This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Wathiik (talk | contribs) at 14:49, 2 June 2001. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 14:49, 2 June 2001 by Wathiik (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Semitic Šîn (bow) was pronounced as /S/ as the modern English digraph SH. In Greek, there was only one phoneme /s/ and no /S/, so Greek Σιγμα (Sigma) came to represent the Greek /s/ phoneme. The name Sigma probably comes from the Semitic letter Sâmek and not Šîn. In Etruscan and Latin, the /s/ value was maintained, and only in Modern languages, S came to represent other sounds, like /S/ in Hungarian or /z/ in English and French (in English RISE and French LISER 'to read')