س

Etymology 1

From Nabataean 𐢝 (š), from Classical Syriac ܫ (š), from Aramaic ש (š), from Imperial Aramaic 𐡔 (š), from the Egyptian 𓌒.

This letter stood for /ʃ/ in Aramaic. 𐢖 was not adopted into the Arabic alphabet because of the following considerations:

Proto-Semitic has three fricatives that became sibilants in descendant languages: ś, š, s. In Arabic ś gave /ʃ/, but š and s merged to /s/. In Old Aramaic all three sibilants were distinguished, and s was represented by 𐢖 / ס / 𐡎 while 𐢝 / ש / 𐡔 represented both ś and š. This orthography persisted in later Aramaic even to the time of the Nabataeans, when the pronunciation of ś merged with that of s /s/.

So when a scribe wanted to write the Arabic sound /ʃ/ from ś, he did so by using 𐢝 / س purposefully in order to stick to a letter form that looks the same in the cognate Aramaic words. But when he wanted to write an Arabic sound /s/ from Proto-Semitic š, he would defy the Aramaic spelling for this Proto-Semitic phoneme were he to represent this Arabic phoneme by the sign 𐢖 / ס / 𐡎, whereas Arabic-Aramaic word pairs with the Proto-Semitic s are – somewhat by coincidence – rare and there was hence only negligible pressure to employ 𐢖 / ܣ / ס / 𐡎, in total. So the impression was that 𐢝 / ש / 𐡔 / س is the most typical sign to write /s/ while the other possible sign fell out of use.

Etymology 2

Shortened form of سَوْفَ (sawfa).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s/, [s]

Letter

س (transliteration needed)

1. The twenty-fourth letter of the Balti alphabet, written in the Perso-Arabic script

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s/, [s]

Letter

س (transliteration needed)

1. The twenty-third letter of the Burushaski alphabet, written in the Perso-Arabic script

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s/, [s], [ɕ]

Letter

س

1. The sixteenth letter of the Xiao'erjing abjad.

Pronunciation

• (letter name): IPA^(key): /siːn/
• (phoneme): IPA^(key): /s/

Letter

س • (s)

1. The twenty-third letter of the traditional alphabet chart of Kashmiri.

Pronunciation

• (letter name): IPA^(key): /siːn/
• (phoneme): IPA^(key): /s/

Letter

س • (s)

1. The eleventh letter of the Kazakh in Arabic Script. It represents the Cyrillic letter С.

Pronunciation

• (letter name): IPA^(key): /sin/
• (phoneme): IPA^(key): /s/

Letter

س (sīn)

1. The twenty-third letter of the Khowar abjad.

Etymology 1

Malay Wikipedia has an article on:

س

Wikipedia ^ms

Etymology 2

Shortened form of اسا, from Proto-Malayic *əsa, from Proto-Malayo-Chamic *əsa, from Proto-Malayo-Sumbawan *əsa, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *əsa, from Proto-Austronesian *əsa.

Pronunciation

• (letter name): IPA^(key): /sin/
• (phoneme): IPA^(key): /s/

Letter

س • (sin)

1. The twenty-first letter of the Pashto alphabet.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Iran):

  (file)

Letter

ﺱ / ﺳ‍ / ﺴ / ‍ﺲ • (sin)

1. The fifteenth letter of the Perso-Arabic alphabet. It is preceded by ژ and followed by ش. Its name is سین.

Alternative forms

• Gurmukhi letter: ਸ (sassā)

Pronunciation

• (letter name): IPA^(key): /siːn̪/
• (phoneme): IPA^(key): /s/

Letter

س • (sīn)

1. The eighteenth letter of Punjabi in the Shahmukhi script.

Pronunciation

• (letter name): IPA^(key): /siːn/
• (phoneme): IPA^(key): /s/

Letter

س • (sīn)

1. The twenty-ninth letter of the Sindhi abjad.

Pronunciation

• (letter name): (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /siːn/
• (phoneme): (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /s/

Letter

س • (sīn)

1. The eighteenth letter of the Urdu abjad.

Pronunciation

• (letter name): IPA^(key): /se/
• (phoneme): IPA^(key): /s/

Letter

س • (se)

1. The thirteenth letter of the Uyghur alphabet.

Pronunciation

• (letter name): IPA^(key): /sí/
• (phoneme): IPA^(key): /s/

Letter

س (s)

1. The twentieth letter of the Yoruba alphabet in the ajami script, equivalent to Latin script s.