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Yodh (also spelled jodh, yod, or jod) is the tenth letter of the Semitic
abjad An abjad (, ar, أبجد; also abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with other alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vowels ...
s, including Phoenician Yōd /𐤉,
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
Yōd ,
Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated i ...
Yod , Syriac Yōḏ ܝ, and
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walte ...
. Its sound value is in all languages for which it is used; in many languages, it also serves as a long vowel, representing . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
Iota Iota (; uppercase: Ι, lowercase: ι; ) is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Yodh. Letters that arose from this letter include the Latin I and J, the Cyrillic І (І, і), Yi (Ї, ї), and ...
(Ι),
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
I and J, Cyrillic І, Coptic (Ⲓ) and
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
eis . The term yod is often used to refer to the speech sound , a
palatal approximant The voiced palatal approximant, or yod, is a type of consonant used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j, and in the Americanist phonetic n ...
, even in discussions of languages not written in Semitic abjads, as in phonological phenomena such as English " yod-dropping".


Origins

Yod originated from a hieroglyphic “hand”, or *yad.


Hebrew Yod

Hebrew spelling: ; colloquial ;The letter appears with or without a hook on different sans-serif fonts, for example: * Arial, DejaVu Sans, Arimo, Open Sans: י * Tahoma, Alef, Heebo: י


Pronunciation

In both Biblical and modern
Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
, Yod represents a
palatal approximant The voiced palatal approximant, or yod, is a type of consonant used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j, and in the Americanist phonetic n ...
(). As a mater lectionis, it represents the vowel . At the end of words with a vowel or when marked with a sh'va nach, it represents the formation of a
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
, such as , , or .


Significance

In gematria, Yod represents the number ten. As a
prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy''. Particu ...
, it designates the third person singular (or plural, with a Vav as a suffix) in the future tense. As a suffix, it indicates first person singular possessive; ''av'' (father) becomes ''avi'' (my father). "Yod" in the Hebrew language signifies
iodine Iodine is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid at standard conditions that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , ...
. Iodine is also called يود ''yod'' in Arabic.


In religion

Two Yods in a row designate the name of God Adonai and in pointed texts are written with the vowels of Adonai; this is done as well with the
Tetragrammaton The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are '' yodh'', '' he'', '' waw'', an ...
. As Yod is the smallest letter, much
kabbalistic Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "receiver"). The defin ...
and mystical significance is attached to it. According to the
Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew), or simply Matthew. It is most commonly abbreviated as "Matt." is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells how Israel's Messiah, Jesus, comes to his people and ...
,
Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
mentioned it during the Antithesis of the Law, when he says: "One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Jot, or iota, refers to the letter Yod; it was often overlooked by scribes because of its size and position as a mater lectionis. In modern Hebrew, the phrase "tip of the Yod" refers to a small and insignificant thing, and someone who "worries about the tip of a Yod" is someone who is picky and meticulous about small details. Much
kabbalistic Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "receiver"). The defin ...
and mystical significance is also attached to it because of its gematria value as ten, which is an important number in Judaism, and its place in the name of God.


Yiddish

In Yiddish, the letter yod is used for several orthographic purposes in native words: * Alone, a single yod י may represent the vowel or the consonant . When adjacent to another vowel, or another yod, may be distinguished from by the addition of a dot below. Thus the word ''Yidish'' 'Yiddish' is spelled ייִדיש. The first yod represents []; the second yod represents [] and is distinguished from the adjacent [] by a dot; the third yod represents [] as well, but no dot is necessary. * The digraph (orthography), digraph יי, consisting of two yods, represents the diphthong []. * A pair of yods with a horizontal line (''patach, pasekh'') under them, ײַ, represents the diphthong [] in standard Yiddish. * The digraph consisting of a Waw (letter), vov followed by a yod, וי, represents the diphthong []. Loanwords from Hebrew or Aramaic in Yiddish are spelled as they are in their language of origin.


Arabic yāʼ

The letter is named ' (). It is written in several ways depending on its position in the word: It is pronounced in four ways: * As a consonant, it is pronounced as a
palatal approximant The voiced palatal approximant, or yod, is a type of consonant used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j, and in the Americanist phonetic n ...
, typically at the beginnings of words in front of short or long vowels. *A long usually in the middle or end of words. In this case it has no diacritic, but could be marked with a kasra in the preceding letter in some traditions. *A long In many
dialects The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...
, as a result of the monophthongization that the diphthong underwent in most words. * A part of a
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
, . Then, it has no diacritic but could be marked with a sukun in some traditions. The preceding consonant could have no diacritic or have sign, hinting to the first vowel in the diphthong, i.e. . As a vowel, yāʾ can serve as the "seat" of the hamza: Yāʾ serves several functions in the Arabic language. Yāʾ as a prefix is the marker for a singular imperfective verb, as in ' "he writes" from the root K-T-B ("write, writing"). Yāʾ with a shadda is particularly used to turn a noun into an adjective, called a ''nisbah'' (). For instance, ' (
Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Med ...
) → ''Miṣriyy'' (Egyptian). The transformation can be more abstract; for instance, ''mawḍūʿ'' (matter, object) → ''mawḍūʿiyy'' ( objective). Still other uses of this function can be a bit further from the root: ''ishtirāk'' (cooperation) → ''ishtirākiyy'' (
socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
). The common pronunciation of the final is most often pronounced as or . A form similar to but distinguished from yāʾ is the ' () "limited/restricted
alif Alif may refer to: Languages * Alif (ا) in the Arabic alphabet, equivalent to aleph, the first letter of many Semitic alphabets ** Dagger alif, superscript alif in Arabic alphabet * Alif, the first letter of the Urdu alphabet * Alif, the eighth ...
", with the form . It indicates a final long . In Egypt, Sudan and sometimes the Maghreb, the final form is always (without dots), both in handwriting and in print, representing both final and . representing final ( DIN 31635 transliteration: ) is less likely to occur in Modern Standard Arabic. In this case, it is commonly known as, especially in Egypt, ' . In Egypt, it is always short if used in
Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, an ...
and most commonly short in Modern Standard Arabic, as well.


Alif maqṣūrah

The ' (, 'limited/restricted alif'), commonly known in Egypt as ' (, 'flexible alif'), looks like a dotless (final ) and may appear only at the end of a word. Although it looks different from a regular ''alif'', it represents the same sound , often realized as a short vowel. When it is written, ' is indistinguishable from final Persian '' ye'' or Arabic ' as it is written in Egypt, Sudan and sometimes elsewhere. The letter is transliterated as in
Kazakh Kazakh, Qazaq or Kazakhstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kazakhstan *Kazakhs, an ethnic group *Kazakh language *The Kazakh Khanate * Kazakh cuisine * Qazakh Rayon, Azerbaijan *Qazax, Azerbaijan *Kazakh Uyezd, administrative dis ...
representing the vowel / ə/. ' is transliterated as in ALA-LC, in DIN 31635, in ISO 233-2, and in ISO 233. In Arabic, ''alif maqsurah'' is not used initially or medially, and it is not joinable initially or medially in all fonts. However, the letter is used initially and medially in the Uyghur Arabic alphabet and the Arabic-based
Kyrgyz alphabet The Kyrgyz alphabets ( ky, Кыргыз алфавити, translit=Kyrgyz alfaviti, , Yañalif: ''Qьrƣьz alfaviti'', ) are the alphabets used to write the Kyrgyz language. The Kyrgyz language uses the following alphabets: *The Cyrillic script ...
, representing the vowel / ɯ/: ().


Perso-Arabic ye

In the
Persian alphabet The Persian alphabet ( fa, الفبای فارسی, Alefbâye Fârsi) is a writing system that is a version of the Arabic script used for the Persian language spoken in Iran (Iranian Persian, Western Persian) and Afghanistan (Dari, Dari Persi ...
, the letter is generally called ''ye'' following Persian-language custom. In its final form, the letter does not have dots (), much like the Arabic ' or, more to the point, much like the custom in Egypt, Sudan and sometimes Maghreb. On account of this difference, Perso-Arabic ''ye'' is located at a different
Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...
code point In character encoding terminology, a code point, codepoint or code position is a numerical value that maps to a specific character. Code points usually represent a single grapheme—usually a letter, digit, punctuation mark, or whitespace—bu ...
than both of the standard Arabic letters. In computers, the Persian version of the letter automatically appears with two dots initially and medially: (). In
Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, their language People with the name * Kashmiri Saikia Barua ...
, it uses a ring instead of dots below (ؠ) ().


Returned yāʾ

In different calligraphic styles like the Hijazi script, Kufic, and Nastaʿlīq script, a final ''yāʾ'' might have a particular shape with the descender turned to the right (), called ("returned, recurred ''yāʾ''"), either with two dots or without them. In
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''
this is called ''
baṛī ye Baṛī ye ( ur, "greater ye") is a letter in the Urdu alphabet (and other Indic language alphabets based on the Nastaʿliq script) directly based on the alternative "returned" variant of the final form of the Arabic letter ye/yāʾ Yodh ...
'' ("big ye"), but is an independent letter used for /ɛː, eː/ and differs from the basic ye (''choṭī ye'', "little ye"). For this reason the letter has its own
code point In character encoding terminology, a code point, codepoint or code position is a numerical value that maps to a specific character. Code points usually represent a single grapheme—usually a letter, digit, punctuation mark, or whitespace—bu ...
in Unicode. Nevertheless, its initial and medial forms are not different from the other ''ye'' (practically ''baṛī ye'' is not used in these positions).


Character encodings


References


External links

{{Northwest Semitic abjad Phoenician alphabet Hebrew letters Vowel letters