Etymology: The nineteenth letter of the English and other modern alphabets, and the eighteenth of the ancient Roman alphabet, derives its form (through the ? and ?, ? of early Latin and Greek inscriptions) from the Phœnician W (Hebrew ש shīn ), which represented a voiceless sibilant: in some of the Semitic languages /s/, in others /ʃ/. (Each of these phonetic symbols is intended to represent a class of sounds the articulatory positions of which vary considerably; the difference between the two classes is acoustically very recognizable, but the nature of the essential difference in formation is still obscure.) In ancient Greek and Latin the value of the letter is believed to have been always /s/. In late Latin s between vowels was in most instances pronounced /z/, a sound which was not separately represented in the Latin alphabet. Hence when the Roman letters were adopted in Old English, the letter S was used to represent both the unaltered Germanic /s/, and the /z/ which had been developed from that sound in certain positions. In Old English s was pronounced /s/ initially and finally, and medially when it was either contiguous with a voiceless consonant or began the second element of a compound; medially between voiced sounds it was pronounced /z/. The southern dialect had in Middle English, and possibly in late Old English, the peculiarity of voicing the initial s (in native words) as well as the initial f and þ . This phonetic habit extended to Kent as late as 1340, as is shown by spellings like zenne (Old English synn , sin) in the Ayenbite of Inwyt; it is now confined to the south-western dialects. In modern English the general rule is that s is pronounced /s/ at the beginning of a word or of the second element of a compound, and when doubled or in contact with a voiceless consonant. Between vowels, and when phonetically final, a single s is mostly /z/. But there are many anomalies and uncertainties, especially in classical derivatives: cf., e.g., absurd /æbˈsɜːd/, observe /əbz-/; with regard to some words usage is divided, as in absolve /æbs-/, /æbz-/, and the words in -ive , e.g. effusive , evasive . Even ss is in some words sounded /z/, as in dissolve (against dissent , dissect , etc.), dessert , possess . The phonetic combinations /sj/, /zj/, when rapidly pronounced, are very similar in acoustic effect to the simple consonants /ʃ/, /ʒ/, the position of the tongue for these being intermediate between the positions for /s/ or /z/ and /j/. Hence in some words where earlier English had /sj/ or /zj/, written either as s (before diphthongal u ) or as si , the modern language has /ʃ/ or /ʒ/, so that the letter has acquired these two new values. Examples are sure , sugar , censure , mission /ˈmɪʃən/, Asia /ˈeɪʃə/, treasure /-ʒə(r)/, evasion /-ʒən/. In some varieties of vernacular speech this tendency is carried much further, as in the pronunciations /ʃuː/, /prɪˈʒuːm/ for sue , presume . S is silent in a few words adopted from Old French, as in aisle , isle (hence also pseudo-etymologically in island ); in the Law French mesne , demesne , a silent s was inserted by false analogy. The combination sch: This sequence of letters corresponds in present or past English spelling to the various sounds or combinations of sounds /ʃ/, /tʃ/ , /sk/, /s/, /stʃ/. In Middle English it was one of several modes of expressing the sound /ʃ/, represented in Old English by sc , and in modern English normally by sh . With this value it continued to be used in Sc. down to the beginning of the 17th cent. In Middle English sch was sometimes miswritten for ch , pronounced /tʃ/. In this Dictionary the words occurring in early texts spelt with initial sch which are not entered with this spelling will ordinarily be found under sh or ch . In modern spelling sch has the value /ʃ/ only in a few alien words from German (e.g. schnapps ), in schist (of Greek origin, influenced in pronunciation by German) and its derivatives, and in the abnormal (British) pronunciation of schedule . Formerly sch was often used for /ʃ/, after German and French example, in transliterations of Middle Eastern words, as in schekinah , schah , haschisch ; but in these sh is now almost universally used instead. In words derived from Yiddish in which initial /ʃ/ precedes a consonant, there is much variation in written English between sch- and sh- ; however (following the German usage) sch- seems to be the prevailing spelling, except before t , where German would use simple s- : here sh- is the usual form, as it is before vowels. For the two main types see schlemiel n., schmo n., schnook n., etc., and shtick n. Such words are extremely common in the U.S. but are rarely encountered in Great Britain. In modern English /sk/ is the normal pronunciation of sch in words of classical derivation, where it represents Latin sch , Greek σχ . (The only exceptions are schist etc. and schedule , mentioned above, and schism etc. for which see below.) Sch is also pronounced /sk/ in Italian words, e.g. scherzo . In Dutch words the native pronunciation of sch is /sx/ initially and /s/ finally; but in the few Dutch words with initial sch that are used in English without change of spelling the English custom is to substitute /sk/. In Middle English texts initial sch sometimes occurs where the alliteration or the etymology shows that it is to be pronounced /sk/. This probably arose from the fact that many Germanic words existed in two dialectal forms, one from Old English with /ʃ/, and the other from Old Norse with /sk/, and as both forms were used by the West Midland and Northern alliterative poets, they were often confused by the scribes. The existence of etymological spellings like schole for scole (school n.¹), which occur sporadically from the 13th cent., may have had some effect in suggesting the use of sch as a symbol for /sk/. The only words in which sch now represents /s/ are schism and its derivatives, the pronunciation of the Middle English form cisme (from Old French cisme) having survived although the spelling has been altered in accordance with the ultimate etymology. A similar explanation applies to the now obsolete pronunciation of schedule as /ˈsɛdjuːl/. The pronunciation of sch as /stʃ/ occurs only medially in words like escheat, eschew, discharge, where the s and the ch belong to different syllables. The combination scr: While as a general rule an initial sc- or sk- in a modern English word indicates that the word is not of Old English origin (Old English sc- being normally represented, in dialects as well as in standard English, by sh-), it is doubtful whether the rule applies to the combination scr-. The modern representation of Old English scr- in dialects varies between /ʃr-/, /ʃər-/, /ʒr-/, and /sr-/, and there is some reason for supposing that in some localities it normally becomes /skr-/. Several words of undoubted Old English descent (there being no corresponding form in Scandinavian) have in Middle English or in modern English two parallel forms with /ʃr-/ and /skr-/ respectively: e.g. shred, screed, from Old English scréade; shrew, dialect screw, from Old English scréawa; Middle English screpe and schreape, from Old English screpan to scrape. The same variation of the initial consonant appears in some other words, which have not been found in Old English, but which have Germanic cognates: scream, Middle English also schreame; scram and shram dialect to benumb, to paralyse (cf. Old English scrimman of similar meaning); shrog and scrog dialect, a bush. As the combination (skr-), unlike the Midland (sr-), is consistent with the articulatory habits of standard English, some dialectal forms with this beginning have found their way into the literary language; in one instance (screed, shred) an Old English word with scr- survives in two parallel forms with differentiation of meaning. In view of these facts, it seems doubtful whether there is sufficient ground for the usual assumption of Scandinavian origin for words like scrape, which existed in Old English (scrapian) as well as in Old Norse (skrapa). Variation between scr and cr: Many English words beginning with scr- agree more or less closely in meaning with other words differing from them in form only by the absence of the initial s. Examples of such pairs are crab (apple), scrab; crag (neck), scrag; cramble, scramble; cranch, scranch; cratch, scratch; crawl, scrawl (v.¹); creak, screak; crimple, scrimple; cringe, scringe; croak, scroak (dialect); crump, scrump; crumple, scrumple; crunch, scrunch; crush, scrush (dialect). It does not appear that these coincidences are due to any one general cause (see the articles on the several words), but it is probable that the existence of many pairs of synonyms with scr- and cr- produced a tendency to change cr-, in words expressive of sounds or physical movements, into scr- so as to render the word echoic or phonetically symbolic; apparent examples are scrawl v.¹, scranch, scrunch, scringe, scroak. For other instances in dialects see Wright Eng. Dial. Gram. §323, where examples are also given of parallel forms with (sk, k) before a vowel or (w). The combination sh: A consonantal digraph representing the simple sound /ʃ/. In late Old English this sound was represented by the combination sc, which retained its original phonetic value /sk/ only in words of foreign origin. The sound /ʃ/ did not exist in early Old French, and hence the early Middle English texts, written by French-educated scribes, show great diversity of attempts to find expression for it. The Old English notation by sc became rare after the 12th cent. Some scribes of the 12–13th centuries used the single s initially and finally. More frequent was ss (used in all positions), which is found as late as 1340 ( Ayenbite). In medial and final positions ssh was common from the 13th to the 16th centuries; Coverdale (1535) has frequently szsh, sometimes szh (but also often sh). The prevailing form from the end of the 12th cent. to the end of the 14th cent. was sch (initially; in other positions it was less frequent); in the north it was common down to the end of the 16th cent. In the 13th cent. we occasionally find sge, sȝe, sze for she (rarely sȝ or sz in other words), and in the 14–15th centuries some East Anglian scribes wrote xal, xulde for shall, should. In Middle English texts the suffix -ship is often written -chipe, and sometimes ch occurs as the symbol of /ʃ/ in other positions. The combination sh (probably to be regarded as a simplification of sch) is regularly used in the Ormulum c1200 and frequently in the Trinity College Homilies of about the same date. It is the usual symbol in the London documents of the 14th cent. and in the manuscripts of Chaucer, and from the time of Caxton onwards it has been the established notation for /ʃ/ in all words except those which (as machine, schedule, Asia, the derivatives in -tion, etc.) are spelt unphonetically on etymological grounds. In some compounds as dishonest, mishap, Gateshead, s and h come together without forming a digraph. The pronunciation of some proper names in which this sequence occurs has been affected by misinterpretation of the spelling; e.g. Evesham is often called /ˈiːvʃəm/, Petersham /ˈpiːtəʃəm/.