his article is about the nineteenth letter of the alphabet.

For other uses, see S

(disambiguation). "Ess" redirects here. For other uses, see Ess (disambiguation).

For technical reasons, "S#", "ſ", and "S#arp" redirects here. For their respective articles,
see [Link], Long s, and S#arp (band).

Ss

Usage

Writing Latin script

system

Type Alphabetic and logographic

Language Latin language

of origin

Sound  [s]
values
 [z]

 [ʃ]

 [θ]

 [ts]

 [ʒ]

In Unicod U+0053, U+0073

e

Alphabeti 19
cal
position

History

Developm
ent

 Σσ
ς


�

Time c. 700 BCE to present

period

Descenda  ſ
nts
 ß

 Ƨ

 Ꞅ

 $

 ₷

 §

 ℠

 ᛋ

 ∫
Sisters  Ѕѕ

 Сс

 Шш

 Щщ

 Ҫҫ

 Ԍԍ
 ‫ש‬

 ‫ش‬

 ‫ܫ‬

 ‫س‬

 ࠔ

 𐎘

 𐡔

 ሠ

 ㅅ (disputed)

 Սս
 श

 स

 શ

 સ

Variations ſ

Other

Associate s(x), sh, sz

d graphs

Writing Left-to-right
direction

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in

the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an
introductory guide on IPA symbols,
see Help:IPA. For the distinction
 between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and
transcription delimiters.

ISO basic
Latin alphabet

AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMm
NnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYy
Zz

 v

 t

 e

S (minuscule: s) is the nineteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet,
the alphabets of other western European languages and other latin alphabets worldwide. Its
name in English is ess[a] (pronounced /ˈɛs/ ⓘ), plural esses.[1]

History

Further information: Shin (letter), Sigma, San (letter), and Sho (letter)

Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician Western Greek Etruscan Latin

Shin Shin Sigma S S

Northwest Semitic šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/ (as in 'ship'). It
originated most likely as a pictogram of a tooth (‫ )שנא‬and represented the phoneme /ʃ/ via
the acrophonic principle.[2]

Ancient Greek did not have a /ʃ/ "sh" phoneme, so the derived Greek letter Sigma (Σ) came
to represent the voiceless alveolar sibilant /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] Within Greek, the name
of sigma was influenced by its association with the Greek word σίζω (earlier *sigj-), "to hiss".
The original name of the letter "Sigma" may have been san, but due to the early history of
the Greek epichoric alphabets, "san" came to be identified as a separate letter, Ϻ.
[3]
Herodotus reported that "san" was the name given by the Dorians to the same letter
called "Sigma" by the Ionians.[4]

The Western Greek alphabet used in Cumae was adopted by the Etruscans and Latins in the
7th century BC, and over the following centuries, it developed into a range of Old Italic
alphabets, including the Etruscan alphabet and the early Latin alphabet. In Etruscan, the
value /s/ of Greek sigma (𐌔) was maintained, while san (𐌑) represented a separate
phoneme, most likely /ʃ/ "sh" (transliterated as ś). The early Latin alphabet adopted sigma,
but not san, as Old Latin did not have a /ʃ/ "sh" 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 of 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 (ᛊ), and appears with four to eight strokes in the earliest runic
inscriptions, but is occasionally reduced to three strokes (ᛋ) from the later 5th century, and
appears regularly with three strokes in Younger Futhark.

The ⟨sh⟩ digraph for English /ʃ/ arose in Middle English (alongside ⟨sch⟩), replacing the Old
English ⟨sc⟩ digraph. Similarly, Old High German ⟨sc⟩ was replaced by ⟨sch⟩ in Early Modern
High German orthography.

Long s

Late medieval German script (Swabian bastarda,

dated 1496) illustrating the use of long and round s: prieſters tochter ("priest's daughter").

Main article: Long s

The minuscule form ſ, 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 were at the time only used at the end of words.

In most Western orthographies, the ſ 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 'ſ' in favor of the round
one, as being less liable to error....."[5] 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

the Eszett ⟨ß⟩ in contemporary German orthography.

abolished in 1941.[6] The ligature of ſs (or ſz) was retained; however, it gave rise to

Use in writing systems

Pronunciation of ⟨s⟩ by language

Orthography Phonemes

Catalan /s/, /z/

Standard
/s/
Chinese (Pinyin)

English /s/, /z/, silent

French /s/, /z/, silent

German /z/, /s/, /ʃ/

Hungarian /ʃ/

/s/, /z/, /ʃ/,

Portuguese
/ʒ/

Spanish /s/

Turkish /s/

English

In English, ⟨s⟩ represents a voiceless alveolar sibilant /s/. It also commonly represents
a voiced alveolar sibilant /z/, as in 'rose' and 'bands'. Due to yod-coalescence, it may also
represent a voiceless palato-alveolar fricative /ʃ/, as in 'sugar', or a voiced palato-alveolar
fricative /ʒ/, as in 'measure'.

Final ⟨s⟩ is the usual mark for plural nouns. It is the regular ending of English third
person present tense verbs.
In some words of French origin, ⟨s⟩ is silent, as in 'isle' or 'debris'.

The letter ⟨s⟩ is the seventh most common letter in English and the third-most common
consonant after ⟨t⟩ and ⟨n⟩.[7] It is the most common letter for the first letter of a word in the
English language.[8][9]

German

In German, ⟨s⟩ represents:

 A voiced alveolar sibilant /z/ before vowels (except after obstruents), as in 'sich'.

 A voiceless alveolar sibilant /s/ before consonants or when final, as in 'ist' and 'das'.

 A voiceless palato-alveolar fricative /ʃ/ before ⟨p, t⟩ at the beginning of a word or

syllable, as in 'spät' and 'Stadt'.

When doubled (⟨ss⟩), it represents a voiceless alveolar sibilant /s/, as in 'müssen'.

In the trigraph ⟨sch⟩, it represents a voiceless palato-alveolar fricative /ʃ/, as in 'schon'.

Other languages

In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, ⟨s⟩ represents the voiceless
alveolar or voiceless dental sibilant /s/.

In many Romance languages, it also represents the voiced alveolar or voiced dental
sibilant /z/, as in Portuguese mesa (table).

In Portuguese, it may represent the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative /ʃ/ in

most dialects when syllable-final, and [ʒ] in European Portuguese Islão (Islam) or, in many
sociolects of Brazilian Portuguese, esdrúxulo (proparoxytone). However, when the next word
starts with a vowel, this /ʃ/ is turned into [z] in all dialects. The former stadium of FC
Porto, Estádio das Antas, was sometimes mispronounced with three instances of [ʃ] by
foreign commentators, while the native pronunciation is [ɨʃˈtaðju ðɐz ˈɐ̃ tɐʃ] (where a

without the retraction, ⟨s⟩ in das is pronounced the same in this phrase, [is
phonetic [ʃ] appears before a consonant and a pause, respectively). In Brazilian dialects

ˈtadʒiu daz ˈɐ̃ tɐs], with differences lying elsewhere.

In some Andalusian dialects of Spanish, it merged with Peninsular Spanish ⟨c⟩ and ⟨z⟩ and is
now pronounced /θ/.

In Hungarian, it represents /ʃ/.

In Turkmen, it represents /θ/.

In several Western Romance languages, like Spanish and French, the final ⟨s⟩ is the usual
mark of plural nouns.

Other systems
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨s⟩ represents the voiceless alveolar sibilant /s/.

Other uses

Main article: S (disambiguation)

 Used in a chemical formula to represent sulfur. For example, SO

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

 ſ : Latin letter long s, an obsolete variant of s

 ẜ ẝ : Various forms of long s were used for medieval scribal abbreviations.[10]

 ẞ ß : German Eszett or "sharp S", derived from a ligature of long s followed by either s
or z

 S with diacritics: Ś ś Ṡ ṡ ẛ Ṩ ṩ Ṥ ṥ Ṣ ṣ S̩ s̩ Ꞩ ꞩ Ꟊ ꟊ[11] Ꟍ ꟍ[12] Ŝ ŝ Ṧ ṧ Š š Ş ş Ș ș S̈ s̈ ᶊ Ȿ

ȿ ᵴ[13] ᶳ[14]

 ₛ : Subscript small s was used in the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal
standardization in 1902.[15]

 ˢ : Modifier letter small s is used for phonetic transcription.

 ꜱ : Small capital S was used in the Icelandic First Grammatical Treatise to

mark gemination.[10]

 ꟱ : Modifier letter capital S is used as a phonetic and phonemic wildcard.[16] It is also

used as a tone sandhi letter in Western Highlands Chatino of Oaxaca.[16]

 Ʂ ʂ : S with hook, used for writing Mandarin Chinese using the early draft version
of pinyin romanization during the mid-1950s[17]

 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.
[18]

 IPA-specific symbols related to S: ʃ ɧ[citation needed] ʂ

 Para-IPA version of the IPA fricative ɕ:[19] 𝼞 𐞺

 Ꞅ ꞅ : Insular S
  Ꟗ ꟗ : Used in Middle Scots[20]

 Ꟙ ꟙ : Latin letter Sigmoid S was used in medieval palaeography[21]

Derived signs, symbols, and abbreviations

A letter S in the coat of arms of Sortavala

 $ : Dollar sign

 ₷ : Spesmilo

 § : Section sign

 ℠ : 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 ( ), a three-stroke form
resembling an angular Latin S ( ) was commonly found, and was particularly
characteristic of some mainland Greek varieties, including the Attic and
several "red" alphabets.

 Σ: classical Greek letter Sigma

 Ϲ ϲ: Greek lunate sigma

 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

 ᛊ, ᛋ, ᛌ : Runic letter sowilo, which is derived from Old Italic S

 𐍃: Gothic letter sigil

 Ս : Armenian letter Se

Other representations

Computing

 U+0053 S LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S

 U+0073 s LATIN SMALL LETTER S

 U+FF33 Ｓ FULLWIDTH LATIN CAPITAL LETTER S

 U+FF53 ｓ FULLWIDTH LATIN SMALL LETTER S

Other representations

NATO phonetic Morse code

Sierra {{#parsoidfragment:50}} ▄ ▄ ▄ ⓘ

Braille dots-
American manual British manual 234
Flag
Signal flag alphabet (ASL fingerspelli alphabet (BSL fingerspelli Unified
semaphore
ng) ng) English
Braille

See also

 Cool S

 Ⓢ in Enclosed Alphanumerics

Notes

a. Spelled 'es'- in compound words

References
1. "S", Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New
International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "ess," op. cit.

2. "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".

3. Woodard, Roger D. (2006). "Alphabet". In Wilson, Nigel Guy. Encyclopedia of ancient

Greece. London: Routldedge. p. 38.

4. "...τὠυτὸ γράμμα, τὸ Δωριέες μὲν σὰν καλέουσι ,Ἴωνες δὲ σίγμα" ('...the same
letter, which the Dorians call "San", but the Ionians "Sigma"...';
Herodotus, Histories 1.139); cf. Nick Nicholas, Non-Attic letters Archived 5 November
2015 at the Wayback Machine.

5. 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.

6. Order of 3 January 1941 to all public offices, signed by Martin Bormann. Kapr, Albert
(1993). Fraktur: Form und Geschichte der gebrochenen Schriften. Mainz: H. Schmidt.
p. 81. ISBN 3-87439-260-0.

7. "English Letter Frequency". Archived from the original on 23 May 2014. Retrieved 21
May 2014.

8. "Letter Frequencies in the English Language". Retrieved 2 July 2021.[permanent dead link]

9. "Which English Letter Has Maximum Words". 25 June 2012. Archived from the
original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2021.

10. Everson, Michael; Baker, Peter; Emiliano, António; Grammel, Florian; Haugen, Odd
Einar; Luft, Diana; Pedro, Susana; Schumacher, Gerd; Stötzner, Andreas (30 January
2006). "L2/06-027: Proposal to add Medievalist characters to the
UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 September 2018. Retrieved 24
March 2018.

11. Everson, Michael; Lilley, Chris (26 May 2019). "L2/19-179: Proposal for the addition
of four Latin characters for Gaulish" (PDF).

12. Miller, Kirk (9 July 2022). "L2/22-113R: Unicode request for two BMP Latin
characters" (PDF).
13. Constable, Peter (30 September 2003). "L2/03-174R2: Proposal to Encode Phonetic
Symbols with Middle Tilde in the UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 11
October 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2018.

14. Constable, Peter (19 April 2004). "L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic
characters to the UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2017.
Retrieved 24 March 2018.

15. Ruppel, Klaas; Aalto, Tero; Everson, Michael (27 January 2009). "L2/09-028:
Proposal to encode additional characters for the Uralic Phonetic
Alphabet" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 24
March 2018.

16. "L2/24-081: Unicode request for modifier capital S" (PDF). 19 March 2024.

17. West, Andrew; Chan, Eiso; Everson, Michael (16 January 2017). "L2/17-013:
Proposal to encode three uppercase Latin letters used in early
Pinyin" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 8
March 2019.

18. Miller, Kirk; Rees, Neil (16 July 2021). "L2/21-156: Unicode request for legacy
Malayalam" (PDF).

19. Miller, Kirk (11 January 2021). "L2/21-041: Unicode request for additional para-IPA
letters" (PDF).

20. Everson, Michael (25 April 2019). "L2/19-180R: Proposal to add two characters for
Middle Scots to the UCS" (PDF).

21. Everson, Michael (1 October 2020). "L2/20-269: Proposal to add two SIGMOID S
characters for mediaeval palaeography" (PDF).