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Revision as of 02:04, 27 August 2002 by Kpjas (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").
S is also the symbol for sulfur.