Is there any etymological motivation for “I-slam”, “I-srael”, “Mu-slim” and “I-smael”?

Question

**Background**Looking at old German orthographies, the long-s (ſ) spelling of the following five words (and I have not found any others so far) contradicts the spelling systematics of all other words:> Iſrael, Iſlam, Moſlem, Iſmael, AſbeſtBroken down to what matters for these words, a longs would only be consistent with the spelling systematics, if it were at the beginning of a syllable. While this is the case for none of these words in their German pronunciation, I can at least explain the spelling of *Aſbeſt* to some extent: It originates from the Greek *ἄ-σβεστος* and thus the first*s* was at the beginning of a syllable or word part etymologically (the second longs is consistent anyway, since it is followed by a*t).* I now wonder whether there is a similar explanation for the other words.**Actual Question**Is there any etymological predecessor for any of the words *Israel, Islam, Moslem* (muslim) and *Ismael* (Ishmael), in which the*s* (or a corresponding sound) was at the beginning of a syllable or word part?

Answer 1

This has more to do with the closed syllable context in which /s/ appears than the identity of the phoneme. Notice that the /s/ in these contexts always appears after a high vowel /i/ or /u/ but before a sonorant consonant l, m, r. I don't know old German orthography, but my guess would be the distinctiveness of a phoneme like /s/ is very subtle, and so German transcribers hear the /s/ and want to preserve its distinctiveness as a long /s/.

An open syllable ends with a vowel V, while a closed syllable ends with a consonant C. Thus, CVC words ending in /s/ were likely transcribed as long. Maybe try to find other words where /s/ is the coda in a closed syllable.

Otherwise, no, there's no etymological relationship between the 4 words.