It usually denotes [t͡ɕ], the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate, including in phonetic transcription.

The symbol originated in the Polish alphabet (where, in its modern usage, it appears most often at the ends of words) and was adopted by Croatian linguist Ljudevit Gaj into Croatian in the 19th century.

In Slovene, it occurs only in names and surnames, mainly from Croatian (e.g. Handanović), and denotes the same sound as Č, i.e. the voiceless palato-alveolar affricate.

In Ladin it represents [tʃ] when preceded by [ʃ] (e.g. desćiarié, [deʃtʃariˈe]).

The letter is also seen in Banat Bulgarian and Represents [kʲ] (e.g. Kaćétu, [kakʲetu]).