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{{distinguish|text= Cyrillic letter Dze (Ð…) or the Georgian Asomtavruli letter Ch’ari (Ⴝ)}}{{Short description|19th letter in the Latin alphabet}}{{About|the nineteenth letter of the alphabet}}{{Redirect|Ess}}{{Technical reasons|S#|the programming language|Script.NET}}{{Technical reasons|Å¿|the archaic medial form of the letter “s“|Long s}}{{Technical reasons|S#arp|the South Korean band|Sharp (South Korean band)}}{{pp-move-indef}}{{pp-semi-indef}}

factoids

>{{IPAslink{{IPAslink{{IPAslink{{IPAslink{{IPAc-ens}}}}|unicode=U+0053, U+0073|alphanumber=19|number=|fam1=Aa32M4020px|Proto-Sinaitic Shin)20px|Proto-Sinaitic Shin)20px|Phoenician Sin)20px|Proto-Caanite Shin)Sigma>Σ σ Ï‚|fam7=Ï‚|fam8=𐌔|usageperiod=~-700 to presentlong s>ßƧ>êž„$>₷§>℠ᛋ>∫}}Dze Dze>ѕС с>Ш шЩ щ>Òª Ò«ÔŒ ԍ>Shin (letter)>Shin (letter)>Shin (letter)>سࠔ>𐎘𐡔>ሠㅅ (disputed)>Ս սश>सશ>સ}}|equivalents=List of Latin-script digraphs#S>s(x), Sh (digraph), Sz (digraph)>sz|direction=Left-to-Right|image=Latin_letter_S.svg}}{{Latin letter info|s}}S, or s, is the nineteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ess{{efn|Spelled ‘es’- in compound words}} (pronounced {{IPAc-en|’|É›|s}}), plural esses.“S”, Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); “ess,” op. cit.

History

{{Further|Shin (letter)|Sigma|San (letter)|Sho (letter)}}{| class=“wikitable” bgcolor=“#EEEEEE“! Proto-SinaiticShin! PhoenicianShin! Western GreekSigma! EtruscanS! LatinS-- align=center50px)50px)x30px)x30px)x30px)Northwest Semitic šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative {{IPA|/ʃ/}} (as in ‘{{em|sh}}ip’). It originated most likely as a pictogram of a tooth () and represented the phoneme {{IPA|/ʃ/}} via the acrophonic principle.“corresponds etymologically (in part, at least) to original Semitic ṯ (th), which was pronounced s in South Canaanite” Albright, W. F., “The Early Alphabetic Inscriptions from Sinai and their Decipherment,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 110 (1948), p. 15. The interpretation as “tooth” is now prevalent, but not entirely certain. The Encyclopaedia Judaica of 1972 reported that the letter represented a “composite bow”.Ancient Greek did not have a {{IPA|/ʃ/}} phoneme, so the derived Greek letter sigma () came to represent the voiceless alveolar sibilant {{IPA|/s/}}. While the letter shape Σ continues Phoenician šîn, its name sigma is taken from the letter samekh, while the shape and position of samekh but name of šîn is continued in the xi. {{citation needed|date=June 2017}}Within Greek, the name of sigma was influenced by its association with the Greek word (earlier {{transl|grc|*sigj-}}) “to hiss”. The original name of the letter “sigma” may have been san, but due to the complicated early history of the Greek epichoric alphabets, “san” came to be identified as a separate letter, Ϻ.Woodard, Roger D. (2006). “Alphabet”. In Wilson, Nigel Guy. Encyclopedia of ancient Greece. London: Routldedge. p. 38. Herodotus reports that “San” was the name given by the Dorians to the same letter called “Sigma” by the Ionians.“” (’...the same letter, which the Dorians call “San”, but the Ionians “Sigma“...’; Herodotus, Histories 1.139); cf. Nick Nicholas, Non-Attic letters {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120628161421www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/unicode/nonattic.html |date=2012-06-28 }}.The Western Greek alphabet used in Cumae was adopted by the Etruscans and Latins in the 7th century BC, over the following centuries developing into a range of Old Italic alphabets including the Etruscan alphabet and the early Latin alphabet.In Etruscan, the value {{IPA|/s/}} of Greek sigma (𐌔) was maintained, while san (𐌑)represented a separate phoneme, most likely {{IPA|/ʃ/}} (transliterated as Å›). The early Latin alphabet adopted sigma, but not san, as Old Latin did not have a {{IPA|/ʃ/}} phoneme.The shape of Latin S arises from Greek Σ by dropping one out of the four strokes of that letter.The (angular) S-shape composed of three strokes existed as a variant of the four-stroke letter Σ already in the epigraphy in Western Greek alphabets, and the three and four strokes variants existed alongside one another in the classical Etruscan alphabet. In other Italic alphabets (Venetic, Lepontic), the letter could be represented as a zig-zagging line of any number between three and six strokes.The Italic letter was also adopted into Elder Futhark, as Sowilō ({{script|Runr|ᛊ}}), and appears with four to eight strokes in the earliest runic inscriptions, but is occasionally reduced to three strokes ({{script|Runr|ᛋ}}) from the later 5th century, and appears regularly with three strokes in Younger Futhark.The {{angbr|sh}} digraph for English {{IPA|/ʃ/}} arose in Middle English (alongside {{angbr|sch}}), replacing the Old English {{angbr|sc}} digraph. Similarly, Old High German {{angbr|sc}} was replaced by {{angbr|sch}} in Early Modern High German orthography.

Long s

File:Schwäbische Bastarda 1496 Schriftprobe Priesters Tochter.png|thumb|Late medieval German script (Swabian (bastarda]], dated 1496) illustrating the use of long and round s: prieÅ¿ters tochter (“priest’s daughter“).)The minuscule form Å¿, called the long s, developed in the early medieval period, within the Visigothic and Carolingian hands, with predecessors in the half-uncial and cursive scripts of Late Antiquity. It remained standard in western writing throughout the medieval period and was adopted in early printing with movable types. It existed alongside minuscule “round” or “short” s, which was at the time only used at the end of words.In most Western orthographies, the Å¿ gradually fell out of use during the second half of the 18th century, although it remained in occasional use into the 19th century.In Spain, the change was mainly accomplished between 1760 and 1766. In France, the change occurred between 1782 and 1793. Printers in the United States stopped using the long s between 1795 and 1810. In English orthography, the London printer John Bell (1745–1831) pioneered the change. His edition of Shakespeare, in 1785, was advertised with the claim that he “ventured to depart from the common mode by rejecting the long ‘Å¿’ in favor of the round one, as being less liable to error.....“Stanley Morison, A Memoir of John Bell, 1745–1831 (1930, Cambridge Univ. Press) page 105; Daniel Berkeley Updike, Printing Types, Their History, Forms, and Use – a study in survivals (2nd. ed, 1951, Harvard University Press) page 293. The Times of London made the switch from the long to the short s with its issue of 10 September 1803. Encyclopædia Britannica’s 5th edition, completed in 1817, was the last edition to use the long s.In German orthography, long s was retained in Fraktur (Schwabacher) type as well as in standard cursive (Sütterlin) well into the 20th century, until official use of that typeface was abolished in 1941.(:File:Schrifterlass Antiqua1941.gif|Order) of 3 January 1941 to all public offices, signed by Martin Bormann.BOOK, Albert, Kapr, Fraktur: Form und Geschichte der gebrochenen Schriften, Mainz, H. Schmidt, 1993, 81, 3-87439-260-0, The ligature of Å¿s (or Å¿z) was retained, however, giving rise to the Eszett {{angbr|ß}}, in contemporary German orthography.s}} by language“>

Use in writing systems{| class“wikitable mw-collapsible”s}} by language

! Orthography! Phonemes! {{nwr|Standard Chinese}} (Pinyin)s}}! Englishs}}, {{IPAslink|z}}, silent! Frenchs}}, {{IPAslink|z}}, silent! Germanz}}, {{IPAslinkʃ}}! Portugueses}}, {{IPAslink|z}}! Spanishs}}! Turkishs}}

English

In English, {{angbr|s}} represents a voiceless alveolar sibilant {{IPA|/s/}}. It also commonly represents a voiced alveolar sibilant {{IPA|/z/}}, as in ‘rose’ and ‘bands’.Due to yod-coalescence, it may represent a voiceless palato-alveolar fricative {{IPA|/ʃ/}}, as in ‘sugar’, or a voiced palato-alveolar fricative {{IPA|/Ê’/}}, as in ‘measure’.In some words of French origin, {{angbr|s}} is silent, as in ‘isle’ or ‘debris’.The letter {{angbr|s}} is the seventh most common letter in English and the third-most common consonant after {{angbr|t}} and {{angbr|n}}.WEB,pi.math.cornell.edu/~mec/2003-2004/cryptography/subs/frequencies.html, English Letter Frequency, 2014-05-21,www.math.cornell.edu/~mec/2003-2004/cryptography/subs/frequencies.html," title="web.archive.org/web/20140523074827www.math.cornell.edu/~mec/2003-2004/cryptography/subs/frequencies.html,">web.archive.org/web/20140523074827www.math.cornell.edu/~mec/2003-2004/cryptography/subs/frequencies.html, 2014-05-23, live, It is the most common letter for the first letter of a word in the English language.WEB,www3.nd.edu/~busiforc/handouts/cryptography/letterfrequencies.html, Letter Frequencies in the English Language, July 2, 2021, WEB,funbutlearn.com/2012/06/which-english-letter-has-maximum-words.html, Which English Letter Has Maximum Words, June 25, 2012, Final {{angbr|s}} is the usual mark of plural nouns. It is the regular ending of English third person present tense verbs.

German

In German, {{angbr|s}} represents:

• A voiced alveolar sibilant {{IPA|/z/}} before vowels (except after obstruents), as in ‘sich’.
• A voiceless alveolar sibilant {{IPA|/s/}} before consonants or when final, as in ‘ist’ and ‘das’.
• A voiceless palato-alveolar fricative {{IPA|/ʃ/}} before {{angbr|p, t}} at the beginning of a word or syllable, as in ‘spät’ and ‘Stadt’.

When doubled ({{angbr|ss}}), it represents a voiceless alveolar sibilant {{IPA|/s/}}, as in ‘müssen’.In the digraph {{angbr|sch}}, it represents a voiceless palato-alveolar fricative {{IPA|/ʃ/}}, as in ‘schon’.

Other languages

In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, {{angbr|s}} represents the voiceless alveolar or voiceless dental sibilant {{IPA|/s/}}.In many Romance languages it also represents the voiced alveolar or voiced dental sibilant {{IPA|/z/}}, as in Portuguese mesa (table).In Portuguese, it may represent the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative {{IPA|/ʃ/}} in most dialects when syllable-final, and {{IPA|[ʒ]}} in European Portuguese Islão (Islam) or, in many sociolects of Brazilian Portuguese, esdrúxulo (proparoxytone).In some Andalusian dialects of Spanish, it merged with Peninsular Spanish {{angbr|c}} and {{angbr|z}} and is now pronounced {{IPA|/θ/}}.In Hungarian, it represents {{IPA|/ʃ/}}.In Turkmen, it represents {{IPA|/θ/}}.In several Western Romance languages like Spanish and French, final {{angbr|s}} is the usual mark of plural nouns.

Other systems

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, {{angbr|s}} represents the voiceless alveolar sibilant {{IPA|/s/}}.

Other uses

• Used in a chemical formula to represent sulfur. For example, {{chem|S|O|2}} is sulfur dioxide.
• Used in the preferred IUPAC name for a chemical, to indicate a specific enantiomer. For example, “(S)-2-(4-Chloro-2-methylphenoxy)propanoic acid” is one of the enantiomers of mecoprop.

Related characters

Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet

• Å¿ : Latin letter long s, an obsolete variant of s
• ẜ ẝ : Various forms of long s were used for medieval scribal abbreviationsWEB,www.unicode.org/L2/L2006/06027-n3027-medieval.pdf, L2/06-027: Proposal to add Medievalist characters to the UCS, 2006-01-30, Michael, Everson, Peter, Baker, António, Emiliano, Florian, Grammel, Odd Einar, Haugen, Diana, Luft, Susana, Pedro, Gerd, Schumacher, Andreas, Stötzner, 2018-03-24,web.archive.org/web/20180919051622/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2006/06027-n3027-medieval.pdf, 2018-09-19, live,
• ẞ ß : German Eszett or “sharp S”, derived from a ligature of long s followed by either s or z
• S with diacritics: Åš Å› á¹  ṡ ẛ Ṩ ṩ Ṥ á¹¥ á¹¢ á¹£ SÌ© sÌ© Ꞩ êž© ꟉꟊWEB,www.unicode.org/L2/L2019/19179-n5044-tau-gallicum.pdf, L2/19-179: Proposal for the addition of four Latin characters for Gaulish, 2019-05-26, Michael, Everson, Chris, Lilley, Åœ ŝ Ṧ ṧ Å  Å¡ Åž ÅŸ Ș ș S̈ s̈ ᶊ â±¾ È¿ áµ´WEB,www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03174r2-mid-tilde.pdf, L2/03-174R2: Proposal to Encode Phonetic Symbols with Middle Tilde in the UCS, 2003-09-30, Peter, Constable, 2018-03-24,www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03174r2-mid-tilde.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20171011013938www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03174r2-mid-tilde.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20171011013938www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03174r2-mid-tilde.pdf, 2017-10-11, live, ᶳWEB,www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04132-n2740-phonetic.pdf, L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS, 2004-04-19, Peter, Constable, 2018-03-24,www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04132-n2740-phonetic.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20171011014355www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04132-n2740-phonetic.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20171011014355www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04132-n2740-phonetic.pdf, 2017-10-11, live,
• â‚› : Subscript small s was used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902WEB,www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09028-n3571-upa-additions.pdf, L2/09-028: Proposal to encode additional characters for the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet, 2009-01-27, Klaas, Ruppel, Tero, Aalto, Michael, Everson, 2018-03-24,www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09028-n3571-upa-additions.pdf," title="web.archive.org/web/20171011014359www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09028-n3571-upa-additions.pdf,">web.archive.org/web/20171011014359www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09028-n3571-upa-additions.pdf, 2017-10-11, live,
• Ë¢ : Modifier letter small s is used for phonetic transcription
• ꜱ : Small capital S was used in the Icelandic First Grammatical Treatise to mark gemination
• Ʂ Ê‚ : S with hook, used for writing Mandarin Chinese using the early draft version of pinyin romanization during the mid-1950sWEB,www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17013-n4782-latin.pdf, L2/17-013: Proposal to encode three uppercase Latin letters used in early Pinyin, 2017-01-16, Andrew, West, Andrew West (linguist), Eiso, Chan, Michael, Everson, Michael Everson, 2019-03-08,web.archive.org/web/20181226054908/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2017/17013-n4782-latin.pdf, 2018-12-26, live,
• Ƨ ƨ : Latin letter reversed S (used in Zhuang transliteration)
• 𝼩 : Latin small letter s with mid-height left hook was used by the British and Foreign Bible Society in the early 20th century for romanization of the Malayalam language.WEB, L2/21-156: Unicode request for legacy Malayalam,www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21156-legacy-malayalam.pdf, 2021-07-16, Kirk, Miller, Neil, Rees,
• IPA-specific symbols related to S: {{IPA link|ʃ}} {{IPA link|ɧ}}{{citation needed|date=October 2015}} {{IPA link|Ê‚}}
• Para-IPA version of the IPA fricative É•:WEB, L2/21-041: Unicode request for additional para-IPA letters,www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21041-add-para-ipa-ltr.pdf, 2021-01-11, Kirk, Miller, 𝼞 𐞺
• êž„ êž… : Insular S
• Ꟗ ꟗ : Used in Middle ScotsWEB, L2/19-180R: Proposal to add two characters for Middle Scots to the UCS,www.unicode.org/L2/L2019/19180r-n5045r-middle-scots-s.pdf, 2019-04-25, Michael, Everson,
• Ꟙ ꟙ : Latin letter Sigmoid S was used in medieval palaeographyWEB, L2/20-269: Proposal to add two SIGMOID S characters for mediaeval palaeography,www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20269-n5146-sigmoid-s.pdf, 2020-10-01, Michael, Everson,

Derived signs, symbols, and abbreviations

File:Sortavala COA (2020).gif|thumb|upright|A letter S in the coat of arms of SortavalaSortavala

• $ : Dollar sign
• â‚· : Spesmilo
• § : Section sign
• â„  : Service mark symbol
• ∫ : Integral symbol, short for summation (derived from long s)

Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

• 𐤔 : Semitic letter Shin, from which the following symbols originally derive
  • archaic Greek Sigma could be written with different numbers of angles and strokes. Besides the classical form with four strokes ({{GrGl|Sigma normal}}), a three-stroke form resembling an angular Latin S ({{GrGl|Sigma Z-shaped}}) was commonly found, and was particularly characteristic of some mainland Greek varieties including Attic and several “red” alphabets.
    • Σ: classical Greek letter Sigma

Ϲ ϲ: Greek lunate sigma*{{Script|Copt|Ⲥ ⲥ}} : Coptic letter sima*С с : Cyrillic letter Es, derived from a form of sigma

• 𐌔 : Old Italic letter S, includes the variants also found in the archaic Greek letter

S: Latin letter S{{Script|Runr|ᛊ, ᛋ, ᛌ}} : Runic letter sowilo, which is derived from Old Italic S

• {{Script|Goth|𐍃}}: Gothic letter sigil
• Ս : Armenian letter Se

Other representations

Computing

{{charmap 0073 FF53 name2 = Latin Small Letter S name4 = FULLWIDTH LATIN SMALL LETTER SASCII 1 > map2char1 = 53 | map2char2 = 73}}

Other representations

{{Letter other reps|NATO=Sierra|Morse=···|Character=S|Braille=⠎|fingerspelling=S}}{{clear}}

See also

• Cool S
• See about Ⓢ in Enclosed Alphanumerics

Notes

{{notelist}}

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

• {{Commons-inline|S}}
• {{Wiktionary-inline|S}}
• {{Wiktionary-inline|s}}
• NSRW, x, S,

{{Latin alphabet|S|}}