Sa
Example glyphs
Meitei
Bengali–Assamese
Tibetan
Tamil	ஸ
Thai	ส
Malayalam	സ
Sinhala	ස
Ashoka Brahmi
Devanagari
Cognates
Hebrew	ס
Greek	Ξ
Cyrillic	Ѯ
Properties
Phonemic representation	/s/
IAST transliteration	s S
ISCII code point	D7 (215)

This article contains uncommon Unicode characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of the intended characters.

Sa is a consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Sa is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter .

Āryabhaṭa numeration

Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The values of the different forms of स are:^[1]

• स [sə] = 90 (९०)
• सि [sɪ] = 9,000 (९ ०००)
• सु [sʊ] = 900,000 (९ ०० ०००)
• सृ [sri] = 90,000,000 (९ ०० ०० ०००)
• सॢ [slə] = 9×10⁹ (९×१०^९)
• से [se] = 9×10¹¹ (९×१०^११)
• सै [sɛː] = 9×10¹³ (९×१०^१३)
• सो [soː] = 9×10¹⁵ (९×१०^१५)
• सौ [sɔː] = 9×10¹⁷ (९×१०^१७)

Historic Sa

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Sa as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . The Tocharian Sa had an alternate Fremdzeichen form, . The third form of sa, in Kharoshthi () was probably derived from Aramaic separately from the Brahmi letter.

Brahmi Sa

The Brahmi letter , Sa, is probably derived from the altered Aramaic Samekh , and is thus related to the modern Greek Xi.^[2] Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Sa can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period.^[3] As the earliest and most geometric style of Brahmi, the letters found on the Edicts of Ashoka and other records from around that time are normally the reference form for Brahmi letters, with vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.

Brahmi Sa historic forms

Ashoka (3rd-1st c. BCE)	Girnar (~150 BCE)	Kushana (~150-250 CE)	Gujarat (~250 CE)	Gupta (~350 CE)

Tocharian Sa

The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi , and has an alternate Fremdzeichen form used in conjuncts and as an alternate representation of Sä.

Tocharian Sa with vowel marks

Sa	Sā	Si	Sī	Su	Sū	Sr	Sr̄	Se	Sai	So	Sau	Sä	Fremdzeichen

Kharoṣṭhī Sa

The Kharoṣṭhī letter is generally accepted as being derived from the altered Aramaic Samekh , and is thus related to Xi, in addition to the Brahmi Sa.^[2]

Devanagari Sa

Devanāgarī
Abugida Brahmic scripts Inherent vowel
Languages Hindi Marathi Nepali Konkani Maithili Sindhi Bodo Pali Prakrit Sanskrit and more
Transliteration IAST Hunterian NLK ISO 15919 Harvard-Kyoto ITRANS Velthuis SLP1 WX notation (ISCII)
Vowels and syllabic consonants अ a ॲ æ ऄ आ (का) ā इ (कि) i ई (की) ī उ (कु) u ऊ (कू) ū ॶ (कॖ) ॷ (कॗ) ऋ (कृ) r̥ ॠ (कॄ) r̥̄ ऌ (कॢ) l̥ ॡ (कॣ) l̥̄ ए (के) ē ऍ (कॅ) ê ऎ (कॆ) e ऐ (कै) ai (कॕ) (कॎ) ओ (को) ō ऑ (कॉ) ô ऒ (कॊ) o औ (कौ) au ॳ (कऺ) ॴ (कऻ) ॵ (कॏ) (Schwa deletion)
Consonants क k क़ q ख kh ख़ k̲h̲ ग g ग़ ġ ॻ gg घ gh ङ ṅ च c छ ch ज j ज़ z ॼ jj ॹ ž झ jh झ़ zh ञ ñ ट ṭ ठ ṭh ड ḍ ड़ ṛ ॾ ḍḍ ॸ ḍ ढ ḍh ढ़ ṛh ण ṇ त t थ th द d ध dh न n ऩ ṉ प p फ ph फ़ f ब b ॿ bb भ bh म m य y य़ ẏ ॺ र r ऱ ṟ ळ ḷ ऴ ḻ ल l व v श ś ष ṣ स s ह h ॽ (Conjuncts)
Diacritics, punctuation, symbols अं ṁ अः ḥ अँ m̐ अऀ ऽ ’ क़ क् ३ 3 ᳵ ẖ ᳶ ḫ अ॑ ` अ॒ _ अ॓ अ॔ ॐ aum̐ । ॥ ॰ ॱ ₹ INR and more (Devanagari (Unicode block) Devanagari Extended Devanagari Extended-A Vedic Extensions)
Numerals ० 0 १ 1 २ 2 ३ 3 ४ 4 ५ 5 ६ 6 ७ 7 ८ 8 ९ 9 Āryabhaṭa Akṣarapallī Bhūtasaṃkhyā Kaṭapayādi
v t e

Sa (स) is a consonant of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , after having gone through the Gupta letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter સ, and the Modi letter 𑘭.

Devanagari-using Languages

In all languages, स is pronounced as [sə] or [s] when appropriate. Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari uses vowel marks attached to the base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel:

Conjuncts with स

Devanagari exhibits conjunct ligatures, as is common in Indic scripts. In modern Devanagari texts, most conjuncts are formed by reducing the letter shape to fit tightly to the following letter, usually by dropping a character's vertical stem, sometimes referred to as a "half form". Some conjunct clusters are always represented by a true ligature, instead of a shape that can be broken into constituent independent letters. Vertically stacked conjuncts are ubiquitous in older texts, while only a few are still used routinely in modern Devanagari texts. The use of ligatures and vertical conjuncts may vary across languages using the Devanagari script, with Marathi in particular preferring the use of half forms where texts in other languages would show ligatures and vertical stacks.^[4]

Ligature conjuncts of स

True ligatures are quite rare in Indic scripts. The most common ligated conjuncts in Devanagari are in the form of a slight mutation to fit in context or as a consistent variant form appended to the adjacent characters. Those variants include Na and the Repha and Rakar forms of Ra. Nepali and Marathi texts use the "eyelash" Ra half form for an initial "R" instead of repha.

• Repha र্ (r) + स (sa) gives the ligature rsa: ^note

• Eyelash र্ (r) + स (sa) gives the ligature rsa:

• स্ (s) + rakar र (ra) gives the ligature sra:

Stacked conjuncts of स

Vertically stacked ligatures are the most common conjunct forms found in Devanagari text. Although the constituent characters may need to be stretched and moved slightly in order to stack neatly, stacked conjuncts can be broken down into recognizable base letters, or a letter and an otherwise standard ligature.

• छ্ (c^h) + स (sa) gives the ligature c^hsa:

• ढ্ (ḍʱ) + स (sa) gives the ligature ḍʱsa:

• ड্ (ḍ) + स (sa) gives the ligature ḍsa:

• द্ (d) + स (sa) gives the ligature dsa:

• ङ্ (ŋ) + स (sa) gives the ligature ŋsa:

• Repha र্ (r) + स্ (s) + व (va) gives the ligature rsva:

• स্ (s) + ब (ba) gives the ligature sba:

• स্ (s) + च (ca) gives the ligature sca:

• स্ (s) + ज (ja) gives the ligature sja:

• स্ (s) + ज্ (j) + ञ (ña) gives the ligature sjña:

• स্ (s) + ल (la) gives the ligature sla:

• स্ (s) + न (na) gives the ligature sna:

• स্ (s) + ञ (ña) gives the ligature sña:

• स্ (s) + व (va) gives the ligature sva:

• ठ্ (ṭ^h) + स (sa) gives the ligature ṭ^hsa:

• ट্ (ṭ) + स (sa) gives the ligature ṭsa:

Bengali Sa

The Bengali script স is derived from the Siddhaṃ , and is marked by a similar horizontal head line, but less geometric shape, than its Devanagari counterpart, स. The inherent vowel of Bengali consonant letters is /ɔ/, so the bare letter স will sometimes be transliterated as "so" instead of "sa". Adding okar, the "o" vowel mark, gives a reading of /so/. Like all Indic consonants, স can be modified by marks to indicate another (or no) vowel than its inherent "a".

স in Bengali-using languages

স is used as a basic consonant character in all of the major Bengali script orthographies, including Bengali and Assamese. However, the usual pronunciation of this letter is very different in both languages, /ʃ/ in Bengali and /x/ in Assamese.

Conjuncts with স

Bengali স exhibits conjunct ligatures, as is common in Indic scripts, with a tendency towards stacked ligatures.^[5]

• ক্ (k) + স (sa) gives the ligature ksa:

• প্ (p) + স (sa) gives the ligature psa:

• র্ (r) + স (sa) gives the ligature rsa, with the repha prefix:

• স্ (s) + ক (ka) gives the ligature ska:

• স্ (s) + খ (k^ha) gives the ligature sk^ha:

• স্ (s) + ক্ (k) + র (ra) gives the ligature skra, with the ra phala suffix:

• স্ (s) + ল (la) gives the ligature sla:

• স্ (s) + ম (ma) gives the ligature sma:

• স্ (s) + ন (na) gives the ligature sna:

• স্ (s) + প (pa) gives the ligature spa:

• স্ (s) + ফ (p^ha) gives the ligature sp^ha:

• স্ (s) + প্ (p) + ল (la) gives the ligature spla:

• স্ (s) + র (ra) gives the ligature sra, with the ra phala suffix:

• স্ (s) + ত (ta) gives the ligature sta:

• স্ (s) + থ (t^ha) gives the ligature st^ha:

• স্ (s) + থ্ (t^h) + য (ya) gives the ligature st^hya, with the ya phala suffix:

• স্ (s) + ত্ (t) + র (ra) gives the ligature stra, with the ra phala suffix:

• স্ (s) + ট (ṭa) gives the ligature sṭa:

• স্ (s) + ট্ (ṭ) + র (ra) gives the ligature sṭra, with the ra phala suffix:

• স্ (s) + ত্ (t) + ব (va) gives the ligature stva, with the va phala suffix:

• স্ (s) + ত্ (t) + য (ya) gives the ligature stya, with the ya phala suffix:

• স্ (s) + ব (va) gives the ligature sva, with the va phala suffix:

• স্ (s) + য (ya) gives the ligature sya, with the ya phala suffix:

• ত্ (t) + স (sa) gives the ligature tsa:

Gujarati Sa

Sa (સ) is the thirty-second consonant of the Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the Devanagari Sa with the top bar (shiro rekha) removed, and ultimately the Brahmi letter .

Gujarati-using Languages

The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, સ is pronounced as [sə] or [s] when appropriate. Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati uses vowel marks attached to the base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel:

Sa	Sā	Si	Sī	Su	Sū	Sr	Sl	Sr̄	Sl̄	Sĕ	Se	Sai	Sŏ	So	Sau	S
Gujarati Sa syllables, with vowel marks in red.

Conjuncts with સ

Gujarati સ exhibits conjunct ligatures, much like its parent Devanagari Script. Most Gujarati conjuncts can only be formed by reducing the letter shape to fit tightly to the following letter, usually by dropping a character's vertical stem, sometimes referred to as a "half form". A few conjunct clusters can be represented by a true ligature, instead of a shape that can be broken into constituent independent letters, and vertically stacked conjuncts can also be found in Gujarati, although much less commonly than in Devanagari. True ligatures are quite rare in Indic scripts. The most common ligated conjuncts in Gujarati are in the form of a slight mutation to fit in context or as a consistent variant form appended to the adjacent characters. Those variants include Na and the Repha and Rakar forms of Ra.

• ર્ (r) + સ (sa) gives the ligature RSa:

• સ્ (s) + ર (ra) gives the ligature SRa:

Javanese Sa

Telugu Sa

Telugu independent and subjoined Sa.

Sa (స) is a consonant of the Telugu abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter . It is closely related to the Kannada letter ಸ. Most Telugu consonants contain a v-shaped headstroke that is related to the horizontal headline found in other Indic scripts, although headstrokes do not connect adjacent letters in Telugu. The headstroke is normally lost when adding vowel matras. Telugu conjuncts are created by reducing trailing letters to a subjoined form that appears below the initial consonant of the conjunct. Many subjoined forms are created by dropping their headline, with many extending the end of the stroke of the main letter body to form an extended tail reaching up to the right of the preceding consonant. This subjoining of trailing letters to create conjuncts is in contrast to the leading half forms of Devanagari and Bengali letters. Ligature conjuncts are not a feature in Telugu, with the only non-standard construction being an alternate subjoined form of Ṣa (borrowed from Kannada) in the KṢa conjunct.

Malayalam Sa

Sa (സ) is a consonant of the Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Grantha letter Sa. Like in other Indic scripts, Malayalam consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

Conjuncts of സ

As is common in Indic scripts, Malayalam joins letters together to form conjunct consonant clusters. There are several ways in which conjuncts are formed in Malayalam texts: using a post-base form of a trailing consonant placed under the initial consonant of a conjunct, a combined ligature of two or more consonants joined together, a conjoining form that appears as a combining mark on the rest of the conjunct, the use of an explicit candrakkala mark to suppress the inherent "a" vowel, or a special consonant form called a "chillu" letter, representing a bare consonant without the inherent "a" vowel. Texts written with the modern reformed Malayalam orthography, put̪iya lipi, may favor more regular conjunct forms than older texts in paḻaya lipi, due to changes undertaken in the 1970s by the Government of Kerala.

• സ് (s) + ത (ta) gives the ligature sta:

• സ് (s) + ഥ (t^ha) gives the ligature st^ha:

• സ് (s) + ന (na) gives the ligature sna:

• സ് (s) + പ (pa) gives the ligature spa:

• സ് (s) + മ (ma) gives the ligature sma:

• ക് (k) + സ (sa) gives the ligature ksa:

• ത് (t) + സ (sa) gives the ligature tsa:

• പ് (p) + സ (sa) gives the ligature psa:

• സ് (s) + സ (sa) gives the ligature ssa:

Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Se

ᓭ, ᓯ, ᓱ and ᓴ are the base characters "Se", "Si", "So" and "Sa" in the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics. The bare consonant ᔅ (S) is a small version of the A-series letter ᓴ, although the letter ᐢ, derived from Pitman shorthand was the original bare consonant symbol for S. The character ᓭ is derived from a handwritten form of the Devanagari letter स, without the headline or vertical stem, and the forms for different vowels are derived by mirroring.^[6][7] Unlike most writing systems without legacy computer encodings, complex Canadian syllabic letters are represented in Unicode with pre-composed characters, rather than with base characters and diacritical marks.

Odia Sa

Odia independent and subjoined letter Sa.

Sa (ସ) is a consonant of the Odia abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter Sa. Like in other Indic scripts, Odia consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

Conjuncts of ସ

As is common in Indic scripts, Odia joins letters together to form conjunct consonant clusters. The most common conjunct formation is achieved by using a small subjoined form of trailing consonants. Most consonants' subjoined forms are identical to the full form, just reduced in size, although a few drop the curved headline or have a subjoined form not directly related to the full form of the consonant. The second type of conjunct formation is through pure ligatures, where the constituent consonants are written together in a single graphic form. This ligature may be recognizable as being a combination of two characters or it can have a conjunct ligature unrelated to its constituent characters.

• ତ୍ (t) + ସ (sa) gives the ligature tsa:

Kaithi Sa

Kaithi consonant and half-form Sa.

Sa (𑂮) is a consonant of the Kaithi abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter Sa. Like in other Indic scripts, Kaithi consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

Conjuncts of 𑂮

As is common in Indic scripts, Kaithi joins letters together to form conjunct consonant clusters. The most common conjunct formation is achieved by using a half form of preceding consonants, although several consonants use an explicit virama. Most half forms are derived from the full form by removing the vertical stem. As is common in most Indic scripts, conjucts of ra are indicated with a repha or rakar mark attached to the rest of the consonant cluster. In addition, there are a few vertical conjuncts that can be found in Kaithi writing, but true ligatures are not used in the modern Kaithi script.

• 𑂮୍ (s) + 𑂩 (ra) gives the ligature sra:

• 𑂩୍ (r) + 𑂮 (sa) gives the ligature rsa:

Comparison of Sa

The various Indic scripts are generally related to each other through adaptation and borrowing, and as such the glyphs for cognate letters, including Sa, are related as well.

Comparison of Sa in different scripts

Aramaic Kharoṣṭhī 𐨯 Ashoka Brahmi Kushana Brahmi[a] Tocharian[b]  /  Gupta Brahmi Pallava Kadamba - Bhaiksuki 𑰭 Siddhaṃ Grantha 𑌸 Cham ꨧ Sinhala ස Pyu / Old Mon[c] - Tibetan Newa 𑐳 Ahom 𑜏 Malayalam സ Telugu స Burmese သ Lepcha ᰠ Ranjana Saurashtra ꢱ Dives Akuru 𑤬 Kannada ಸ Kayah Li ꤎ Limbu ᤛ Soyombo[d] 𑪁 Khmer ស Tamil ஸ Chakma 𑄥 Tai Tham ᩈ Meitei Mayek ꯁ Gaudi - Thai ส Lao ສ Tai Le ᥔ Marchen 𑲍 Tirhuta 𑒮 New Tai Lue ᦉ Tai Viet ꪎ / ꪏ Aksara Kawi 'Phags-pa ꡛ Odia ସ Sharada 𑆱 Rejang ꤼ Batak ᯘ Buginese ᨔ Zanabazar Square 𑨰 Bengali-Assamese Takri 𑚨 Javanese ꦱ Balinese ᬲ Makasar 𑻰 Hangul[e] - Northern Nagari - Dogri 𑠩 Laṇḍā - Sundanese ᮞ Baybayin ᜐ Modi 𑘭 Gujarati સ Khojki 𑈩 Khudabadi 𑋝 Mahajani 𑅰 Tagbanwa ᝰ Devanagari Nandinagari 𑧍 Kaithi 𑂮 Gurmukhi ਸ Multani 𑊥 Buhid ᝐ Canadian Syllabics[f] ᓭ Soyombo[g] 𑪁 Sylheti Nagari ꠡ Gunjala Gondi 𑶉 Masaram Gondi[h] 𑴫 Hanuno'o ᜰ Notes ^ The middle "Kushana" form of Brahmi is a later style that emerged as Brahmi scripts were beginning to proliferate. Gupta Brahmi was definitely a stylistic descendant from Kushana, but other Brahmi-derived scripts may have descended from earlier forms. ^ Tocharian is probably derived from the middle period "Kushana" form of Brahmi, although artifacts from that time are not plentiful enough to establish a definite succession. ^ Pyu and Old Mon are probably the precursors of the Burmese script, and may be derived from either the Pallava or Kadamba script ^ May also be derived from Devangari (see bottom left of table) ^ The Origin of Hangul from 'Phags-pa is one of limited influence, inspiring at most a few basic letter shapes. Hangul does not function as an Indic abugida. ^ Although the basic letter forms of the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics were derived from handwritten Devanagari letters, this abugida indicates vowel sounds by rotations of the letter form, rather than the use of vowel diacritics as is standard in Indic abugidas. ^ May also be derived from Ranjana (see above) ^ Masaram Gondi acts as an Indic abugida, but its letterforms were not derived from any single precursor script.

Character encodings of Sa

Most Indic scripts are encoded in the Unicode Standard, and as such the letter Sa in those scripts can be represented in plain text with unique codepoint. Sa from several modern-use scripts can also be found in legacy encodings, such as ISCII.

Character information

Preview					ஸ		స		ସ		ಸ		സ		સ		ਸ
Unicode name	DEVANAGARI LETTER SA		BENGALI LETTER SA		TAMIL LETTER SA		TELUGU LETTER SA		ORIYA LETTER SA		KANNADA LETTER SA		MALAYALAM LETTER SA		GUJARATI LETTER SA		GURMUKHI LETTER SA
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	2360	U+0938	2488	U+09B8	3000	U+0BB8	3128	U+0C38	2872	U+0B38	3256	U+0CB8	3384	U+0D38	2744	U+0AB8	2616	U+0A38
UTF-8	224 164 184	E0 A4 B8	224 166 184	E0 A6 B8	224 174 184	E0 AE B8	224 176 184	E0 B0 B8	224 172 184	E0 AC B8	224 178 184	E0 B2 B8	224 180 184	E0 B4 B8	224 170 184	E0 AA B8	224 168 184	E0 A8 B8
Numeric character reference	स	स	স	স	ஸ	ஸ	స	స	ସ	ସ	ಸ	ಸ	സ	സ	સ	સ	ਸ	ਸ
ISCII	215	D7	215	D7	215	D7	215	D7	215	D7	215	D7	215	D7	215	D7	215	D7

Character information

Preview	Ashoka Kushana Gupta		𐨯				𑌸
Unicode name	BRAHMI LETTER SA		KHAROSHTHI LETTER SA		SIDDHAM LETTER SA		GRANTHA LETTER SA
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	69682	U+11032	68143	U+10A2F	71085	U+115AD	70456	U+11338
UTF-8	240 145 128 178	F0 91 80 B2	240 144 168 175	F0 90 A8 AF	240 145 150 173	F0 91 96 AD	240 145 140 184	F0 91 8C B8
UTF-16	55300 56370	D804 DC32	55298 56879	D802 DE2F	55301 56749	D805 DDAD	55300 57144	D804 DF38
Numeric character reference	𑀲	𑀲	𐨯	𐨯	𑖭	𑖭	𑌸	𑌸

Character information

Preview			ྶ		ꡛ		𑨰		𑐳		𑰭		𑆱
Unicode name	TIBETAN LETTER SA		TIBETAN SUBJOINED LETTER SA		PHAGS-PA LETTER SA		ZANABAZAR SQUARE LETTER SA		NEWA LETTER SA		BHAIKSUKI LETTER SA		SHARADA LETTER SA
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	3942	U+0F66	4022	U+0FB6	43099	U+A85B	72240	U+11A30	70707	U+11433	72749	U+11C2D	70065	U+111B1
UTF-8	224 189 166	E0 BD A6	224 190 182	E0 BE B6	234 161 155	EA A1 9B	240 145 168 176	F0 91 A8 B0	240 145 144 179	F0 91 90 B3	240 145 176 173	F0 91 B0 AD	240 145 134 177	F0 91 86 B1
UTF-16	3942	0F66	4022	0FB6	43099	A85B	55302 56880	D806 DE30	55301 56371	D805 DC33	55303 56365	D807 DC2D	55300 56753	D804 DDB1
Numeric character reference	ས	ས	ྶ	ྶ	ꡛ	ꡛ	𑨰	𑨰	𑐳	𑐳	𑰭	𑰭	𑆱	𑆱

• The full range of SE Canadian syllabic characters can be found at the codepoint ranges 14ED-1505, 1507, 1509-150F, 18BE-18BF, 18DA.