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S, or s, is the nineteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and other worldwide. Its name in English is ess (pronounced ), plural esses."S", Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "ess," op. cit.
Ancient Greek did not have a "sh" phoneme, so the derived Greek letter Sigma (Σ) came to represent the voiceless alveolar sibilant . 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. Within Greek, the name of sigma was influenced by its association with the Greek word σίζω (earlier ), "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.Woodard, Roger D. (2006). "Alphabet". In Wilson, Nigel Guy. Encyclopedia of ancient Greece. London: Routldedge. p. 38. Herodotus reported that "san" was the name given by the Doric Greek to the same letter called "Sigma" by the Ionic Greek."...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 .
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 of Greek sigma (𐌔) was maintained, while san (𐌑) represented a separate phoneme, most likely "sh" (transliterated as ś). The early Latin alphabet adopted sigma, but not san, as Old Latin did not have a "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 language, 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 (), and appears with four to eight strokes in the earliest runic inscriptions, but is occasionally reduced to three strokes () from the later 5th century, and appears regularly with three strokes in Younger Futhark.
The digraph for English arose in Middle English (alongside ), replacing the Old English digraph. Similarly, Old High German was replaced by in Early Modern High German orthography.
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....."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. The Times 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 abolished in 1941. Order of 3 January 1941 to all public offices, signed by Martin Bormann. The ligature of ſs (or ſz) was retained; however, it gave rise to the Eszett in contemporary German orthography.
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Final is the usual mark for plural . It is the regular ending of English third person present tense .
In some words of French origin, is silent, as in 'isle' or 'debris'.
The letter is the seventh most common letter in English language and the third-most common consonant after and . It is the most common letter for the first letter of a word in the English language.
When doubled (), it represents a voiceless alveolar sibilant , as in 'müssen'.
In the trigraph , it represents a voiceless palato-alveolar fricative , as in 'schon'.
In many , it also represents the voiced alveolar or voiced dental sibilant , as in Portuguese mesa (table).
In Portuguese, it may represent the voiceless palato-alveolar fricative in most dialects when syllable-final, and in European Portuguese Islão (Islam) or, in many sociolects of Brazilian Portuguese, esdrúxulo (proparoxytone).
In some Andalusian dialects of Spanish, it merged with Peninsular Spanish and and is now pronounced .
In Hungarian, it represents .
In Turkmen language, it represents .
In several Western Romance languages, like Spanish language and French language, the final is the usual mark of plural .
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