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Yodh (also spelled jodh, yod, or jod) is the tenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Yōd /𐤉, Hebrew Yōd , Aramaic Yod , Syriac Yōḏ ܝ, and Arabic . 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 Iota (Ι), Latin I and J, Cyrillic І, Coptic (Ⲓ) and Gothic eis .

The term yod is often used to refer to the speech sound , a palatal approximant, 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, Yod represents a palatal approximant (). 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, such as , , or .

Significance

In gematria, Yod represents the number ten.

As a prefix, 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 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.

As Yod is the smallest letter, much kabbalistic and mystical significance is attached to it. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus 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 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 , 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, as a result of the monophthongization that the diphthong underwent in most words.
* A part of a diphthong, . 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) → ''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). 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", 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 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 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, representing the vowel / ɯ/: ().

Perso-Arabic ye

In the Persian alphabet, 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 code point 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, 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 this is called ''baṛī ye'' ("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 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