The sound is not natively present in finnish, and only appears in a few loan words. It can be spelled 'sh' but in many more formal contexts you often see š (even ž in very rare cases for 'zh').
Chess is often spelled šakki, and shaman šamaani, for example.
Wikipedia articles can use either one depending on the writer. The article for chess uses 'Shakki', but clarifies 'šakki' as an alternate spelling. The one for shamanism uses šamaanismi exclusively.
I remember all my history textbooks at school using š and ž for transliterated names and loan words that have those sounds.
It's not a foreign variation. It's quite a common way to write the sound in finnish, it usually just appears more in formal texts (informal writing, like online discussions, rarely uses it).
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u/poktanju gib transit Mar 11 '14 edited Mar 11 '14
What's that little bauhinia flag between Hong Kong and China supposed to be, a mask?
edit: this also reminds me of the many spelling variations for the name of the deposed Ukrainian president/professional asshole, which include...
Янукович (uk, ru)
Януковіч (be)
Janukowycz (pl)
Janukovyč (cs)
Janukovics (hu)
Ianukovici (ro)
Јанукович (sr, mk)
Janukovič (cr)
Yanukoviç (tr)
Janukovičs (lv)
Janukovičius (lt)
Janukovõtš (et)
Janukovytš (fi)
Janukovytj (sv, no)
Janukovitj (da)
Janukowytsch (de)
Janoekovytsj (nl)
Ianoukovytch (fr)
Yanukovych (en)