San (letter)

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Greek alphabet
Αα Alpha Νν Nu
Ββ Beta Ξξ Xi
Γγ Gamma Οο Omicron
Δδ Delta Ππ Pi
Εε Epsilon Ρρ Rho
Ζζ Zeta Σσς Sigma
Ηη Eta Ττ Tau
Θθ Theta Υυ Upsilon
Ιι Iota Φφ Phi
Κκ Kappa Χχ Chi
Λλ Lambda Ψψ Psi
Μμ Mu Ωω Omega
Obsolete letters
Digamma Qoppa
San Sampi

Greek diacritics

San (uppercase Ϻ, lowercase ϻ) was a letter of the Greek alphabet, appearing between Pi and Qoppa in alphabetical order, corresponding in position to the Phoenician Tsade , but its name comes from Shin. It usually had a phonemic value of /s/, but eventually became disused in favour of sigma. The latest attested use is in the 6th century BC. With a somewhat different shape (which has been labelled "Tsan"[1]) the letter was also used in Arcado-Cypriot as [ts], replacing a previous labio-velar before a front vowel, where other dialects replaced it with Tau.

The Phoenician or the Greek letter was lent into the Old Italic alphabets (𐌑, transcribed as Ś), in the archaic Etruscan alphabet retaining its M-shape but from the 6th century BC changing its aspect to a shape similar to that of the d-rune D.


[edit] Computer encoding

Appearance Code points Name
Ϻ U+03FA GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SAN
ϻ U+03FB GREEK SMALL LETTER SAN

The Tsan variant has a glyph identical to the Pamphylian Greek digamma, U+0376 U+0377, which is scheduled for inclusion in Unicode 5.1.

[edit] References

  1. ^ History and representation of Tsan