Vav (letter)
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Waw/Vav ( "hook") is the sixth
letter Letter, letters, or literature may refer to: Characters typeface * Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet. * Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
of the
Semitic abjads 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 vowel ...
, including Phoenician ''wāw'' ,
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 in ...
''waw'' ,
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 ...
'' waw/vav'' ,
Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...
''waw'' ܘ and
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, 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 ...
'' wāw'' (sixth in
abjadi order The Abjad numerals, also called Hisab al-Jummal ( ar, حِسَاب ٱلْجُمَّل, ), are a decimal alphabetic numeral system/alphanumeric code, in which the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet are assigned numerical values. They have been us ...
; 27th in modern Arabic order). It represents the consonant in classical
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 ...
, and in modern Hebrew, as well as the vowels and . In text with
niqqud In Hebrew orthography, niqqud or nikud ( or ) is a system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Several such diacritical systems were developed in the ...
, a dot is added to the left or on top of the letter to indicate, respectively, the two vowel pronunciations. It is the origin of Greek Ϝ (digamma) and Υ (upsilon), Cyrillic У, Latin F and U and later Y, and the derived Latin- or Roman-alphabet letters V, and W.


Origin

The letter likely originated with an
Egyptian hieroglyph Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...
which represented the word ''mace'' (transliterated as ḥ(dj)): T3 In Modern Hebrew, the word ''vav'' is used to mean both "hook" and the letter's name (the name is also written ), while in Syriac and Arabic, ''waw'' to mean hook has fallen out of usage.


Arabic wāw

The
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, 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 ...
letter is named ''wāw'' and is written in several ways depending on its position in the word: Wāw is used to represent four distinct phonetic features: *A consonant, pronounced as a
voiced labial-velar approximant Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to ref ...
, which is the case whenever it is at the beginning of a word, and sometimes elsewhere. *A
long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...
. The preceding consonant could either have no diacritic or a short-wāw-vowel mark,
damma The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, which include: consonant pointing known as (), and supplementary diacritics known as (). The latter include the vowel marks termed (; singular: , '). The Arabic script is a modified abjad, where sh ...
, to aid in the pronunciation by hinting to the following long vowel. *A
long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...
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 a ...
, as a result of the
monophthong A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...
ization that the diphthong underwent in most of 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 o ...
, . In this case it has no diacritic, but could be marked with a
sukun The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, which include: consonant pointing known as (), and supplementary diacritics known as (). The latter include the vowel marks termed (; singular: , '). The Arabic script is a modified abjad, where sh ...
in some traditions. The preceding consonant could either have no diacritic or have sign, hinting to the first vowel in the diphthong. As a vowel, ''wāw'' can serve as the carrier of a hamza: . ''Wāw'' is the sole letter of the common Arabic word ''wa,'' the primary
conjunction Conjunction may refer to: * Conjunction (grammar), a part of speech * Logical conjunction, a mathematical operator ** Conjunction introduction, a rule of inference of propositional logic * Conjunction (astronomy), in which two astronomical bodies ...
in Arabic, equivalent to "and". In writing, it is
prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, 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'' ...
ed to the following word, sometimes including other conjunctions, such as ''wa-lākin'', meaning "but". Another function is the "
oath Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to ...
", by preceding a noun of great significance to the speaker. It is often literally translatable to "By..." or "I swear to...", and is often used in the
Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
in this way, and also in the generally fixed construction ''wallāh'' ("By
Allah Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", an ...
!" or "I swear to God!").W. Wright, ''A Grammar of the Arabic Language, Translated from the German Tongue and Edited with Numerous Additions and Corrections'', 3rd edn by W. Robertson Smith and M. J. de Goeje, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1933 epr. Beirut: Librairie de Liban, 1996. The word also appears, particularly in classical verse, in the construction known as '' wāw rubba'', to introduce a description.


Derived letters

With an additional triple dot diacritic above ''waw'', the letter then named ''ve'' is used to represent distinctively the consonant in Arabic-based Uyghur. in
Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...
and Beja; in Arabic-based Kazakh; in Uyghur.
Thirty-fourth letter of the Azerbaijani Arabic script, represents Ô .
It is also used for short vowel or in a lot of languages, for example "u" in ''bull'' () for or , used in a lot of languages specifically Turkic ones, for example o in ''bold'' () in Uyghur and also in other languages with a similar vowel. in
Southern Kurdish Southern Kurdish ( ku, کوردی باشووری ,کوردی خوارگ, Kurdî Başûrî, Kurdî Xwarig) is one of the dialects of the Kurdish language, spoken predominantly in northeastern Iraq and western Iran. The Southern Kurdish-speaking r ...
. In
Jawi script Jawi (; ace, Jawoë; Kelantan-Pattani: ''Yawi''; ) is a writing system used for writing several languages of Southeast Asia, such as Acehnese, Banjarese, Kerinci, Maguindanaon, Malay, Minangkabau, Tausūg, and Ternate. Jawi is based ...
: Used for . Also used in Balochi for .


Other letters

See
Arabic script in Unicode Many scripts in Unicode, such as Arabic, have special orthographic rules that require certain combinations of letterforms to be combined into special ligature forms. In English, the common ampersand (&) developed from a ligature in which the ha ...


Hebrew Waw / Vav

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


Pronunciation in Modern Hebrew

Vav has three orthographic variants, each with a different
phonemic In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west ...
value and
phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
realisation: In modern Hebrew, the frequency of the usage of vav, out of all the letters, is about 10.00%.


Vav as consonant

Consonantal vav () generally represents a
voiced labiodental fricative The voiced labiodental fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is v. The sound is similar to vo ...
(like the English v) in
Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
, European
Sephardi Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), ...
, Persian, Caucasian, Italian and
modern Israeli Hebrew Modern Hebrew ( he, עברית חדשה, ''ʿivrít ḥadašá ', , '' lit.'' "Modern Hebrew" or "New Hebrew"), also known as Israeli Hebrew or Israeli, and generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew ( ), is the standard form of the He ...
, and was originally a labial-velar approximant . In modern Israeli Hebrew, some
loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
s, the pronunciation of whose source contains , and their
derivations Derivation may refer to: Language * Morphological derivation, a word-formation process * Parse tree or concrete syntax tree, representing a string's syntax in formal grammars Law * Derivative work, in copyright law * Derivation proceeding, a proc ...
, are pronounced with : – (but: – ). Modern Hebrew has no
standardized Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardization ...
way to distinguish orthographically between and . The pronunciation is determined by prior knowledge or must be derived through context. Some non
standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object th ...
spellings of the sound are sometimes found in modern Hebrew texts, such as word-initial double-vav: – (word-''medial'' double-vav is both standard and common for both and , see
table Table may refer to: * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (landform), a flat area of land * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns * Table (database), how the table data ...
above) or, rarely, vav with a
geresh Geresh ( in Hebrew: ‎ or ‎ , or medieval ) is a sign in Hebrew writing. It has two meanings. #An apostrophe-like sign (also known colloquially as a ''chupchik'') placed after a letter: #* as a diacritic that modifies the pronunciation ...
: – .


Vav with a dot on top

Vav can be used as a
mater lectionis ''Matres lectionis'' (from Latin "mothers of reading", singular form: ''mater lectionis'', from he, אֵם קְרִיאָה ) are consonants that are used to indicate a vowel, primarily in the writing down of Semitic languages such as Arabic, ...
for an ''o'' vowel, in which case it is known as a '' '', which in pointed text is marked as vav with a dot above it. It is pronounced ( phonemically transcribed more simply as ). The distinction is normally ignored, and the HEBREW POINT HOLAM (U+05B9) is used in all cases. The vowel can be denoted without the vav, as just the dot placed above and to the left of the letter it points, and it is then called '' ''. Some inadequate typefaces do not support the distinction between the ' ⟨⟩ , the consonantal vav pointed with a ' ⟨⟩ (compare ' ⟨⟩ and consonantal vav-' ⟨⟩ ). To display a consonantal vav with ' correctly, the typeface must either support the vav with the Unicode combining character "HEBREW POINT HOLAM HASER FOR VAV" (U+05BA, HTML Entity (decimal) ֺ) or the precomposed character (U+FB4B). Compare the three: # The vav with the combining character HEBREW POINT HOLAM: # The vav with the combining character HEBREW POINT HOLAM HASER FOR VAV: # The precomposed character:


Vav with a dot in the middle

Vav can also be used as a ''mater lectionis'' for , in which case it is known as a ''
shuruk Kubutz or qubbutz (modern he, קֻבּוּץ; , formerly , ''qībūṣ'') and shuruk ( he, שׁוּרוּק, ) are two Hebrew niqqud vowel signs that represent the sound . In an alternative, Ashkenazi naming, the kubutz (three diagona ...
'', and in text with
niqqud In Hebrew orthography, niqqud or nikud ( or ) is a system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Several such diacritical systems were developed in the ...
is marked with a dot in the middle (on the left side).
Shuruk Kubutz or qubbutz (modern he, קֻבּוּץ; , formerly , ''qībūṣ'') and shuruk ( he, שׁוּרוּק, ) are two Hebrew niqqud vowel signs that represent the sound . In an alternative, Ashkenazi naming, the kubutz (three diagona ...
and vav with a
dagesh The dagesh () is a diacritic used in the Hebrew alphabet. It was added to the Hebrew orthography at the same time as the Masoretic system of niqqud (vowel points). It takes the form of a dot placed inside a Hebrew letter and has the effect of modi ...
look identical ("") and are only distinguishable through the fact that in text with niqqud, vav with a
dagesh The dagesh () is a diacritic used in the Hebrew alphabet. It was added to the Hebrew orthography at the same time as the Masoretic system of niqqud (vowel points). It takes the form of a dot placed inside a Hebrew letter and has the effect of modi ...
will normally be attributed a vocal point in addition, e.g. (), "a market", (the "" denotes a
shuruk Kubutz or qubbutz (modern he, קֻבּוּץ; , formerly , ''qībūṣ'') and shuruk ( he, שׁוּרוּק, ) are two Hebrew niqqud vowel signs that represent the sound . In an alternative, Ashkenazi naming, the kubutz (three diagona ...
) as opposed to (), "to market" (the "" denotes a vav with
dagesh The dagesh () is a diacritic used in the Hebrew alphabet. It was added to the Hebrew orthography at the same time as the Masoretic system of niqqud (vowel points). It takes the form of a dot placed inside a Hebrew letter and has the effect of modi ...
and is additionally pointed with a
zeire Tzere (also spelled ''Tsere'', ''Tzeirei'', ''Zere'', ''Zeire'', ''Ṣērê''; modern he, צֵירֵי, , sometimes also written ; formerly ''ṣērê'') is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign represented by two horizontally-aligned dots "◌ֵ" un ...
, "  ", denoting ). In the word (), "marketing", the first ("") denotes a vav with dagesh, the second a shuruk, being the vowel attributed to the first.


Numerical value

Vav in
gematria Gematria (; he, גמטריא or gimatria , plural or , ''gimatriot'') is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher ...
represents the number six, and when used at the beginning of Hebrew years, it means 6000 (i.e. in
numbers A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
would be the
date Date or dates may refer to: *Date (fruit), the fruit of the date palm (''Phoenix dactylifera'') Social activity *Dating, a form of courtship involving social activity, with the aim of assessing a potential partner ** Group dating *Play date, a ...
6754.)


Words written as vav

Vav at the beginning of the word has several possible meanings: * '' vav conjunctive'' (Vav Hachibur, literally "the Vav of Connection" — chibur means "joining", or "bringing together") connects two words or parts of a sentence; it is a
grammatical conjunction In grammar, a conjunction (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated or ) is a part of speech that connects words, phrases, or clauses that are called the conjuncts of the conjunctions. That definition may overlap with that of other parts of s ...
meaning '' 'and' ''. This is the most common usage. * '' vav consecutive'' (Vav Hahipuch, literally "the Vav of Reversal" — hipuch means "inversion"), mainly biblical, is commonly mistaken for the previous type of vav; it indicates consequence of actions and reverses the tense of the verb following it: **when placed in front of a verb in the imperfect tense, it changes the verb to the perfect tense. For example, ''yomar'' means 'he will say' and ''vayomar'' means 'he said'; **when placed in front of a verb in the perfect, it changes the verb to the imperfect tense. For example, ''ahavtah'' means 'you loved', and ''ve'ahavtah'' means 'you will love'. (Note: Older Hebrew did not have "tense" in a temporal sense, "perfect," and "imperfect" instead denoting aspect of completed or continuing action. Modern Hebrew verbal tenses have developed closer to their Indo-European counterparts, mostly having a temporal quality rather than denoting aspect. As a rule, Modern Hebrew does not use the "Vav Consecutive" form.) * '' vav explicative''


Yiddish

In
Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
, the letter (known as vov) is used for several orthographic purposes in native words: * Alone, a single vov represents the vowel in standard Yiddish. * The digraph , "''tsvey vovn''" ('two vovs'), represents the consonant . * The digraph , consisting of a vov followed by a yud, represents the diphthong []. The single vov may be written with a dot on the left when necessary to avoid ambiguity and distinguish it from other functions of the letter. For example, the word ''vu'' 'where' is spelled , as ''tsvey vovn'' followed by a single vov; the single vov indicating is marked with a dot in order to distinguish which of the three vovs represents the vowel. Some texts instead separate the digraph from the single vov with a silent
aleph Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac , Arabic ʾ and North Arabian 𐪑. It also appears as South Arabian 𐩱 and Ge'ez . These letter ...
.
Loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
s from Hebrew or Aramaic in Yiddish are spelled as they are in their language of origin.


Syriac Waw

In the Syriac alphabet, the sixth letter is ܘ. Waw (ܘܐܘ) is pronounced When it is used as a mater lectionis, a waw with a dot ''above'' the letter is pronounced and a waw with a dot under the letter is pronounced Waw has an alphabetic-numeral value of 6.


Character encodings


References


External links

{{Northwest Semitic abjad Phoenician alphabet Arabic letters Hebrew letters Vowel letters