This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Nate Silva (talk | contribs) at 00:53, 27 November 2002 (fix img for IE5). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 00:53, 27 November 2002 by Nate Silva (talk | contribs) (fix img for IE5)(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").
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
S is also the symbol for sulfur.