samekh

Samekh is a letter of the Semitic family of alphabets used to represent the voiceless alveolar sibilant /s/. It appears in Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac and related scripts, with similar values across these traditions. In Hebrew, samekh is not only a letter but also part of the standard consonant inventory; it is pronounced as /s/ and is distinct from the related letter Shin, which can represent /ʃ/ or /s/ depending on pointing.

In the Hebrew alphabet, samekh is the fifteenth letter. The symbol for samekh in modern Hebrew is the character ס. Its numeric value in the traditional system of gematria is 60. Unlike several other Hebrew consonants, samekh does not have a separate final form; it is written the same way in final position as in other positions.

Origins and descendants: The letter traces back to the Phoenician alphabet, where the symbol named samekh represented the /s/ sound. From Phoenician, the letter spread to other scripts, contributing to the development of related characters in Aramaic and Syriac. In the Greek and Latin line of alphabets, the /s/ sound is carried by sigma and ultimately by the letter S. In Arabic, the corresponding letter س (seen) shares the same Phoenician origin.

Usage and typology: Samekh remains a basic consonant in modern Hebrew and appears in many common words, often alongside Shin and Sin, which can produce similar sounds but are distinguished by diacritic marks in orthography. It also appears in other Semitic scripts with shapes adapted to their writing systems, fulfilling a similar phonetic role.