Esh (letter)
Character and IPA symbol (Ʃ, ʃ)
title: "Esh (letter)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["latin-script-letters", "phonetic-transcription-symbols"] description: "Character and IPA symbol (Ʃ, ʃ)" topic_path: "general/latin-script-letters" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esh_(letter)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Character and IPA symbol (Ʃ, ʃ) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox grapheme"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Esh |
| letter | Ʃ ʃ |
| variations | (See below) |
| image | File:Latin letter Esh.svg |
| imageclass | skin-invert-image |
| imagesize | 200px |
| imagealt | S in the forms of cursive writing |
| script | Latin script |
| type | Alphabet |
| typedesc | ic and logographic |
| language | Latin language, Serer language |
| phonemes | , |
| | unicode | U+01A9, U+0283 | | fam1 | Aa32M40 | | fam2 | [[File:Shamash.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Proto-Sinaitic Shin]] | | fam3 | [[File:Proto-semiticS-01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Proto-Sinaitic Shin]] | | fam4 | [[File:Phoenician_sin.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Phoenician Sin]] | | fam5 | [[File:Proto-Canaanite_-_shin.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Proto-Caanite Shin]] | | fam6 | Σ σ ς | | fam7 | ς | | fam8 | 𐌔 | | fam9 | S s | | fam10 | S ſ | | usageperiod | 1847 to present | | children | None | | sisters | {{flex list | | associates | s(x), sh, š | | direction | Left-to-Right | ::
|name=Esh |letter=Ʃ ʃ |variations=(See below) |image=File:Latin letter Esh.svg |imageclass=skin-invert-image |imagesize=200px |imagealt=S in the forms of cursive writing |script=Latin script |type=Alphabet |typedesc=ic and logographic |language=Latin language, Serer language |phonemes=,
|unicode=U+01A9, U+0283 |alphanumber= |number= |fam1=Aa32M40 |fam2=[[File:Shamash.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Proto-Sinaitic Shin]] |fam3=[[File:Proto-semiticS-01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Proto-Sinaitic Shin]] |fam4=[[File:Phoenician_sin.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Phoenician Sin]] |fam5=[[File:Proto-Canaanite_-_shin.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px|Proto-Caanite Shin]] |fam6=Σ σ ς |fam7=ς |fam8=𐌔 |fam9=S s |fam10=S ſ |usageperiod=1847 to present |children=None |sisters={{flex list |Š |ſ |Ꚃ |Ѕ |С |Ш |Щ |Ҫ |Ԍ |ש |ش |ܫ |س |ࠔ |𐎘 |𐡔 |ሠ |Ս ս |श |स |શ |સ Disputed: |equivalents= |associates=s(x), sh, š |direction=Left-to-Right
Esh (majuscule: Ʃ, minuscule: ʃ) is a character used in phonology to represent the voiceless postalveolar fricative (English , as in "ship").
In Unicode, these letters are encoded as and
Form, usage, and history
Its lowercase form is similar to an integral sign or a long s with an extra leftward hook at the bottom; in 1928 the Africa Alphabet borrowed the Greek letter sigma for the uppercase form . The lowercase form was introduced by Isaac Pitman in his 1847 Phonotypic Alphabet to represent the voiceless postalveolar fricative (English sh). It is not common around African languages, but it is, in fact, used in some, for example, Serer uses its lowercase form to make the [] consonant. This letter is used as well as in the International Phonetic Alphabet.
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) uses to represent a voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant. Related obsolete IPA characters include , , and .
is used in the Teuthonista phonetic transcription system.
Variations of esh are used for other phonetic transcription: , , .
and are used as click letters.
References
References
- (2011-06-02). "L2/11-202: Revised proposal to encode "Teuthonista" phonetic characters in the UCS".
- Constable, Peter. (2004-04-19). "L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS".
- (2020-07-10). "L2/20-115R: Unicode request for additional phonetic click letters".
- Anderson, Deborah. (2020-12-07). "L2/21-021: Reference doc numbers for L2/20-266R "Consolidated code chart of proposed phonetic characters" and IPA etc. code point and name changes".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::