Samekh
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| Samekh | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | Syriac | Hebrew | Aramaic | Phoenician |
|
|
ܣ / ܤ | ס |  |
 |
| Phonemic representation (IPA): | s | |||
| Position in alphabet: | 15 | |||
| Gematria/Abjad value: | 60 | |||
Samekh or Simketh is the fifteenth letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Hebrew, and Aramaic, representing /s/. The Arabic alphabet, however, uses a letter based on Phoenician šin to represent /s/ (see there).
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Chi (Χ) and Xi (Ξ), and Latin X.
Contents |
[edit] Origins
The origin of Samekh is unclear. The Phoenician letter may continue a glyph from the Middle Bronze Age alphabets, either based on a hieroglyph for a fish like Nun (samak is fish in Arabic), or a tent peg / some kind of prop (s'mikhah in modern Hebrew means to support), and thus may be derived from the Egyptian hieroglyph djed.
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[edit] Hebrew Samekh
| Hebrew alphabet | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| א ב ג ד ה ו | |||||
| ז ח ט י כך | |||||
| ל מם נן ס ע פף | |||||
| צץ ק ר ש ת | |||||
| History · Transliteration Niqqud · Dagesh · Gematria Cantillation · Numeration |
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| Syriac alphabet | |||||
| ܐ | ܒ | ܓ | ܕ | ||
| ܗ | ܘ | ܙ | ܚ | ܛ | ܝ |
| ܟܟ | ܠ | ܡܡ | ܢܢ | ܣ | ܥ |
| ܦ | ܨ | ܩ | ܪ | ܫ | ܬ |
[edit] Pronunciation
Samekh represents /s/, a voiceless alveolar fricative. Unlike most Semitic consonants, the pronunciation of /s/ remains constant between vowels and before voiced consonants.
[edit] Significance
Samekh in gematria has the value 60.
Samekh and Mem form the abbreviation for the Angel of Death, whose name in Hebrew is Samael. It also stands for centimetre.
Samekh is said to have been the miracle of the Ten Commandments. Exodus 32:15 records that the tablets "were written on both their sides." The Babyloanian Talmud (tractate Shabbat 104a) explains that there were miracles involved with the carving on the tablets. One was that the carving went the full thickness of the tablets. The stone in the center part of the letter Samekh should have fallen out, as it was not connected to the rest of the tablet, but it did not; it miraculously remained in place. Scholars disagree, as the Ten Commandments would have been written in the style of the period, and thus Samekh would have been similar to the Phoenician pictogram seen in the table. However, the parallel version in the Jerusalem Talmud asserts the same miracle about Ayin and Tet, both having hollows in its ancient form.
