Nun is the fourteenth letter of the

Semitic abjads An abjad ( or abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving the vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vowels. The term was introd ...

, including Phoenician ''nūn'' 𐤍,

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

''nūn'' ,

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

''nūn'' 𐡍‎, Syriac ''nūn'' ܢ, and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

''nūn'' (in abjadi order). Its numerical value is 50. It is the third letter in

Thaana Thaana, Tãna, Taana or Tāna ( ) is the present writing system of the Maldivian language spoken in the Maldives. Thaana has characteristics of both an abugida (diacritics, vowel-killer strokes) and a true alphabet (all vowels are w ...

(), pronounced as "noonu". In all languages, it represents the alveolar nasal /n/. It is related to the

Ancient North Arabian Languages and scripts in the 1st Century Arabia Ancient North Arabian (ANA) is a collection of scripts and a language or family of languages under the North Arabian languages branch along with Old Arabic that were used in north and central Ara ...

𐪌‎‎, South Arabian , and Ge'ez . The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek nu (Ν), Etruscan EtruscanN-01

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

N, and

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

Н.

Origins

Nun is believed to descend from an Egyptian hieroglyph of a snake (the Hebrew word for snake, ''nachash'' begins with Nun) or eel. Some have hypothesized a hieroglyph of fish in water as its origin (In Aramaic and Akkadian ''nun'' means fish, and in Arabic, ' means large fish or whale). The Phoenician letter was also named "fish", but this name has been suggested to descend from a hypothetical

Proto-Canaanite Proto-Canaanite is the name given to: # The Proto-Sinaitic script when found in Canaan, dating to about the 17th century BC and later. # A hypothetical ancestor of the Phoenician script before some cut-off date, typically 1050 BC, with an undefin ...

word "snake", based on the letter name in Ethiopic, ultimately from a

hieroglyph Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters. ...

representing a snake, I10

Arabic nūn

The letter is named ', and is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:Some examples on its uses in

Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA) is the variety of Standard language, standardized, Literary language, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in some usages al ...

: Nūn is used as a suffix indicating feminine plural verb conjugations; for example ''hiya taktub'' ("she writes") becomes ''hunna yaktubna'' ("they emininewrite"). Nūn is also used as the prefix for first-person plural

imperfective The imperfective (abbreviated , , or more ambiguously ) is a grammatical aspect used to describe ongoing, habitual, repeated, or similar semantic roles, whether that situation occurs in the past, present, or future. Although many languages have a ...

/ present tense verbs. Thus ''huwa yaktub'' ("he writes") → ''naḥnu naktub'' ("we write").

Punjabi/Saraiki nūn

It is retroflex nasal

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

al sound in some languages. Its symbol in the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...

is , formed by adding a rightward hook to the bottom of , the symbol for the corresponding

alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants (; UK also ) are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the upper teeth. Alveolar consonants may be articulated wi ...

. The X-SAMPA symbol is n`. It is similar to the

palatal nasal The voiced palatal nasal is a type of consonant used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase letter ''n'' with a leftward-pointing tail protruding from the bottom ...

with a leftward hook from the left stem. Another similar sound is the

velar nasal The voiced velar nasal, also known as eng, engma, or agma (from Greek 'fragment'), is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is the sound of ''ng'' in English ''sing'' as well as ''n'' before velar consonants as in ''E ...

with a leftward hook from the right stem; in Saraiki, this is ݨ, combining nūn and rre ڑ: for example کݨ مݨ، چھݨ چھݨ، ونڄݨ۔ .

Social media campaign (2014)

After the fall of Mosul, ISIL demanded Assyrian Christians in the city to convert to Islam, pay tribute, or face execution. ISIL troops begun spray painting homes of Christian residents with the letter ''nūn'' for (; plural , " Nazarene"), a disparaging Arabic term for Christians. Thousands were forced to abandon their homes and land, including Christians, Yazidis (given the choice of conversion or death),

Shi'a Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor ( caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community ( imam). However, his right is understoo ...

Muslims, and Muslims loyal to other Islamic nations considered apostates by ISIL. In response to the persecution of Christians and

Yazidis Yazidis, also spelled Yezidis (; ), are a Kurdish languages, Kurdish-speaking Endogamy, endogamous religious group indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran. The major ...

by ISIL, an international social media campaign was launched to raise global awareness, symbolized by the letter (''nun'')—the mark painted by ISIL. Some Christians changed their profile pictures to the letter as a symbol of support, calling it the "Mark of the Nazarene". ''Naṣārā''/''nosrim'' designates Christians in Arabic, Aramaic and Hebrew, although the more common term for Christians in

is ''masihi'' (, plural ).

Jawi ''nya''

In the

Jawi alphabet Jawi (; ; ; ) is a writing system used for writing several languages of Southeast Asia, such as Acehnese language, Acehnese, Banjarese language, Banjarese, Betawi language, Betawi, Maguindanao language, Magindanao, Malay language, Malay, Mar ...

, the letter '' nya'' is a modified form of the letter ''nūn'' with two additional dots. However, if ''nya'' is initial or medial, its dots will be three dots below instead of three dots above, similarly how the Persian letter '' pe'' works on medial or initial form due to its similar looking. This letter also looks like '' tsa'' in general. This letter is thus written as: The letter ''nya'' is also a suffix for indirect object belonging to him/her/it. The example is ' ( in Rumi alphabet), which means his/her/its house.

Hebrew nun

Hebrew spelling: ;The letter in its final position appears with or without a top hook on different sans-serif fonts, for example: * Arial, DejaVu Sans, Arimo, Open Sans: ן * Tahoma, Noto Sans Hebrew, Alef, Heebo: ן

Pronunciation

Nun represents an alveolar nasal, ( IPA: ), like the English letter N.

Variations

Nun, like

Kaph Kaph (also spelled kaf) is the eleventh letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''kāp'' 𐤊, Hebrew ''kāp̄'' , Aramaic ''kāp'' 𐡊, Syriac ''kāp̄'' ܟ, and Arabic ''kāf'' (in abjadi order). It is also related to the Anc ...

, Mem, Pe, and Tzadi, has a final form, used at the end of words. Its shape changes from to . There are also nine instances of an

inverted nun Inverted ( "isolated " or "inverted " or "" in Hebrew language, Hebrew) is a rare glyph used in classical Hebrew. Its function in the ancient texts is disputed. It takes the form of the letter in mirror image, and appears in the Masoret ...

() in the

Tanakh The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. ''

gematria In numerology, gematria (; or , plural or ) is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word, or phrase by reading it as a number, or sometimes by using an alphanumeric cipher. The letters of the alphabets involved have standar ...

, Nun represents the number 50. Its final form represents 700 but this is rarely used, Tav and Shin (400+300) being used instead. As in Arabic, nun as an abbreviation can stand for ''neqevah'', feminine. In medieval Rabbinic writings, Nun Sophit (Final Nun) stood for "Son of" (

''ben''). Nun is also one of the seven letters which receive a special crown (called a ''tag'': plural ''tagin '' ) when written in a

Sefer Torah file:SeferTorah.jpg, A Sephardic Torah scroll rolled to the first paragraph of the Shema file:Köln-Tora-und-Innenansicht-Synagoge-Glockengasse-040.JPG, An Ashkenazi Torah scroll rolled to the Decalogue file:Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue, Inte ...

. See Tag (Hebrew writing), Shin,

Ayin ''Ayin'' (also ''ayn'' or ''ain''; transliterated ) is the sixteenth letter of the Semitic scripts, including Phoenician ''ʿayin'' 𐤏, Hebrew ''ʿayin'' , Aramaic ''ʿē'' 𐡏, Syriac ''ʿē'' ܥ, and Arabic ''ʿayn'' (where it is si ...

, Teth, Gimmel, Zayin, and Tzadi. In the game of dreidel, a rolled Nun passes play to the next player with no other action.

Syriac nun

Character encodings

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nun (Letter) Phoenician alphabet Arabic letters Hebrew letters Urdu letters Letters with final form