א

The title of this article is ambiguous. For other meanings, see Aleph (disambiguation).

א

Aleph or Alef (אלף) is the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet. It has the numerical value 1.

The phonetic value of the letter in Iwrit is [ʔ] in IPA notation. It is the glottal stop (glottis beat), which is present but not written in German.

The phonetic value in Yiddish is [a] - written אַ - or [o] (dialectally and stage Yiddish also [ʊ], [uː]) - written אָ -; in certain positions (especially at the beginning of words beginning with /aj/, /ej/, /i/, /oj/, /u/) א is a purely graphic sign without phonetic value and thus silent. It is also silent in some Yiddish words of Semitic origin.

History

The aleph is the first letter of the Phoenician and Hebrew alphabets and corresponds to the alif of the Arabic script. It stands for a consonant which the Greeks, when they adapted the Phoenician alphabet to their language, reinterpreted as a sign for the vowel alpha, which then gave rise to the Latin a. The name of the letter derives from the stylized representation of a bull's head (Hebrew alef "bovine") with two horns. As the letter evolved, it was rotated and its shape changed. The name was retained.

Comparison of characters

Protosinaitic

Phoenician

Hebrew

Arabic

Greek

Latin

Aleph

Alif

Α

Alpha

A



Examples

  • אדם Adam "man" ("earthy, terrestrial, earthling") related to אדמה adamah: "(red) earth".
  • אברהם Abraham - "father of the multitude".
  • כיתה אלף kita alef - first (school) grade
  • מאלף עד תו me-alef ad taw - from A to Z (literally: From Alef to Taw; similarly: The A and O).
  • אונן Onan - biblical given name
  • אופיר Ophir - geographical name
  • אוריאל Uriel - masculine given name: "My light is God".

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