The Letter S - the 19th Letter of the Alphabet

THE LETTER S - THE 19TH LETTER OF THE ALPHABET. This letter corresponds to the Semitic W (sin). The Greek treatment of the sibilants that occur in the Semitic alphabet is somewhat complicated.

Semitic

(samech) appears in Greek as I (ksi) with the value in early times of ss, later and more generally of x or ks. The name samech, however, which through its Aramaean form became in Greek sigma, was applied to the letter 5 which corresponded to Semitic W (sin) and stood for s. In certain Greek alphabets the letter was called by the name san. Semitic ssade appears in the early alphabets of Thera and Corinth in the form M representing s. These alphabets have no sigma, while those that have sigma do not have M.

Greek forms of the letter were 5, E, 4, c,,

The rounded form appears in the Chalcidic alphabet and from this it was taken into Latin. Etruscan had no rounded form, but it appears in Umbrian and Faliscan. In Latin cursive writing of the 6th cen

tury the form was and from this descended the Irish and Saxon forms r. The Carolingian form on the other hand was extended above the line instead of below, e.g., r. In England in the 17th century the form was/and this is occasionally still seen in handwriting when followed by another s. The form ,3 also occurs, the left hand oblique stroke being really part of a ligature with a preceding letter.

The letter represents an unvoiced fricative. This has become voiced in English when intervocalic (e.g., houses, nose). In most other positions it remains unvoiced (e.g., sing, save, stamp, speak, aspect). When doubled the letter represents the unvoiced sound in all positions (e.g., grasses, miss, assess). (B. F. C. A.) SAADIA, BEN JOSEPH : see SEADIAH.