ш :: тщ : ч

Does the sound "тщ" (presumably as in Mandarin q) exist?

Comments

[yers.livejournal.com]

Russian phonetics textbooks published in Russia always use the apostrophe to indicate palatalisation. At least, all the ones I've seen. Because the symbol ь in Russian phonetic transcription is what it originally was, the soft yer (a reduced vowel, such as е in страдалец).