Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ʾālep ?, Hebrew ʾālef א, Persian Alef Aramaic ʾālap ?, Syriac ʾālap̄ ܐ, and Arabic alif ا. It also appears as South Arabian ?, and Ge’ez ʾälef አ.
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Ayin (also ayn or ain; transliterated ⟨ʿ⟩) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ʿayin , Hebrew ʿayin ע, Aramaic ʿē , Syriac ʿē ܥ, and Arabic ʿayn ع (where it is sixteenth in abjadi order only).[note 1] The letter represents a voiced pharyngeal fricative (/ʕ/) or a similarly articulated consonant. In some Semitic languages and dialects, the phonetic value of the letter has changed, or the phoneme has been lost altogether (thus, in Modern Hebrew it is reduced to
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Bet, Beth, Beh, or Vet is the second letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Bēt , Hebrew Bēt ב, Aramaic Bēth , Syriac Bēṯ ܒ, and Arabic Bāʾ ب Its sound value is a voiced bilabial stop ⟨b⟩ or a voiced labiodental fricative ⟨v⟩. This letter’s name means “house” in various Semitic languages (Arabic bayt, Akkadian bītu, bētu, Hebrew: bayiṯ, Phoenician bt etc.; ultimately all from Proto-Semitic *bayt-), and appears to derive from an Egyptian hieroglyph of a house by acrophony.
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Ḥet or H̱et (also spelled Khet, Kheth, Chet, Cheth, .Het, or Heth) is the eighth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Ḥēt , Hebrew Ḥēth ח, Aramaic Ḥēth , Syriac Ḥēṯ ܚ, Arabic Ḥā’ ح, Maltese Ħ, ħ. Heth originally represented a voiceless fricative, either pharyngeal /ħ/, or velar /x/. In Arabic, two corresponding letters were created for both phonemic sounds: unmodified ḥāʾ ح represents /ħ/, while ḫāʾ خ represents /x/. The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek eta Η, Etruscan , Latin H and Cyrillic И. While H is a consonant in the Latin alphabet, the Greek and Cyrillic equivalents represent vowel sounds.
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Dalet (dāleth, also spelled Daleth or Daled) is the fourth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Dālet , Hebrew ‘Dālet ד, Aramaic Dālath , Syriac Dālaṯ ܕ, and Arabic Dāl د (in abjadi order; 8th in modern order). Its sound value is a voiced alveolar plosive ([d]). The letter is based on a glyph of the Middle Bronze Age alphabets, probably called dalt “door” (door in Modern Hebrew is delet), ultimately based on a hieroglyph depicting a door,
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Gimel is the third letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Gīml , Hebrew ˈGimel ג, Aramaic Gāmal , Syriac Gāmal ܓ, and Arabic ǧīm ج (in alphabetical order; fifth in spelling order). Its sound-value in the original Phoenician and in all derived alphabets, save Arabic, is a voiced velar plosive ; in Modern Standard Arabic, it represents either a /d͡ʒ/ or /ʒ/ for most Arabic speakers except in Lower Egypt, the southern parts of Yemen and some parts of Oman where it is pronounced as
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Hei is the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Hē , Hebrew Hē ה, Aramaic Hē , Syriac Hē ܗ, and Arabic Hāʾ ه. Its sound value is a voiceless glottal fricative ([h]). The proto-Canaanite letter gave rise to the Greek Epsilon, Etruscan ?, Latin E, Ë and Ɛ, and Cyrillic Е, Ё, Є and Э. He, like all Phoenician letters, represented a consonant, but the Latin, Greek and Cyrillic equivalents have all come to represent vowel sounds.
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Kaf (also spelled kaph) is the eleventh letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Kāp ? , Hebrew Kāf כ, Aramaic Kāp ? , Syriac Kāp̄ ܟܟ, and Arabic Kāf ک/ك (in Abjadi order). The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek kappa (Κ), Latin K, and Cyrillic К.
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Lamedh or Lamed is the twelfth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Lāmed , Hebrew ‘Lāmed ל, Aramaic Lāmadh , Syriac Lāmaḏ ܠ, and Arabic Lām ل. Its sound value is [l]. The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Lambda (Λ), Latin L, and Cyrillic El (Л).
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Mem (also spelled Meem, Meme, or Mim) is the thirteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Hebrew mēm מ, Aramaic Mem , Syriac mīm ܡܡ, Arabic mīm م and Phoenician mēm . Its value is [m]. The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek mu (Μ), Etruscan , Latin M, and Cyrillic М.
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