S

S is the nineteenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet.

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In most writing systems that use the Latin alphabet, as well as the International Phonetic Alphabet, the letter corresponds to a voiceless alveolar sibilant.

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Semitic Š?n (?im? sun/uraeus) was pronounced as the voiceless postalveolar fricative (like the sound of the letters sh in ship). Greek did not have this sound, so the Greek sigma (Σ) came to represent . The name "sigma" probably comes from the Semitic letter "S?mek" (fish; spine) and not "Š?n". In Etruscan and Latin, the value was maintained, and only in modern languages has the letter been used to represent other sounds, such as voiceless postalveolar fricative in Hungarian or the voiced alveolar fricative in English, French and German (in English rise; in French lisez (="read" imperative plural); in German lesen (="to read").

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An alternative form of s, ſ, called the long s or medial s, was used at the beginning or in the middle of the word; the modern form, the short or terminal s, was used at the end of the word. For example, "sinfulness" is rendered as "ſinfulneſs" using the long s. The use of the long s died out by the beginning of the 19th century, largely to prevent confusion with the minuscule f. The ligature of ſs (or ſz) became the German ess-tsett ( ß ).

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Sierra represents the letter s in the NATO phonetic alphabet.

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International Phonetic Alphabet: This article is about the alphabet officially used in linguistics. The NATO phonetic alphabet has also informally been called the 'International Phonetic Alphabet', though these two are unrelated....

Voiceless alveolar sibilant: REDIRECT voiceless alveolar fricative...

Semitic: Semitic is an adjective referring to the peoples who have traditionally spoken Semitic languages or to things pertaining to them. Genetic analysis suggests that the Semitic peoples share a significant common ancestry, despite important differences and contributions from other groups. This genetic ...