Samekh

Samekh is the fifteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician sāmek 𐤎, Hebrew sāmeḵ ס, Aramaic samek 𐡎, and Syriac semkaṯ ܣ.

← Nun Samekh Ayin →
Phoenician
Hebrew	ס
Aramaic
Syriac	ܣ
Arabic	-
Phonemic representation	s
Position in alphabet	15
Numerical value	60
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician
Greek	Ξ
Latin	-
Cyrillic	Ѯ

Samekh represents a voiceless alveolar fricative /s/. In the Hebrew language, the samekh has the same pronunciation as the left-dotted shin.

The numerical value of samekh is 60.

Origin

The Phoenician letter may continue a glyph from the Middle Bronze Age alphabets, either based on a hieroglyph for a tent peg or support, possibly the djed "pillar" hieroglyph^{[clarification needed][1]} (c.f. Hebrew root סמך s-m-kh 'support', סֶמֶךְ semekh 'support, rest', סוֹמֵךְ somekh 'support peg, post', סוֹמְכָה somkha 'armrest', סָמוֹכָה smokha 'stake, support', indirectly s'mikhah סמיכה; Aramaic סַמְכָא samkha 'socket, base', סְמַךְ smakh 'support, help'; Syriac ܣܡܟܐ semkha 'support').

The shape of samek undergoes complicated developments. In archaic scripts, the vertical stroke can be drawn either across or below the three horizontal strokes. The closed form of Hebrew samek is developed only in the Hasmonean period.^[2]

Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew (c. 800 BC)	Samaritan (c. 400 BC)	Imperial Aramaic (c. 400 BC)	Hebrew (from ca. 50 BC)
	ࠎ‎

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek xi (Ξ),^[3] whereas its name may also be reflected in the name of the otherwise unrelated Greek letter sigma.^[4]

The archaic "grid" shape of Western Greek xi ( ) was adopted in the early Etruscan alphabet (𐌎 esh), but was never included in the Latin alphabet.

Arabic sīn/ṣād & Nabataean simkath

Samekh has no surviving descendant in the Arabic alphabet,^{[citation needed]} so it was replaced by either ص Ṣād (ultimately from Ṣādē 𐤑) or س Sīn (ultimately from Šīn 𐤔).^{[citation needed]}

In the Mashriqi abjad sequence:^[5]

• س Sīn replaces Samekh at 15th position and acquires the numerical value of 60;
  • ش Shīn, a variant of س sīn, is at the 21st position and has the numerical value of 300;
• ص Sād is still at its original 18th position and retains the numerical value of 90.

Position in word	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	س‎	ـس‎	ـسـ‎	سـ‎

The Nabataean alphabet, however, which is the immediate predecessor to the Arabic alphabet, contains the letter Simkath  .

In the Maghrebian abjad sequence (quoted in apparently earliest authorities and considered older):^[5]

• ص Ṣād replaces Samekh at 15th position and acquires the numerical value of 60;
  • ض Ḍād, a variant of ص ṣād, is at the 18th position and has the numerical value of 90;
• س Sīn is still at its original 21st position and retains the numerical value of 300.

Position in word	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	ص‎	ـص‎	ـصـ‎	صـ‎

Syriac semkat

The Syriac letter semkaṯ ܣܡܟܬ develops from the Imperial Aramaic "hook" shape 𐡎 into a rounded form by the 1st century. The Old Syriac form further develops into a connected cursive both in the Eastern and Western script variants.

Aramaic	Old Syriac	Eastern	Western

Hebrew samekh

Hebrew Samekh develops a closed cursive form in the middle Hasmonean period (1st century BC). This becomes the standard form in early Herodian hands.^[2]

Orthographic variants
Various print fonts			Cursive Hebrew	Rashi script
Serif	Sans-serif	Monospaced
ס	ס	ס

Talmudic legend

In Talmudic legend, samekh is said to have been a miracle of the Ten Commandments. Exodus 32:15 records that the tablets "were written on both their sides." The Jerusalem Talmud interprets this as meaning that the inscription went through the full thickness of the tablets. The stone in the center parts of the letters ayin and teth should have fallen out, as these letters are closed in the ktav ivri script and would not be connected to the rest of the tablet, but miraculously remained in place. The Babylonian Talmud (tractate Shabbat 104a) also cites the opinion that these closed letters included samekh, attributed to Rav Chisda (d. ca. 320).^[6]

Character encodings

Character information

Preview	ס		ܣ		ܤ		ࠎ
Unicode name	HEBREW LETTER SAMEKH		SYRIAC LETTER SEMKATH		SYRIAC LETTER FINAL SEMKATH		SAMARITAN LETTER SINGAAT
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	1505	U+05E1	1827	U+0723	1828	U+0724	2062	U+080E
UTF-8	215 161	D7 A1	220 163	DC A3	220 164	DC A4	224 160 142	E0 A0 8E
Numeric character reference	ס	ס	ܣ	ܣ	ܤ	ܤ	ࠎ	ࠎ

Character information

Preview	𐎒		𐡎		𐤎
Unicode name	UGARITIC LETTER SAMKA		IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER SAMEKH		PHOENICIAN LETTER SEMKA
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	66450	U+10392	67662	U+1084E	67854	U+1090E
UTF-8	240 144 142 146	F0 90 8E 92	240 144 161 142	F0 90 A1 8E	240 144 164 142	F0 90 A4 8E
UTF-16	55296 57234	D800 DF92	55298 56398	D802 DC4E	55298 56590	D802 DD0E
Numeric character reference	𐎒	𐎒	𐡎	𐡎	𐤎	𐤎

Character information

Preview	𐢖		س
Unicode name	NABATAEAN LETTER SAMEKH		ARABIC LETTER SEEN
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	67734	U+10896	1587	U+0633
UTF-8	240 144 162 150	F0 90 A2 96	216 179	D8 B3
UTF-16	55298 56470	D802 DC96	1587	0633
Numeric character reference	𐢖	𐢖	س	س

References

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Samekh (letter).

1. Betro, M. C. (1996). Hieroglyphics. Abbeyville Press, NY, p. 209.
2. Frank Moore Cross, Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (2018), p. 30.
3. Muss-Arnolt, W. (1892). On Semitic Words in Greek and Latin. Transactions of the American Philological Association v. 23, p. 35-156. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
4. Jeffery, Lilian H. (1961). The local scripts of archaic Greece. Oxford: Clarendon. pp. 25–27.
5. Macdonald, Michael C. A. (1986). "ABCs and letter order in Ancient North Arabian". Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies (16)., p. 117. 130, 149
6. The William Davidson Talmud , Shabbat 104a.