Bengali Letter Sa

Usually “sh” on its own; some clusters give it an “s” sound. It is also called dantya sa, or “dental sa,” a traditional name referring to the teeth rather than a dependable guide to its modern pronunciation.

In clusters such as স্প and স্ত, স can have an “s”-like beginning. Bengali keeps স, শ and ষ as distinct spellings even where their sounds overlap: সাপ means “snake,” while শাপ means “curse.” Follow the word’s spelling rather than choosing by sound.

Where did Bengali স come from?

It developed gradually through eastern descendants of the Brahmi script. Its ancestors wrote consonants in an abugida, a writing system in which a consonant normally carries a vowel.

A looped ancestor appears in Mathurā inscriptions from the Kuṣāṇa period; related forms occur in Eastern Gupta records from the 4th–5th centuries CE.

The eastern branch of Siddhamātrikā, an older Indian script, developed into Proto-Bengali or Gauḍi by the 8th century CE and into Bengali script in the 11th–12th centuries CE. শ and ষ belong to the same inherited set of sibilant spellings.