samekh

The Phoenician letter may continue a glyph from the Middle Bronze Age alphabets, possibly based on a hieroglyph for a tent peg or support, such as the djed "pillar" hieroglyph 𓊽{{cite book |last= Betro|first= M. C. |title= Hieroglyphics|url= https://archive.org/details/hieroglyphicswri0000betr|url-access= registration|year= 1996|publisher= Abbeyville Press, NY, p. 209}}

(cf. 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 {{lang|he|סמיכה}}; Aramaic סַמְכָא samkha 'socket, base', סְמַךְ smakh 'support, help'; Syriac ܣܡܟܐ semkha 'support', Arabic سَمَكَ 'to raise, to elevate').

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.Frank Moore Cross, Leaves from an Epigrapher's Notebook: Collected Papers in Hebrew and West Semitic Palaeography and Epigraphy (2018), [https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA30 p. 30] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230903112544/https://books.google.com/books?id=wN6mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA30 |date=2023-09-03 }}.

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek xi (Ξ),{{cite book |last= Muss-Arnolt|first= W.|title= On Semitic Words in Greek and Latin|year= 1892|publisher= Transactions of the American Philological Association v. 23, p. 35-156. The Johns Hopkins University Press}} whereas its name may also be reflected in the name of the otherwise unrelated Greek letter sigma.{{cite book|last=Jeffery|first=Lilian H.|title=The local scripts of archaic Greece|place=Oxford|publisher=Clarendon|year=1961|pages=25–27}}

The archaic "grid" shape of Western Greek xi (File:Greek Xi archaic grid.svg) was adopted in the early Etruscan alphabet (𐌎 esh), but was never included in the Latin alphabet. The letter samekh is currently the only letter of the Semitic abjad that has no surviving descendant in the Arabic alphabet, and the letter {{lang|ar|س}} corresponds exclusively to {{lang|he|ש}} rather than {{lang|he|ס}}.

The history of the letters expressing sibilants in the various Semitic alphabets is somewhat complicated, due to different mergers between Proto-Semitic phonemes. As usually reconstructed, there are four plain Proto-Semitic coronal voiceless fricative phonemes (not counting emphatic ones) that evolved into the various voiceless sibilants of its daughter languages, as follows:

Note: Hebrew {{script|Hebrew|ש}} represents both {{IPA|/s/}} and {{IPA|/ʃ/}}, when distinguishing is required, they can be distinguished a dot above the left-hand side of the letter for {{IPAslink|s}} {{script|Hebrew|שׂ}} and above the right-hand side for {{IPAslink|ʃ}} {{script|Hebrew|שׁ}}.

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

In Talmudic legend, samekh is said to have been a miracle of the Ten Commandments. {{bibleverse|Exodus||32:15|HE}} 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).The William Davidson Talmud , [https://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.104a?lang=bi Shabbat 104a] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003022517/https://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.104a?lang=bi |date=2020-10-03 }}.

The Syriac letter semkaṯ {{lang|syr|ܣܡܟܬ}} develops from the Imperial Aramaic "hook" shape {{lang|arc|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.

{{Arabic alphabet shapes|ܣ‎}}

{{charmap

|05E1|name1=Hebrew Letter Samekh

|0723|name2=Syriac Letter Semkath

|0724|name3=Syriac Letter Final Semkath

|080E|name4=Samaritan Letter Singaat

}}

{{charmap

|10392|name1=Ugaritic Letter Samka

|1084E|name2=Imperial Aramaic Letter Samekh

|1090E|name3=Phoenician Letter Semka

|10896|name4=Nabataean Letter Samekh

}}

{{notelist}}

{{commons category|Samekh (letter)}}

{{reflist}}{{Arabic language}}{{Hebrew language}}

{{Northwest Semitic abjad}}

Category:Phoenician alphabet

Category:Hebrew letters