Lev Vladimirovich Shcherba (commonly Scherba) (Russian: Лев Влади́мирович Ще́рба; Belarusian: Леў Уладзіміравіч Шчэрба; March 3 [O.S.

February 20] 1880 – December 26, 1944) was a Russian and Soviet linguist and lexicographer specializing in phonetics and phonology.

Born in Igumen (Minsk Governorate, Russian Empire,[Note 1] now Chervyen, Belarus) to the family of an engineer.

During the autumn holidays of 1907 and 1908, on the advice of Baudouin de Courtenay, he studied the Sorbian languages and wrote a description of the Mužakow dialect (spoken in the east, near Muskau).

Shcherba is the author of the glokaya kuzdra sentence, which consists of words whose roots do not exist in Russian, but has correct construction in terms of Russian morphology and syntax — similar to Chomsky's Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.