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Shin (letter)

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Shin
Phoenician
𐤔‎
Hebrew
ש‎
Aramaic
𐡔‎
Syriac
ܫ‎
Arabic
س‎‎
Phonemic representationʃ,s[1]
Position in Alpha bet21
Numerical value300
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician
GreekΣ
LatinS,ẞ
CyrillicС,Ш,Щ,Ж

Shin(also spelledŠin(šīn) orSheen) is the twenty-first and penultimateletterof theSemitic abjads,includingPhoenicianšīn𐤔,Hebrewšīnש‎,Aramaicšīn𐡔,Syriacšīnܫ, andArabicsīnس‎[a]andšīnش‎‎‎[b].[c]

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the GreekSigma(Σ) (which in turn gave LatinSand the German letterẞand CyrillicС), and the letterShain theGlagoliticandCyrillicscripts (,Ш).

TheSouth ArabianandEthiopianletterŚawtis also cognate. The letteršīnis the only letter of the Arabic Alpha bet with three dots with a letter corresponding to a letter in the Northwest Semitic abjad or the Phoenician Alpha bet.

Origins

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Egyptian hieroglyph Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician Paleo-Hebrew
Aa32

TheProto-Sinaiticglyph, according toWilliam Albright,was based on a "tooth" and with the phonemic value š "corresponds etymologically (in part, at least) to original Semiticṯ(th), which was pronouncedsin South Canaanite ".[4]However, the Proto-Semitic word for "tooth" has been reconstructed as *šinn-.[5]

The Phoenicianšinletter expressed the continuants of two Proto-Semitic phonemes, and may have been based on a pictogram of a tooth (inmodern Hebrewshen). TheEncyclopaedia Judaica,1972, records that it originally represented acomposite bow.

The history of the letters expressing sibilants in the various Semitic Alpha bets is somewhat complicated, due to different mergers betweenProto-Semiticphonemes. As usually reconstructed, there are sevenProto-Semiticcoronalvoicelessfricativephonemes that evolved into the various voiceless sibilants of its daughter languages, as follows:

Plain consonants
Proto-Semitic Akkadian Phoenician Hebrew Aramaic Arabic Old South Arabian Ge'ez
s[s]/[ts] s 𐤎‎ s ס‎ s ס‎ s س s 𐩯 s₃ (s) ሰ s
š[ʃ]/[s] š 𐤔‎ š שׁ‎ š ש‎ š 𐩪 s₁ (š)
ṯ[θ] ש‎,laterת‎ *ṯ, š,
latert 		ث ṯ 𐩻 ṱ
ś[ɬ]/[tɬ] שׂ‎ *ś, s ש‎,laterס‎ *ś, s ش š 𐩦 s₂ (ś) ሠ ś
Emphatic consonants
Proto-Semitic Akkadian Phoenician Hebrew Aramaic Arabic Old South Arabian Ge'ez
ṣ[sʼ]/[tsʼ] ṣ 𐤑‎ ṣ צ‎ ṣ צ‎ ṣ ص ṣ 𐩮 ṣ ጸ ṣ
ṯ̣[θʼ] צ‎,laterט‎ *ṱ, ṣ,
laterṭ 		ظ ẓ
ṣ́[ɬʼ]/[tɬʼ] ק‎,laterע‎ *ṣ́, q/ḳ,
laterʿ 		ض ḍ 𐩳 ḍ ፀ ṣ́

Arabic shīn/sīn

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In the Arabic Alpha bet, according to McDonald (1986), "there can be no doubt thatش‎‎is a formal derivative ofسand thatسis descended from 𐡔. "[3]

In the supposedly older Maghrebianabjadi ordersīnis at the original (21st) position, represents/s/,and is the 12th letter of the modernhijā’ī(هِجَائِي) oralifbāʾī(أَلِفْبَائِي) order and is written thus:

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

In the Mashriqiabjadi orderسsīntakes the place ofSamekhat 15th position;[d]meanwhile, the letter variantshīnis placed at the original (21st) position, represents/ʃ/,and is the 13th letter of the modernhijā’ī(هِجَائِي) oralifbāʾī(أَلِفْبَائِي) order and is written thus:

Position in word Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form:
(Help) 		ش‎ ـش‎ ـشـ‎ شـ‎

The Arabic lettershīnwas an acronym for "something" (شيءshayʾ(un)[ʃajʔ(un)]) meaning the unknown in algebraic equations. In the transcription into Spanish, the Greek letterchi(χ)was used which was later transcribed into Latinx.The lettershīn,along withṮāʾ,are the only two surviving letters in Arabic with three dots above. According to some sources, this is the origin ofxused for the unknown in the equations.[6][7]However, according to other sources, there is no historical evidence for this.[8][9]InModern Arabic mathematical notation,سsīn,i.e.shīnwithout its dots,often corresponds to Latinx.This led a debate to many Semitic linguists that the lettershīnis Arabic forsamekh,although many Semitic linguists argue this debate as samekh has no surviving descendant in theArabic Alpha bet.

InMoroccan Arabic,the letterڜ,šīnwith an additional three dots below, is used to transliterate the/t͡ʃ/sound inSpanishloan words.[10]

Position in word Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form:
(Help) 		ڜ‎ ـڜ‎ ـڜـ‎ ڜـ‎

InUnicode,this isU+069CڜARABIC LETTER SEEN WITH THREE DOTS BELOW AND THREE DOTS ABOVE.

Females in theMiddle Eastpredominantly use and prefer [s] and س over/sˤ/ص, suggesting a potential inde xing of femininity within their community of practice, aligning with theories ofindexicalityinsociolinguistics.[11][12]

Aramaic shin/sin

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InAramaic,where the use ofshinis well-determined, the orthography ofsinwas never fully resolved.

To express an etymological *ś,a number of dialects chose eithersinorsamekexclusively, where other dialects switch freely between them (often 'leaning' more often towards one or the other). For example:[13]

ʿaśar

"ten"

Old Aramaic Imperial Aramaic Middle Aramaic Palestinian Aramaic Babylonian Aramaic
עשר‎ Syrian Inscriptions Idumaean Ostraca, Egyptian, Egyptian-Persian, Ezra Qumran Galilean Gaonic, Jewish Babylonian Aramaic
עסר‎ Tell Halaf (none recorded) Palmyrene, Syriac Zoar,Christian Palestinian Aramaic Mandaic
both (none recorded) (none recorded) (none recorded) Targum Jehonathan, Original Manuscript Archival Texts, Palestinian Targum (Genizah), Samaritan Late Jewish Literary Aramaic

Regardless of how it is written, *śin spoken Aramaic seems to have universally resolved to /s/.

Hebrew shin/sin

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Orthographicvariants
Various print fonts Cursive
Hebrew 		Rashi
script
Serif Sans-serif Monospaced
ש ש ש

Hebrew spelling:שִׁין

The Hebrew/s/version according to the reconstruction shown above is descended from Proto-Semitic *ś,aphonemethought to correspond to avoiceless alveolar lateral fricative/ɬ/,similar to WelshLlin "Llandudno"(Welsh:[ɬanˈdɨdnɔ]ⓘ).

See alsoHebrew phonology,Śawt.

Sin and Shin dot

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The Hebrew letter represents two different phonemes: asibilant/s/,like Englishsour, and a/ʃ/,like Englishshoe. Prior to the advent and ascendancy ofTiberianorthography, the two were distinguished by a superscriptsamekh,i.e.ש‎ vs.שס‎, which later developed into the dot. The two are distinguished by a dot above the left-hand side of the letter for/s/and above the right-hand side for/ʃ/.In the biblical nameIssachar(Hebrew:יִשָּׂשכָר) only, the second sin/shin letter is always written without any dot, even in fully vocalized texts. This is because the second sin/shin is always silent.

Name Symbol IPA Transliteration Example
Sin dot (left) שׂ‎ /s/ s sour
Shin dot (right) שׁ‎ /ʃ/ sh shop

Unicode encoding

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Glyph Unicode Name
ׁ‎ U+05C1 SHIN DOT
ׂ‎ U+05C2 SIN DOT

Significance

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forms of letter shin phoenician
The rapid evolution of kaf, mem, shin from the 13th-8th c are especially helpful to date "les écritures phéniciennes archaïques."[14][15]

Ingematria,Shin represents the number 300. The breakdown of its namesake, Shin[300] - Yodh[10] - Nunh[50] gives thegeometricalmeaningful number360,which can be interpreted as encompassing the fullness of the degrees ofcircles.

Shin as aprefixcommonly used in late-Biblical and Modern Hebrew language carries similar meaning as specificity faringrelative pronounsin English: "that (..)", "which (..)" and "who (..)". When used this way, it is pronounced as 'sheh-' (IPA /ʃɛ-/. In colloquial Hebrew,Kaphand Shin together are a contraction ofכּאשר,ka'asher (as, when).

Shin is also one of the seven letters which receive “crowns” (calledtagin) in aSefer Torah.(SeeGimmel,Ayin,Teth,Nun,Zayin,andTzadi).

According toJudges12:6, the tribe ofEphraimcould not differentiate between Shin andSamekh;when theGileaditeswere at war with theEphraimites,they would ask suspected Ephraimites to say the wordshibboleth;an Ephraimite would saysibbolethand thus be exposed. This episode is the origin of the English termshibboleth.

In Judaism

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Shin also stands for the wordShaddai,a Name of God. Akohenforms the letter Shin with each of his hands as he recites thePriestly Blessing.In the mid-1960s, actorLeonard Nimoyused a single-handed version of this gesture to create theVulcan hand salutefor his character,Mr. Spock,onStar Trek.[16][17]

The letter Shin is often written on the case of amezuzah,a scroll of parchment containing select Biblical texts. Sometimes the whole wordShaddaiwill be written.

The Shema Yisrael prayer also commands the Israelites to write God's commandments on their hearts (Deut. 6:6); the shape of the letter Shin mimics the structure of the humanheart:the lower, larger leftventricle(which supplies the full body) and the smaller right ventricle (which supplies the lungs) are positioned like the lines of the letter Shin.

A religious significance has been applied to the fact that there are three valleys that comprise the city of Jerusalem's geography: the Valley of Ben Hinnom, Tyropoeon Valley, andKidron Valley,and that these valleys converge to also form the shape of the letter shin, and that theTemple in Jerusalemis located where the dagesh (horizontal line) is. This is seen as a fulfillment of passages such asDeuteronomy 16:2that instructs Jews to celebrate the Pasach at "the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name" (NIV).

In theSefer Yetzirahthe letter Shin is King over Fire, Formed Heaven in the Universe, Hot in the Year, and the Head in the Soul.

The 13th-century Kabbalistic text Sefer HaTemunah, holds that a single letter of unknown pronunciation, held by some to be the four-pronged shin on one side of theteffilinbox, is missing from the current Alpha bet. The world's flaws, the book teaches, are related to the absence of this letter, the eventual revelation of which will repair the universe.

In Russian

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TheCyrillicletter "sha"is sometimes said to derive from the Hebrew lettershin,emphasizing the letters’ similarity.

The corresponding letter for the/ʃ/sound inRussianis nearly identical in shape to the Hebrewshin.Given that theCyrillic scriptincludes borrowed letters from a variety of different Alpha bets such asGreekandLatin,it is often suggested that the lettershais directly borrowed from the Hebrew lettershin(other hypothesized sources includeCopticandSamaritan).

Hebrew terms containingShin

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Shin Betis a commonly used acronym for the IsraeliDepartment of Internal General Security.Despite referring to a former name of the department, it remains the term usually used in English. In Modern Hebrew and Palestinian Arabic, the security service is known as theShabak.

AShin-Shin clashisIsraeli militaryparlance for a battle between two tank divisions (from Hebrew:שִׁרְיוֹן,romanized:shiryon,lit. 'armour').

Sh'at haShin('Shin hour') is the last possible moment for any action, usually in a military context. Corresponds to the English expressioneleventh hour.

Character encodings

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Character information
Preview ש س ش ܫ שׁ שׂ שּׁ שּׂ
Unicode name HEBREW LETTER SHIN ARABIC LETTER SEEN ARABIC LETTER SHEEN SYRIAC LETTER SHIN HEBREW LETTER SHIN WITH SHIN DOT HEBREW LETTER SHIN WITH SIN DOT HEBREW LETTER SHIN WITH DAGESH AND SHIN DOT HEBREW LETTER SHIN WITH DAGESH AND SIN DOT
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 1513 U+05E9 1587 U+0633 1588 U+0634 1835 U+072B 64298 U+FB2A 64299 U+FB2B 64300 U+FB2C 64301 U+FB2D
UTF-8 215 169 D7 A9 216 179 D8 B3 216 180 D8 B4 220 171 DC AB 239 172 170 EF AC AA 239 172 171 EF AC AB 239 172 172 EF AC AC 239 172 173 EF AC AD
Numeric character reference ש ש س س ش ش ܫ ܫ שׁ שׁ שׂ שׂ שּׁ שּׁ שּׂ שּׂ


Character information
Preview ࠔ ⅏ 𐎌 𐡔 𐤔 𐪆 𐩦 ሠ
Unicode name SAMARITAN LETTER SHAN SYMBOL FOR SAMARITAN SOURCE UGARITIC LETTER SHEN IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER SHIN PHOENICIAN LETTER SHIN OLD NORTH ARABIAN LETTER ES-2 OLD SOUTH ARABIAN LETTER SHIN ETHIOPIC LETTER SZA
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 2068 U+0814 8527 U+214F 66444 U+1038C 67668 U+10854 67860 U+10914 68230 U+10A86 68198 U+10A66 4640 U+1220
UTF-8 224 160 148 E0 A0 94 226 133 143 E2 85 8F 240 144 142 140 F0 90 8E 8C 240 144 161 148 F0 90 A1 94 240 144 164 148 F0 90 A4 94 240 144 170 134 F0 90 AA 86 240 144 169 166 F0 90 A9 A6 225 136 160 E1 88 A0
UTF-16 2068 0814 8527 214F 55296 57228 D800 DF8C 55298 56404 D802 DC54 55298 56596 D802 DD14 55298 56966 D802 DE86 55298 56934 D802 DE66 4640 1220
Numeric character reference ࠔ ࠔ ⅏ ⅏ 𐎌 𐎌 𐡔 𐡔 𐤔 𐤔 𐪆 𐪆 𐩦 𐩦 ሠ ሠ

Notes

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  1. ^The position of Arabicsīnسis 21st in the Maghrebianabjadi order(quoted by apparently earliest authorities and considered older), 15th in the common abjadi order, 12th in the common hijāʾī order, & 24th in the Maghrebian hijāʾī order; its numerical value is 300 in the Maghrebian abjad order and 60 in the common abjadi order.[2]Its sound value is[s],fromProto-Semitics1orš,whose reconstructed sound value is *[s].[1]
  2. ^The position of Arabicshīnشis 28th in the Maghrebianabjadi order(quoted by apparently earliest authorities and considered older), 21st in the common abjadi order, 13th in the common hijāʾī order, & 25th in the Maghrebian hijāʾī order; its numerical value is 1000 in the Maghrebian abjad order and 300 in the common abjadi order.[2]Its sound value is a[ʃ],fromProto-Semitics2orś,whose reconstructed sound value is *[t͡ɬ].[1]
  3. ^According to McDonald (1986), "there can be no doubt thatش‎‎is a formal derivative ofسand thatسis descended from 𐡔. "[3]
  4. ^Which is occupied byصṣadin the Maghrebianabjadi order.

References

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  1. ^abcKogan 2011,p. 54.
  2. ^abMacdonald 1986,pp. 117, 130, 149.
  3. ^abMacDonald 1986,p. 123.
  4. ^Albright, W. F. (1948). "The Early Alphabetic Inscriptions from Sinai and their Decipherment".Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.110(110): 6–22 [p. 15].doi:10.2307/3218767.JSTOR3218767.S2CID163924917.
  5. ^"*šinn- - tooth".Semitic Etymological Database Online.Retrieved19 August2024.
  6. ^Terry Moore: Why is 'x' the unknown?
  7. ^Online Etymological Dictionary
  8. ^Cajori, Florian (1993).A History of Mathematical Notation.Courier Dover Publications. pp.382–383.ISBN9780486677668.Retrieved11 October2012.Nor is there historical evidence to support the statement found in Noah Webster's Dictionary, under the letter x, to the effect that 'x was used as an abbreviation of Ar. shei (a thing), something, which, in the Middle Ages, was used to designate the unknown, and was then prevailingly transcribed as xei.'
  9. ^Oxford Dictionary(2nd ed.).There is no evidence in support of the hypothesis that x is derived ultimately from the mediaeval transliteration xei of shei "thing", used by the Arabs to denote the unknown quantity, or from the compendium for L. res "thing" or radix "root" (resembling a loosely-written x), used by mediaeval mathematicians.
  10. ^de Lerchundi, José (1872).Rudimentos del árabe vulgar que se habla en el Imperio de Marruecos(PDF)(in Spanish). Madrid. pp. 5, 26, 95.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. ^Silverstein, Michael(2003-07-01)."Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life".Language & Communication.23(3–4): 193–229.doi:10.1016/S0271-5309(03)00013-2.
  12. ^Zibin, Aseel; Daoud, Sumaya; Altakhaineh, Abdel Rahman Mitib (2024-02-07)."Indexical meanings of the realization of /sˤ/ ص as [s] س in spoken and written Jordanian Arabic: a language change in progress?".Folia Linguistica.58(2): 267–290.doi:10.1515/flin-2024-2003.ISSN1614-7308.
  13. ^The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon
  14. ^Dussaud 1924
  15. ^Two distinct forms of the Phoenician shin are shown, the later more resembling Hebrew's.
  16. ^Star Trek: The Original Series,episode #30 "Amok Time"(production #34), andI Am Not Spock,Leonard Nimoy,1977.
  17. ^Nimoy, Leonard (Narrator) (February 6, 2014).Live Long and Prosper: The Jewish Story Behind Spock, Leonard Nimoy's Star Trek Character.Yiddish Book Center.Archivedfrom the original on 2021-12-13.RetrievedFebruary 27,2015.

Sources

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