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2006-09-26 08:26:06 · 3 answers · asked by David R 3 in Arts & Humanities History

3 answers

Semitic Šîn ("teeth") was pronounced as the voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ] (like the sound of the letters sh in ship). The original form may have represented a picture of female breasts. Greek did not have this sound, so the Greek sigma (Σ) came to represent [s]. The name "sigma" probably comes from the Semitic letter "Sâmek" (fish; spine) and not "Šîn". In Etruscan and Latin, the [s] value was maintained, and only in modern languages has the letter been used to represent other sounds, such as voiceless postalveolar fricative [ʃ] in Hungarian and German (before p, t) or the voiced alveolar fricative [z] in English, French and German (in English rise; in French lisez (="read" imperative plural); in German lesen (="to read").

2006-09-26 10:19:04 · answer #1 · answered by Semiramis 4 · 0 0

S, 19th letter of the English alphabet. It first appeared in its modern form in the Roman alphabet, as the equivalent of the Greek letter sigma,...

2006-09-26 15:32:39 · answer #2 · answered by pelancha 6 · 1 0

It first appeared in modern form and was taken from the greek letter for sigma.

2006-09-26 15:35:30 · answer #3 · answered by rltouhe 6 · 0 0

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