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68-654: Shimun ( Syriac alphabet : ܫܡܥܘܢ ), also transliterated as Shemʿon or Shimon is the form of Simon used in Classical Syriac and other Aramaic languages . Mar Shimun may refer to any of the following Patriarchs of the Church of the East or Patriarchs of the Chaldean Catholic Patriarchs of Babylon: Syriac alphabet Syriac is written from right to left in horizontal lines. It

136-614: A tilde (~), called majlīyānā ( ܡܲܓ̰ܠܝܼܵܢܵܐ ‎), is placed above or below a letter in the Maḏnḥāyā variant of the alphabet to change its phonetic value (see also: Geresh ): In addition to foreign sounds, a marking system is used to distinguish qūššāyā ( ܩܘܫܝܐ , 'hard' letters) from rūkkāḵā ( ܪܘܟܟܐ , 'soft' letters). The letters bēṯ , gāmal , dālaṯ , kāp̄ , pē , and taw , all stop consonants ('hard') are able to be 'spirantized' ( lenited ) into fricative consonants ('soft'). The system involves placing

204-551: A "doubled" letter, making the list BeGeD KePoReT . ( Sefer Yetzirah , 4:1) The following table contains the pronunciation of the Hebrew letters in reconstructed historical forms and dialects using the International Phonetic Alphabet . The apostrophe-looking symbol after some letters is not a yud but a geresh . It is used for loanwords with non-native Hebrew sounds. The dot in the middle of some of

272-416: A Hebrew text with these letters would require using the spelling in the language from which the transliteration to Hebrew was originally made). The non-standard " ו׳ ‎" and " וו ‎" are sometimes used to represent / w / , which like / d͡ʒ / , / ʒ / and / t͡ʃ / appears in Hebrew slang and loanwords. The Sound / χ / (as "ch" in loch ) is often transcribed "ch", inconsistently with

340-720: A cantillation mark used for Torah recitation, though its visual appearance and function are different in that context. In much of Israel 's general population, especially where Ashkenazic pronunciation is prevalent, many letters have the same pronunciation. They are as follows: * Varyingly Some of the variations in sound mentioned above are due to a systematic feature of Ancient Hebrew. The six consonants /b ɡ d k p t/ were pronounced differently depending on their position. These letters were also called BeGeD KeFeT letters / ˌ b eɪ ɡ ɛ d ˈ k ɛ f ɛ t / . The full details are very complex; this summary omits some points. They were pronounced as plosives [b ɡ d k p t] at

408-641: A central dot called dagesh ( דגש ‎), while the soft sounds lack a dagesh . In modern Hebrew, however, the dagesh only changes the pronunciation of ב ‎ bet , כ ‎ kaf , and פ ‎ pe , and does not affect the name of the letter. The differences are as follows: In other dialects (mainly liturgical) there are variations from this pattern. The sounds [ t͡ʃ ] , [ d͡ʒ ] , [ ʒ ] , written ⟨ צ׳ ‎⟩, ⟨ ג׳ ‎⟩, ⟨ ז׳ ‎⟩, and [ w ] , non-standardly sometimes transliterated ⟨ וו ‎⟩, are often found in slang and loanwords that are part of

476-438: A different final form used at the end of words, the final forms are displayed beneath the regular form. The block (square, or "print" type) and cursive ("handwritten" type) are the only variants in widespread contemporary use. Rashi is also used, for historical reasons, in a handful of standard texts. Following the adoption of Greek Hellenistic alphabetic numeration practice, Hebrew letters started being used to denote numbers in

544-454: A line, called mṭalqānā ( ܡܛܠܩܢܐ , literally 'concealer', also known by the Latin term linea occultans in some grammars), to indicate a silent letter that can occur at the beginning or middle of a word. In Eastern Syriac, this line is diagonal and only occurs above the silent letter (e.g. ܡܕ݂ܝܼܢ݇ܬܵܐ ‎, 'city', pronounced mḏīttā , not * mḏīntā , with the mṭalqānā over

612-510: A number of reverse letter orders; such as vav - he , chet - zayin , pe - ayin , etc. A reversal to pe-ayin can be clearly seen in the Book of Lamentations , whose first four chapters are ordered as alphabetical acrostics. In the Masoretic text , the first chapter has the now-usual ayin-pe ordering, and the second, third and fourth chapters exhibit pe-ayin . In

680-748: A previous vowel and becomes silent, or by imitation of such cases in the spelling of other forms. Also, a system of vowel points to indicate vowels (diacritics), called niqqud , was developed. In modern forms of the alphabet, as in the case of Yiddish and to some extent Modern Hebrew , vowels may be indicated. Today, the trend is toward full spelling with the weak letters acting as true vowels. When used to write Yiddish , vowels are indicated, using certain letters, either with niqqud diacritics (e.g. אָ ‎ or יִ ‎) or without (e.g. ע ‎ or י ‎), except for Hebrew words, which in Yiddish are written in their Hebrew spelling. To preserve

748-637: A single dot underneath the letter to give its 'soft' variant and a dot above the letter to give its 'hard' variant (though, in modern usage, no mark at all is usually used to indicate the 'hard' value): The mnemonic bḡaḏkp̄āṯ ( ܒܓܕܟܦܬ ) is often used to remember the six letters that are able to be spirantized (see also: Begadkepat ). In the East Syriac variant of the alphabet, spirantization marks are usually omitted when they interfere with vowel marks. The degree to which letters can be spirantized varies from dialect to dialect as some dialects have lost

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816-612: A special control character called the Syriac Abbreviation Mark (U+070F). The Unicode block for Suriyani Malayalam specific letters is called the Syriac Supplement block and is U+0860–U+086F: Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew alphabet ( Hebrew : אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי , Alefbet ivri ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri , Jewish script , square script and block script ,

884-424: A vowel instead of a consonant (which would be, respectively, /ʔ/, /ʕ/, /v/ and /j/ ). When they do, ו ‎ and י ‎ are considered to constitute part of the vowel designation in combination with a niqqud symbol – a vowel diacritic (whether or not the diacritic is marked), whereas א ‎ and ע ‎ are considered to be mute, their role being purely indicative of the non-marked vowel. Niqqud

952-512: Is a cursive script where most—but not all—letters connect within a word. There is no letter case distinction between upper and lower case letters, though some letters change their form depending on their position within a word. Spaces separate individual words. All 22 letters are consonants (called ܐܵܬܘܼܬܵܐ ‎, ātūtā ). There are optional diacritic marks (called ܢܘܼܩܙܵܐ ‎, nuqzā ) to indicate vowels (called ܙܵܘܥܵܐ ‎, zāwˁā ) and other features . In addition to

1020-400: Is an abjad consisting only of consonants , written from right to left . It has 22 letters, five of which use different forms at the end of a word. In the traditional form, vowels are indicated by the weak consonants Aleph ( א ‎), He ( ה ‎), Waw/Vav ( ו ‎), or Yodh ( י ‎) serving as vowel letters, or matres lectionis : the letter is combined with

1088-685: Is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewish languages , most notably Yiddish , Ladino , Judeo-Arabic , and Judeo-Persian . In modern Hebrew, vowels are increasingly introduced. It is also used informally in Israel to write Levantine Arabic , especially among Druze . It is an offshoot of the Imperial Aramaic alphabet , which flourished during the Achaemenid Empire and which itself derives from

1156-476: Is called a gershayim and is a punctuation mark used in the Hebrew language to denote acronyms. It is written before the last letter in the acronym, e.g. ר״ת ‎. Gershayim is also the name of a cantillation mark in the reading of the Torah , printed above the accented letter, e.g. א֞ ‎. The following table displays typographic and chirographic variants of each letter. For the five letters that have

1224-564: Is mostly predictable (usually inside a syllable-initial two-consonant cluster) or because its pronunciation was lost, both the East and the West variants of the alphabet traditionally have no sign to represent the schwa. The West Syriac dialect is usually written in the Serṭā or Serṭo ( ܣܶܪܛܳܐ ‎, 'line') form of the alphabet, also known as the Pšīṭā ( ܦܫܺܝܛܳܐ ‎, 'simple'), 'Maronite' or

1292-519: Is simply pronounced /t/. Likewise, historical /ð/ is simply pronounced /d/. Shin and sin are represented by the same letter, ש ‎, but are two separate phonemes . When vowel diacritics are used, the two phonemes are differentiated with a shin -dot or sin -dot; the shin -dot is above the upper-right side of the letter, and the sin -dot is above the upper-left side of the letter. Historically, left-dot-sin corresponds to Proto-Semitic * ś , which in biblical-Judaic-Hebrew corresponded to

1360-487: Is the system of dots that help determine vowels and consonants. In Hebrew, all forms of niqqud are often omitted in writing, except for children's books, prayer books, poetry, foreign words, and words which would be ambiguous to pronounce. Israeli Hebrew has five vowel phonemes, /i e a o u/ , but many more written symbols for them: Note 1: The circle represents whatever Hebrew letter is used. Note 2: The pronunciation of tsere and sometimes segol – with or without

1428-497: Is usually vowel-pointed, with miniature Greek vowel letters above or below the letter which they follow: The Syriac alphabet consists of the following letters, shown in their isolated (non-connected) forms. When isolated, the letters kāp̄ , mīm , and nūn are usually shown with their initial form connected to their final form (see below ). The letters ʾālep̄ , dālaṯ , hē , waw , zayn , ṣāḏē , rēš and taw (and, in early ʾEsṭrangēlā manuscripts,

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1496-638: Is when certain consonants are used to indicate vowels. There is a trend in Modern Hebrew towards the use of matres lectionis to indicate vowels that have traditionally gone unwritten, a practice known as " full spelling ". The Yiddish alphabet , a modified version of the Hebrew alphabet used to write Yiddish, is a true alphabet, with all vowels rendered in the spelling, except in the case of inherited Hebrew words, which typically retain their Hebrew consonant-only spellings. The Arabic and Hebrew alphabets have similarities because they are both derived from

1564-460: The nūn , assimilating with the taw ). The line can only occur above a letter ʾālep̄ , hē , waw , yōḏ , lāmaḏ , mīm , nūn , ʿē or rēš (which comprise the mnemonic ܥܡ̈ܠܝ ܢܘܗܪܐ ʿamlay nūhrā , 'the works of light'). In Western Syriac, this line is horizontal and can be placed above or below the letter (e.g. ܡܕ݂ܺܝܢ̄ܬܳܐ ‎, 'city', pronounced mḏīto , not * mḏīnto ). Classically, mṭalqānā

1632-447: The syāmē above the word malk ē ( ܡܠܟ̈ܐ ) clarifies its grammatical number and pronunciation. Irregular plurals also receive syāmē even though their forms are clearly plural: e.g. baytā ( ܒܝܬܐ , 'house') and its irregular plural bāttē ( ܒ̈ܬܐ , 'houses'). Because of redundancy, some modern usage forgoes syāmē points when vowel markings are present. There are no firm rules for which letter receives syāmē ;

1700-641: The Assyrian diaspora is in Europe and the Anglosphere , where the Latin alphabet is predominant. In Syriac romanization, some letters are altered and would feature diacritics and macrons to indicate long vowels, schwas and diphthongs . The letters with diacritics and macrons are mostly upheld in educational or formal writing. The Latin letters below are commonly used when it comes to transliteration from

1768-536: The Dead Sea Scrolls version (4QLam/4Q111), reversed ordering also appears in the first chapter (i.e. in all the first four chapters). The fact that these chapters follows the pre-exilic pe-ayin order is evidence for them being written shortly after the events described, rather than being later, post-exilic compositions. The descriptions that follow are based on the pronunciation of modern standard Israeli Hebrew. pronunciation By analogy with

1836-836: The Phoenician alphabet . Historically, a different abjad script was used to write Hebrew: the original, old Hebrew script, now known as the paleo-Hebrew alphabet , has been largely preserved in a variant form as the Samaritan alphabet , and is still used by the Samaritans . The present "Jewish script" or "square script", on the contrary, is a stylized form of the Aramaic alphabet and was technically known by Jewish sages as Ashurit (lit. "Assyrian script"), since its origins were known to be from Assyria ( Mesopotamia ). Various "styles" (in current terms, " fonts ") of representation of

1904-412: The voiceless alveolar lateral fricative /ɬ/ (or /ś/). Historically, the consonants ב ‎ bet , ג ‎ gimmel , ד ‎ daleth , כ ‎ kaf , פ ‎ pe and ת ‎ tav each had two sounds: one hard ( plosive ), and one soft ( fricative ), depending on the position of the letter and other factors. When vowel diacritics are used, the hard sounds are indicated by

1972-440: The 'Jacobite' script (although the term Jacobite is considered derogatory). Most of the letters are clearly derived from ʾEsṭrangēlā, but are simplified, flowing lines. A cursive chancery hand is evidenced in the earliest Syriac manuscripts, but important works were written in ʾEsṭrangēlā. From the 8th century, the simpler Serṭā style came into fashion, perhaps because of its more economical use of parchment . The Western script

2040-533: The 10th century. It is often used in scholarly publications (such as the Leiden University version of the Peshitta ), in titles, and in inscriptions . In some older manuscripts and inscriptions, it is possible for any letter to join to the left, and older Aramaic letter forms (especially of ḥeṯ and the lunate mem ) are found. Vowel marks are usually not used with ʾEsṭrangēlā , being

2108-572: The 19th century. The Serṭā variant specifically has been adapted to write Western Neo-Aramaic , previously written in the square Maalouli script , developed by George Rizkalla (Rezkallah), based on the Hebrew alphabet . Besides Aramaic, when Arabic began to be the dominant spoken language in the Fertile Crescent after the Islamic conquest , texts were often written in Arabic using

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2176-571: The 2006 precise transliteration system of the Academy of the Hebrew Language; for " צ ‎" SBL uses "ṣ" (≠ AHL "ẓ"), and for בג״ד כפ״ת with no dagesh, SBL uses the same symbols as for with dagesh (i.e. "b", "g", "d", "k", "f", "t"). In transliterations of modern Israeli Hebrew, initial and final ע ‎ (in regular transliteration), silent or initial א ‎, and silent ה ‎ are not transliterated. To

2244-681: The 3rd century BCE, Jews began to use a stylized, "square" form of the Aramaic alphabet that was used by the Persian Empire (and which in turn had been adopted from the Assyrians ), while the Samaritans continued to use a form of the paleo-Hebrew script called the Samaritan alphabet . After the fall of the Persian Empire in 330 BCE, Jews used both scripts before settling on the square Assyrian form. The square Hebrew alphabet

2312-554: The Aramaic alphabet, which in turn derives either from paleo-Hebrew or the Phoenician alphabet , both being slight regional variations of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet used in ancient times to write the various Canaanite languages (including Hebrew, Moabite, Phoenician, Punic, et cetera). The Canaanite dialects were largely indistinguishable before around 1000 BCE. An example of related early Semitic inscriptions from

2380-410: The Hebrew alphabet, and not loanwords . Geresh is also used to denote an abbreviation consisting of a single Hebrew letter, while gershayim (a doubled geresh ) are used to denote acronyms pronounced as a string of letters; geresh and gershayim are also used to denote Hebrew numerals consisting of a single Hebrew letter or of multiple Hebrew letters, respectively. Geresh is also the name of

2448-465: The Hebrew name ribbūi [ רִבּוּי ], 'plural'), to indicate that the word is plural. These dots, having no sound value in themselves, arose before both eastern and western vowel systems as it became necessary to mark plural forms of words, which are indistinguishable from their singular counterparts in regularly-inflected nouns. For instance, the word malk ā ( ܡܠܟܐ , 'king') is consonantally identical to its plural malk ē ( ܡܠܟ̈ܐ , 'kings');

2516-462: The Jewish script letters described in this article also exist, including a variety of cursive Hebrew styles. In the remainder of this article, the term "Hebrew alphabet" refers to the square script unless otherwise indicated. The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters. It does not have case . Five letters have different forms when used at the end of a word. Hebrew is written from right to left . Originally,

2584-494: The Syriac script as knowledge of the Arabic alphabet was not yet widespread; such writings are usually called Karshuni or Garshuni ( ܓܪܫܘܢܝ ). In addition to Semitic languages , Sogdian was also written with Syriac script, as well as Malayalam , which form was called Suriyani Malayalam . There are three major variants of the Syriac alphabet: ʾEsṭrangēlā , Maḏnḥāyā and Serṭā . The oldest and classical form of

2652-607: The Syriac script to Latin : Sometimes additional letters may be used and they tend to be: The Syriac alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in September, 1999 with the release of version 3.0. Additional letters for Suriyani Malayalam were added in June, 2017 with the release of version 10.0. The Unicode block for Syriac is U+0700–U+074F: The Syriac Abbreviation (a type of overline ) can be represented with

2720-499: The ability for certain letters to be spirantized. For native words, spirantization depends on the letter's position within a word or syllable, location relative to other consonants and vowels, gemination , etymology , and other factors. Foreign words do not always follow the rules for spirantization. Syriac uses two (usually) horizontal dots above a letter within a word, similar in appearance to diaeresis , called syāmē ( ܣܝ̈ܡܐ , literally 'placings', also known in some grammars by

2788-456: The alphabet is ʾEsṭrangēlā ( ܐܣܛܪܢܓܠܐ ‎ ). The name of the script is thought to derive from the Greek adjective strongýlē ( στρογγύλη , 'rounded'), though it has also been suggested to derive from serṭā ʾewwangēlāyā ( ܣܪܛܐ ܐܘܢܓܠܝܐ ‎ , 'gospel character'). Although ʾEsṭrangēlā is no longer used as the main script for writing Syriac, it has received some revival since

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2856-471: The alphabet was an abjad consisting only of consonants , but is now considered an " impure abjad ". As with other abjads, such as the Arabic alphabet , during its centuries-long use scribes devised means of indicating vowel sounds by separate vowel points, known in Hebrew as niqqud . In both biblical and rabbinic Hebrew, the letters י ו ה א can also function as matres lectionis , which

2924-488: The area include the tenth-century Gezer calendar over which scholars are divided as to whether its language is Hebrew or Phoenician and whether the script is Proto-Canaanite or paleo-Hebrew . A Hebrew variant of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet , called the paleo-Hebrew alphabet by scholars, began to emerge around 800 BCE. An example is the Siloam inscription ( c.  700 BCE ). The paleo-Hebrew alphabet

2992-455: The beginning of a syllable, or when doubled. They were pronounced as fricatives [v ɣ ð x f θ] when preceded by a vowel (commonly indicated with a macron, ḇ ḡ ḏ ḵ p̄ ṯ). The plosive and double pronunciations were indicated by the dagesh . In Modern Hebrew the sounds ḏ and ḡ have reverted to [d] and [ɡ] , respectively, and ṯ has become [t] , so only the remaining three consonants /b k p/ show variation. ר ‎ resh may have also been

3060-425: The everyday Hebrew colloquial vocabulary. The symbol resembling an apostrophe after the Hebrew letter modifies the pronunciation of the letter and is called a geresh . The pronunciation of the following letters can also be modified with the geresh diacritic. The represented sounds are however foreign to Hebrew phonology , i.e., these symbols mainly represent sounds in foreign words or names when transliterated with

3128-459: The eye of readers orientating themselves on Latin (or similar) alphabets, these letters might seem to be transliterated as vowel letters; however, these are in fact transliterations of the vowel diacritics – niqqud (or are representations of the spoken vowels). E.g., in אִם ("if", [ʔim] ), אֵם ("mother", [ʔe̞m] ) and אֹם (" nut ", [ʔo̞m] ), the letter א ‎ always represents the same consonant: [ ʔ ] ( glottal stop ), whereas

3196-489: The first letter, represents a glottal stop , but it can also indicate a vowel, especially at the beginning or the end of a word. The letter waw ( ܘ ) is the consonant w , but can also represent the vowels o and u . Likewise, the letter yōḏ ( ܝ ) represents the consonant y , but it also stands for the vowels i and e . In modern usage, some alterations can be made to represent phonemes not represented in classical phonology . A mark similar in appearance to

3264-566: The juxtapositions ת״ק ‎, ת״ר ‎, ת״ש ‎, ת״ת ‎, and תת״ק ‎ respectively. Adding a geresh (" ׳ ‎") to a letter multiplies its value by one thousand, for example, the year 5778 is portrayed as ה׳תשע״ח ‎, where ה׳ ‎ represents 5000, and תשע״ח ‎ represents 778. The following table lists transliterations and transcriptions of Hebrew letters used in Modern Hebrew . Clarifications: Note: SBL's transliteration system, recommended in its Handbook of Style , differs slightly from

3332-468: The language to children. The Tiberian system also includes a set of cantillation marks , called trope or te'amim , used to indicate how scriptural passages should be chanted in synagogue recitations of scripture (although these marks do not appear in the scrolls). In everyday writing of modern Hebrew, niqqud are absent; however, patterns of how words are derived from Hebrew roots (called shorashim or "triliterals") allow Hebrew speakers to determine

3400-544: The late 2nd century BC, and performed this arithmetic function for about a thousand years. Nowadays alphanumeric notation is used only in specific contexts, e.g. denoting dates in the Hebrew calendar , denoting grades of school in Israel, other listings (e.g. שלב א׳ , שלב ב׳ – "phase a, phase b"), commonly in Kabbalah ( Jewish mysticism ) in a practice known as gematria , and often in religious contexts. The numbers 500, 600, 700, 800 and 900 are commonly represented by

3468-419: The letter semkaṯ ) do not connect to a following letter within a word; these are marked with an asterisk (*). Equivalent name final final unconnected medial final final unconnected medial name final final unconnected medial final final unconnected medial Three letters act as matres lectionis : rather than being a consonant, they indicate a vowel. ʾālep̄ ( ܐ ),

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3536-489: The letter yod – is sometimes ei in Modern Hebrew. This is not correct in the normative pronunciation and not consistent in the spoken language. Note 3: The dagesh , mappiq , and shuruk have different functions, even though they look the same. Note 4: The letter ו ‎ ( waw/vav ) is used since it can only be represented by that letter. By adding a vertical line (called Meteg ) underneath

3604-517: The letter and to the left of the vowel point, the vowel is made long. The meteg is only used in Biblical Hebrew , not Modern Hebrew . By adding two vertical dots (called Sh'va ) underneath the letter, the vowel is made very short. When sh'va is placed on the first letter of the word, mostly it is "è" (but in some instances, it makes the first letter silent without a vowel (vowel-less): e.g. וְ wè to "w") The symbol ״ ‎

3672-628: The letters, called a " dagesh kal", also modifies the sounds of the letters ב ‎, כ ‎ and פ ‎ in modern Hebrew (in some forms of Hebrew it modifies also the sounds of the letters ג ‎, ד ‎ and/or ת ‎; the "dagesh chazak" – orthographically indistinguishable from the "dagesh kal" – designates gemination , which today is realized only rarely – e.g. in biblical recitations or when using Arabic loanwords ). س ‎ א ‎ alef , ע ‎ ayin , ו ‎ waw/vav and י ‎ yod are letters that can sometimes indicate

3740-429: The normal form in the following table (letter names are Unicode standard ). Although Hebrew is read and written from right to left, the following table shows the letters in order from left to right: As far back as the 13th century BCE, ancient Hebrew abecedaries indicate a slightly different ordering of the alphabet. The Zayit Stone , Izbet Sartah ostracon , and one inscription from Kuntillet Ajrud each contain

3808-528: The oldest form of the script and arising before the development of specialized diacritics. The East Syriac dialect is usually written in the Maḏnḥāyā ( ܡܲܕ݂ܢܚܵܝܵܐ ‎, 'Eastern') form of the alphabet. Other names for the script include Swāḏāyā ( ܣܘܵܕ݂ܵܝܵܐ ‎, 'conversational' or 'vernacular', often translated as 'contemporary', reflecting its use in writing modern Neo-Aramaic), ʾĀṯōrāyā ( ܐܵܬ݂ܘܿܪܵܝܵܐ ‎, 'Assyrian', not to be confused with

3876-484: The other dotted/dotless pairs, dotless tav, ת ‎, would be expected to be pronounced /θ/ ( voiceless dental fricative ), and dotless dalet ד ‎ as /ð/ ( voiced dental fricative ), but these were lost among most Jews due to these sounds not existing in the countries where they lived (such as in nearly all of Eastern Europe). Yiddish modified /θ/ to /s/ (cf. seseo in Spanish), but in modern Israeli Hebrew, it

3944-540: The proper vowel sounds, scholars developed several different sets of vocalization and diacritical symbols called nequdot ( נקודות‎ ‎, literally "points"). One of these, the Tiberian system , eventually prevailed. Aaron ben Moses ben Asher , and his family for several generations, are credited for refining and maintaining the system. These points are normally used only for special purposes, such as Biblical books intended for study, in poetry or when teaching

4012-607: The script: It is thought that the Eastern method for representing vowels influenced the development of the niqqud markings used for writing Hebrew. In addition to the above vowel marks, transliteration of Syriac sometimes includes ə , e̊ or superscript (or often nothing at all) to represent an original Aramaic schwa that became lost later on at some point in the development of Syriac. Some transliteration schemes find its inclusion necessary for showing spirantization or for historical reasons. Whether because its distribution

4080-491: The sounds of the language, the letters of the Syriac alphabet can be used to represent numbers in a system similar to Hebrew and Greek numerals . Apart from Classical Syriac Aramaic, the alphabet has been used to write other dialects and languages. Several Christian Neo-Aramaic languages from Turoyo to the Northeastern Neo-Aramaic dialect of Suret , once vernaculars , primarily began to be written in

4148-426: The text being transliterated), resulting in "im", "em" and "om", respectively. The diacritic geresh – " ׳ ‎" – is used with some other letters as well ( ד׳ ‎, ח׳ ‎, ט׳ ‎, ע׳ ‎, ר׳ ‎, ת׳ ‎), but only to transliterate from other languages to Hebrew – never to spell Hebrew words; therefore they were not included in this table (correctly translating

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4216-618: The traditional name for the Hebrew alphabet ), Kaldāyā ( ܟܲܠܕܵܝܵܐ ‎, 'Chaldean'), and, inaccurately, "Nestorian" (a term that was originally used to refer to the Church of the East in the Sasanian Empire ). The Eastern script resembles ʾEsṭrangēlā somewhat more closely than the Western script. The Eastern script uses a system of dots above and/or below letters, based on an older system, to indicate vowel sounds not found in

4284-498: The vowel-structure of a given word from its consonants based on the word's context and part of speech. Unlike the Paleo-Hebrew writing script, the modern Hebrew script has five letters that have special final forms , called sofit ( Hebrew : סופית , meaning in this context "final" or "ending") form, used only at the end of a word, somewhat as in the Greek or in the Arabic and Mandaic alphabets . These are shown below

4352-444: The vowels /i/, /e/ and /o/ respectively represent the spoken vowel, whether it is orthographically denoted by diacritics or not. Since the Academy of the Hebrew Language ascertains that א ‎ in initial position is not transliterated, the symbol for the glottal stop   ʾ   is omitted from the transliteration, and only the subsequent vowels are transliterated (whether or not their corresponding vowel diacritics appeared in

4420-462: The writer has full discretion to place them over any letter. Typically, if a word has at least one rēš , then syāmē are placed over the rēš that is nearest the end of a word (and also replace the single dot above it: ܪ̈ ). Other letters that often receive syāmē are low-rising letters—such as yōḏ and nūn —or letters that appear near the middle or end of a word. Besides plural nouns, syāmē are also placed on: Syriac uses

4488-582: Was later adapted and used for writing languages of the Jewish diaspora – such as Karaim , the Judeo-Arabic languages , Judaeo-Spanish, and Yiddish. The Hebrew alphabet continued in use for scholarly writing in Hebrew and came again into everyday use with the rebirth of the Hebrew language as a spoken language in the 18th and 19th centuries, especially in Israel . In the traditional form, the Hebrew alphabet

4556-454: Was not used for silent letters that occurred at the end of a word (e.g. ܡܪܝ mār[ī] , '[my] lord'). In modern Turoyo , however, this is not always the case (e.g. ܡܳܪܝ̱ ‎ mor[ī] , '[my] lord'). In the 1930s, a Latin alphabet for Syriac was developed with some material promulgated. Although it did not supplant the Syriac script, the usage of the Latin script in the Syriac community has still become widespread because most of

4624-566: Was used in the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah . Following the Babylonian exile of the Kingdom of Judah in the 6th century BCE, Jews began using a form of the Imperial Aramaic alphabet , another offshoot of the same family of scripts, which flourished during the Achaemenid Empire . The Samaritans , who remained in the Land of Israel, continued to use the paleo-Hebrew alphabet. During

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