Finally we come to tav. We of course know the meaning of the name of this letter, it means a mark, as in Sefer Iyov “hen tavi” (“here is my mark”). In particular it referred to a cross shaped marking. The Egyptians had used such … Continue reading Origins of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet (Part 22, Tav)
Shin/Sin provides us with some surprises again. Based on its modern form people assume that it depicts two teeth and that the name is a form of the word “shen” meaning a tooth. However the first temple era form of the letter looked like a … Continue reading Origins of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet (Part 21, Shin/Sin)
With resh things are as expected. The name resh is recognizable as a northern dialect form of the word rosh meaning head and the earliest examples of the letter are based on the Egyptian sign depicting a head. In Egyptian this was used for the … Continue reading Origins of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet (Part 20, Resh)
The name of the letter quph resembles the word qoph meaning “monkey” and the letter seems to have a long tail, both in its modern form as well as its first temple era form. In ancient inscriptions we find a sign looking like a fat … Continue reading Origins of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet (Part 19, Quph)
Where does the Tsadi come from? Based on its first temple era appearance and the meaning of the root “ts-y-d” as hunting but more specifically fishing (as in the name of the port of Tsidon) it was thought that perhaps tsadi represented a type of … Continue reading Origins of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet (Part 18, Tsadi)
With pe’ we again have a surprise. Based on its modern shape many assume it depicts a face with a mouth and some spell the name of the letter as peh (pe’-he’ meaning mouth) or pey (pe’-yud which can be understood as mouth of). Now … Continue reading Origins of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet (Part 17, Pe’)
The meaning of the letter name ayin is clear – an eye, however as was the case with zayin and chet, we find that in the earliest forms of the Hebrew alphabet there were in fact two different letters where later Hebrew has the ayin … Continue reading Origins of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet (Part 16, Ayin)
With samekh we have a few surprises. The shape of the letter has evolved quite radically and although it is roughly circular in modern script, in the first temple era it consisted of three horizontal strokes crossed by a vertical line. As the word samak … Continue reading Origins of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet (Part 15, Samekh)
The earliest examples of nun depict a snake. Typically it looked like the Egyptian sign for a resting cobra which in Egyptian was used for the sound usually transcribed as “dj” by scholars and which was probably pronounced similar to the way Ethiopian Jews pronounce … Continue reading Origins of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet (Part 14, Nun)
The origin of mem is clear. The name is recognizable as a variant of the word mayim meaning water and the earliest forms of mem depict a ripple of water. The Egyptians used this for the n sound from their word “nut” for water, but … Continue reading Origins of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet (Part 13, Mem)
Ivri Anochi 