RYTINIA STELLERI, the sea-cow of Behring Straits. It lives on sea-weed. The Kolush tribes have nearly exterminated it.
S, the 19th letter of the English language, is a sibilant consonant, and has a hissing sound. It has two uses,—one generally at the beginning or end of words, to pronounce a mere hissing, as in Sabbath, sack, sin, etc. ; the other a vocal hissing, precisely like that of z, as in muse, music, wise ; but its sound in the middle and end of words can only be learned by practice. In a few English words it is silent, as in isle. The simple sibilant of Europe occurs in Arabic, Sanskrit, and in all Indian alphabets. The palatal s of the Nagari alphabet, in use in words of Sanskrit origin, is commonly pronounced as sh sotnewhat softened. The Arabio alphabet has two letters to which, in India, is given the sound of s. One of these, called in India sad or swad, has, amongst the Arabs, the sound of dad or dhad; the other Arabic letter is called in Arabia, say or thay, but in India it has onlythe sibilant sound of s. The Persian letter sin has the simple sound of the English letter s. The Persian and Nagari letter sh has the sound of sh of the English alphabet. On the western
districts of British India, and along the line of the Indus river, the letters It and s are interchange able, so that Sind becomes Ilind, and sing'h, a lion, is changed into hing, garlic. S, t, and th are interchangeable letters, also s and t in all Tur anian, Turki, and Dravidian tongues are inter changeable,—sri or shri becomes tiri, sar-band or head-dress, head-tie, becomes tarband. Dion Cassius remarking on the term Assyria or Atyria, noticed that the barbarians change the sigma into tau,—Ashur becomes Athar. Tiri or tira is the re cognised Dravidia.n pronunciation of the Sanskrit sri or shri, sacred or holy. Ss was pronounced RS th by the ancient northern races, who wrote Sol or Sor, the sun, a,s Thor. In Tamil y and s are constantly interchangeable. Thus uyir or usir is life ; uyaru and usaru is to be exalted or lifted up ; in Canarese usar is life, power. S of the Sanskrit changes into h in most of the Hindi dialects, and also in the Greek. In the Zend, the Sanskrit s, as in asura, changes to b, as in ahura.
SA. KoL, A grove.