SAMEKH

SAMEKH, the fifteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet; its numerical value is 60. The early Proto-Canaanite form of this letter has not yet been attested, but in the tenth century B.C.E. it consisted of three horizontal strokes crossed by a vertical downstroke \!ejud\_0002\_0017\_0\_img2022\>\> . Later there was a tendency to draw the various strokes continuously; thus in the Hebrew script \!ejud\_0002\_0017\_0\_img2023\>\> , in the Phoenician \!ejud\_0002\_0017\_0\_img2024\>\> , while in the Aramaic the samekh developed as follows: \!ejud\_0002\_0017\_0\_img2025\>\> → \!ejud\_0002\_0017\_0\_img2026\>\> → \!ejud\_0002\_0017\_0\_img2027\>\> → \!ejud\_0002\_0017\_0\_img2028\>\> → \!ejud\_0002\_0017\_0\_img2029\>\> . Hence the Jewish \!ejud\_0002\_0017\_0\_img2030\>\> and Nabataen samekh, \!ejud\_0002\_0017\_0\_img2031\>\> , evolved. In the Arabic script the samekh has been replaced by \!ejud\_0002\_0017\_0\_img2032\>\> (sin), which developed from the Aramaic shin (Arabic shin = \!ejud\_0002\_0017\_0\_img2033\>\> ). SeeAlphabet, Hebrew\>\> . (Joseph Naveh)