Search

The Online Encyclopedia and Dictionary

 
     
 

Encyclopedia

Dictionary

Quotes

   
 

S


Latin alphabet
Aa Bb Cc Dd
Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj
Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp
Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv
Ww Xx Yy Zz

S s

S is the nineteenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet.

In most writing systems that use the Latin alphabet, the letter s corresponds to a coronal fricative consonant. Semitic Šīn (bow) was pronounced as the voiceless postalveolar fricative <span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS, Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande, Code2000, Gentium">[ʃ]</span> (like the sound of the letters sh in ship). Greek did not have this sound, so the Greek sigma (Σ) came to represent the voiceless alveolar fricative (like the sound of the letter s in sit). The name "sigma" probably comes from the Semitic letter "Sāmek" and not "Šīn". In Etruscan and Latin, the <span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS, Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande, Code2000, Gentium">[s]</span> value was maintained, and only in modern languages has the letter has been used to represent other sounds, such as voiceless postalveolar fricative <span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS, Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande, Code2000, Gentium">[ʃ]</span> in Hungarian or the voiced alveolar fricative <span style="font-family: Arial Unicode MS, Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande, Code2000, Gentium">[z]</span> in English, French and German (in English rise; in French lisez (="read" imperative plural); in German lesen (="to read").

An archaic alternative form of s, ſ, called the long s or medial s, was used at the beginning or in the middle of the word; the modern form, the short or terminal s, was used at the end of the word. For example, "sinfulness" is rendered as "ſinfulneſs" using the long s. The use of the long s died out by the end of the 19th century, largely to prevent confusion with the minuscule f. The ligature of ſs became the German ess-tsett ( ß ).

Sierra represents the letter s in the NATO phonetic alphabet. The letter s represents the voiceless alveolar fricative in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Contents

Meanings for S

Similar letters and symbols

See also

Two-letter combinations starting with S:

Letter-digit combinations starting with S:

External link



Last updated: 02-19-2005 00:17:36
Last updated: 05-03-2005 17:50:55