# Samekh

Samekh or samech is the fifteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician sāmek 𐤎, Hebrew sāmeḵ ס‎, Aramaic samek 𐡎, and Syriac semkaṯ ܣ. It is related to the Ancient North Arabian 𐪏‎‎‎, South Arabian 𐩯, and Ge'ez ሰ. Its Arabic equivalent is س sīn; the 15th letter in the eastern Abjadi order.
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. The letter samekh is the only letter of the Semitic abjad that has no surviving descendant in the Arabic alphabet.

## 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 𓊽 (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.
| Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew (c. 1000 BC) | Imperial Aramaic (c. 800 BC) | Greek Chi (letter)(750 BC) | Hebrew (from ca. 350 BC) |
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek xi (Ξ), whereas its name may also be reflected in the name of the otherwise unrelated Greek letter sigma.
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. The letter samekh is currently the only letter of the Semitic abjad that has no surviving descendant in the Arabic alphabet, and the letter س corresponds exclusively to ש rather than ס, but an unnamed early Arabian linguist were once corresponds it to samekh.

## 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 |
| Position in word | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
| Glyph form: (Help) | ܣ‎‎ | ـܣ‎‎ | ـܣ‎ـ‎ | ܣ‎ـ‎ |

## 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.
Orthographic variants :
| Various print fonts | Various print fonts | Various print fonts | Cursive Hebrew | Rashi script |
| Serif | Sans-serif | Monospaced | Cursive Hebrew | Rashi script |
| 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).

## Character encodings

Character information :
| Preview | ס | ס | ܣ | ܣ | ܤ | ܤ | ࠎ | ࠎ |
| Unicode name | HEBREW LETTER SAMEKH | HEBREW LETTER SAMEKH | SYRIAC LETTER SEMKATH | SYRIAC LETTER SEMKATH | SYRIAC LETTER FINAL SEMKATH | SYRIAC LETTER FINAL SEMKATH | SAMARITAN LETTER SINGAAT | 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 | &#1505; | &#x5E1; | &#1827; | &#x723; | &#1828; | &#x724; | &#2062; | &#x80E; |
Character information :
| Preview | 𐎒 | 𐎒 | 𐡎 | 𐡎 | 𐤎 | 𐤎 |
| Unicode name | UGARITIC LETTER SAMKA | UGARITIC LETTER SAMKA | IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER SAMEKH | IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER SAMEKH | PHOENICIAN LETTER SEMKA | 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 | &#66450; | &#x10392; | &#67662; | &#x1084E; | &#67854; | &#x1090E; |
Character information :
| Preview | 𐢖 | 𐢖 | س | س |
| Unicode name | NABATAEAN LETTER SAMEKH | NABATAEAN LETTER SAMEKH | ARABIC LETTER SEEN | 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 | &#67734; | &#x10896; | &#1587; | &#x633; |