The Sibilant Letters Samekh, ṣade and Śin/Šin
Due to limitations of the Greek and Latin alphabets, the
three Hebrew letters ס, צ and שׂ/שׁ can be rendered only as one character,
namely, o/s. The incompatibility of the Hebrew, Greek and Latin alphabets for rendering
Hebrew sounds results in a situation in which two entirely different
Hebrew/Aramaic proper names are identical in transliteration. Examples include:
סַבְתָּ֥ה סַבְתְּכָ֑א(Gen 10:7)-Σαβαθά
... Σαβαθακά, Vg: Sabatha ... Sabathaca; צִיּ֑וֹן (2 Sam 5:7)-Σιων, Vg: Sion; צוּרִֽישַׁדָּֽי (Num 1:6)-Σουρισαδαί,
Vg: Surisaddi; שְׁלֹמֹֽה (2 Sam 5:14)-Σαλωμών,
Vg: Salomon. Jerome remarks on this phenomenon in his introduction to those
explanations coming under the letter S. He attempts to explain the
pronunciation of Hebrew sibilants while explaining names or other words. It is
obvious that Jerome was unfamiliar with the differentiation between שׂ and שׁ. (Jože
Krašovec, The Transformation of Biblical Proper Names [Library of Hebrew
Bible/Old Testament Studies 418; London: T & T Clark, 2010], 100)
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