Nick: New page: '''ʾĀlp''' is the first letter of many Semitic abjads (alphabets), including Phoenician '''Aleph''' 15px|, [[Syriac al...

2015-01-20T11:43:52Z

New page: '''ʾĀlp''' is the first letter of many Semitic abjads (alphabets), including Phoenician '''Aleph''' 15px|, [[Syriac al...

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'''ʾĀlp''' is the first letter of many [[Semitic]] [[abjad]]s ([[alphabet]]s), including [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] '''Aleph''' [[Image:phoenician aleph.svg|15px|]], [[Syriac alphabet|Syriac]] ''''Ālaph''' ܐ, [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]] '''Aleph''' א, and [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] '''Alif''' ا.

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the [[Greek language|Greek]] [[Alpha (letter)|Alpha]] (Α), being re-interpreted to express not the glottal consonant but the accompanying [[vowel]], and hence the [[Latin]] [[A]] and [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]] [[A (Cyrillic)|А]].

The aleph is in Unicode at U+05D0 א hebrew letter alef (HTML: א).

In phonetics, aleph ˈ|ɑː|l|ɛ|f originally represented the [[glottal stop]] (ʔ), often [[transliteration|transliterated]] as U+02BE ʾ modifier letter right half ring (HTML: ʾ), based on the Greek ''[[spiritus lenis]]'' ʼ, for example, in the transliteration of the letter name itself, ''ʾāleph''.

==Origin==
The name ''aleph'' is derived from the West Semitic word for "[[ox]]", and the shape of the letter derives from a [[Proto-Sinaitic]] glyph based on a [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyph]] depicting an ox's head, <div style="display:inline;"> <hiero> F1 </hiero> </div>.

In Modern Standard Arabic, there is a word أليف /ʔaliːf/ which literally means "tamed" or "coy", derived from the root !ʔ-l-f! from which the past tense verb آلَفَ /ʔaːlafa/ means to "to coy". This has sometimes been connected with the name of ''alif'' in [[folk etymology]].
In modern Hebrew, the same root t !ʔ-l-f! (alef-lamed-pe) gives "me'ulaf", the passive participle of the verb "le'alef", and means trained (when referring to pets) or tamed (when referring to wild animals); the [[Israel Defense Forces|IDF]] rank of [[Aluf]], taken from an [[Edom]]ite title of nobility, is also cognate.

==Arabic==

Written as <big>ا</big>, spelled as <big>ألف</big> and transcribed as ''ʾalif'' is the first letter in [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] and [[Perso-Arabic alphabet]].

Together with Hebrew Aleph, Greek [[Alpha (letter)|Alpha]] and Latin [[A]], it is descended from [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] ʾāleph, from a reconstructed Proto-Canaanite ''ʾalp'' "ox".

Alif is written in one of the following ways depending on its position in the word: ا

Historically, the Perso-Arabic letter was used to render either a long /aː/, or a [[glottal stop]] /ʔ/. This led to [[orthographical]] confusion, and to introduction of the additional letter ''{{transl|ar|DIN|hamzat qatʿ}}'' <big>ﺀ</big>. [[Hamza]]h is not considered a full letter in Arabic orthography: in most cases it appears on a carrier, either a ''wāw'' (<big>ؤ</big>), a dotless ''yāʾ'' (<big>ئ</big>, or an alif. The choice of carrier depends on complicated orthographic rules. Alif <big>إ أ</big> is generally the carrier where the only adjacent vowel is ''fatḥah''. It is the only possible carrier where hamzah is the first phoneme of a word. Where alif acts as a carrier for hamzah, hamzah is added above the alif, or, for initial alif ''kasrah'', below it, indicating that the letter so modified does indeed signify a glottal stop, and not a long vowel.

A second type of hamza, ''hamzat waṣl'' (همزة وصل, occurs only as the initial phoneme of the [[Al-|definite article]] and in some related cases. It differs from ''hamzat qatʿ'' in that it is elided after a preceding vowel. Again, alif is always the carrier.

The ''ʾalif maddah'' is, as it were, a double alif, expressing both a glottal stop and a long vowel: آ (final ـآ)ʾā /ʔaː/, for example in <big>آخر</big> ''ʾāḫir'' /ʔaːxir/ "last".

آ

The ʾalif maqṣūrah (ألف مقصورة), or "broken alif;" commonly known in Egypt as ''ʾalif layyinah'' (ألف لينة, ˈʔælef læjˈjenæ "flexible alif"). It looks like a dotless [[yāʾ]], <big>ى</big> (final <big>ـى</big>   not to be confused with [[Persian alphabet|Persian]] ''[[Yodh#Perso-Arabic ye|ye]]''). It may only appear at the end of a word. Although it looks different from a regular Alif, it represents the same sound (long /aː/). ''ʾAlif maqsurah'' is transliterated as ā in [[DIN 31635]], á in [[ALA-LC Romanization|ALA-LC]], à in ISO 233-2 and ỳ in [[ISO 233]]. ''ʾAlif maqṣūrah'' can be confused with a yāʾ because they are both normally written finally as <big>ى</big> in Egypt, Sudan and sometimes other places, but anyway its occurrence in Modern Standard Arabic is not very common. In the case when <big>ى</big> represents final /-aː/, it may also be called, especially in Egypt, ألف لينة ''{{transl|ar|ʾalif layyinah}}'' ˈʔælef læjˈjenæ and when it represents final /-iː/, it is called je. In Egypt, it is always short [-æ, -ɑ] if used in [[Egyptian Arabic]] and most commonly short in Modern Standard Arabic, as well.

==Hebrew==

Written as <big>א</big>, spelled as <big>אָלֶף</big> and transcribed as Aleph.

In [[Hebrew language|Modern Israeli Hebrew]], the letter represents either a [[glottal stop]], or has no pronunciation besides that of the [[vowel]] attached to it. The pronunciation varies among [[Jewish ethnic divisions|Jewish ethnic groups]].

In [[gematria]], aleph represents the number 1, and when used at the beginning of [[Hebrew calendar|Hebrew years]], it means 1000 (i.e. א'תשנ"ד in [[Arabic numerals|numbers]] would be the [[Calendar date|date]] 1754).

Aleph, along with [[Ayin]], [[Resh]], [[He (letter)|He]], and [[Heth (letter)|Heth]], cannot receive a [[dagesh]]. (However, there are few very rare examples where the [[Masoretes]] added a dagesh to an Aleph or Resh.)

In Modern Hebrew the frequency of the usage of alef, out of all the letters, is 4.94%.

Aleph is sometimes used as a [[mater lectionis]] to denote a vowel, usually /a/. Such use is more common in words of [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] and [[Arabic language|Arabic]] origin, in foreign names and some other borrowed words.
{|class=wikitable style="text-align:center;"
|-
!colspan=5|[[Orthography|Orthographic]] variants
|-
!colspan=3|Various Print Fonts
!rowspan=2|[[Cursive Hebrew|Cursive Hebrew]]
!rowspan=2|[[Rashi Script|Rashi Script]]
|-
!|[[Serif]] !! [[Sans-serif]] !! [[Monospaced font|Monospaced]] 
|-
|width=20%|א
|width=20%|א
|width=20%|א

|width=20%|[[image:Hebrew letter Alef handwriting.svg|18px]]
|width=20%|[[image:Hebrew letter Alef Rashi.png|31px]]
|}

===Rabbinic Judaism===
'Aleph is the subject of a [[midrash]] which praises its humility in not demanding to start the Bible. (In [[Hebrew]] the Bible begins with the second letter of the [[alphabet]], [[Bet (letter)|Bet]].) In this folktale, 'Aleph is rewarded by being allowed to start the [[Ten Commandments]]. (In [[Hebrew]], the first word is אָנֹכִי, which starts with an aleph.)

In the [[Sefer Yetzirah]], the [[letter (alphabet)|letter]] 'Aleph is [[King]] over Breath, Formed Air in the universe, Temperate in the Year, and the [[Chest]] in the soul.

'Aleph is also the first letter of the [[Hebrew]] word ''emet'', which means ''truth''. In [[Jewish mythology]] it was the letter aleph that was carved into the head of the [[golem]] which ultimately gave it life.

Aleph also begins the three words that make up God's mystical name in [[Book of Exodus|Exodus]], [[I am who I Am|I Am who I Am]] (in [[Hebrew]], 'Ehyeh 'Asher 'Ehyeh אהיה אשר אהיה), and 'aleph is an important part of mystical [[amulet]]s and formulas.

Aleph in Jewish mysticism represents the oneness of God. The letter can been seen as being composed of an upper yud, a lower yud, and a vav leaning on a diagonal. The upper yud represents the hidden and ineffible aspects of God while the lower yud represents God's revelation and presence in the world. The vav ("hook") connects the two realms.

Jewish mysticism relates Aleph to the element of air, The Fool (Key 0, value 1) of the major arcana of the tarot deck,[] and the Scintillating Intelligence (#11) of the path between Kether and Chokmah in the Tree of the Sephiroth.

====Hebrew sayings with aleph====
'''From Aleph to [[Taw|Tav]]''' describes something from beginning to end; the Hebrew equivalent of the English ''From A to Z''.

'''One who doesn't know how to make an Aleph''' is someone who is illiterate.

'''No...with a big Aleph!''' (''lo b'aleph rabati'' - לא באלף רבתי) means '''Absolutely not!'''.

==Syriac Alaph/Olaf==

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!''Alaph''
|-
| [[image:Syriac Eastern alap.svg|50px]] ''Madnḫaya'' Alaph
|-
| [[image:Syriac Serta alap.svg|50px]] ''Serṭo'' Alaph
|-
| [[image:Syriac Estrangela alap.svg|50px]] ''Esṭrangela'' Alaph
|}

[[File:Syriac letter shapes Alaph.PNG|600px]]

In the [[Syriac alphabet]], the first letter is ܐ — ܐܵܠܲܦ — Alaph (in eastern dialects) or Olaf (in western dialects). It is used in word-initial position to mark a word beginning with a vowel — although some words beginning with ''i'' or ''u'' do not need its help, and sometimes an initial Alaph/Olaf is [[elision|elided]]. For example, when the Syriac [[grammatical person|first-person]] [[grammatical number|singular]] [[pronoun]] ܐܵܢܵܐ is in [[clitic|enclitic]] positions, it is pronounced ''no/na'' (again west/east) rather than the full form ''eno/ana''. The letter occurs very regularly at the end of words, where it represents the long final vowels ''o/a'' or ''e''. In the middle of the word, the letter represents either a [[glottal stop]] between vowels (but West Syriac pronunciation often makes this a [[palatal approximant]]), a long ''i/e'' (less commonly ''o/a'') or is silent.

===Numeral===
As a numeral it Alaph/Olaf stands for the number one. With a dot below, it is the number 1,000, with a line above it, Alaph/Olaf will represent 1,000,000. with a line below it is 10,000 and with two dots below it is 10,000,000.

==Ancient Egyptian==
See Also [[Transliteration of Ancient Egyptian]]

The Egyptian "vulture" [[hieroglyph]] ([[Gardiner's sign list|Gardiner]] [[List of hieroglyphs/G|G]]1), by convention pronounced {{IPA|[a]}}) is also referred to as ''alef'', on grounds that it has traditionally been taken to represent a glottal stop, although some recent suggestions[] tend towards an {{IPAblink|ɹ}} sound instead.

The phoneme is commonly transliterated by a symbol composed of two half-rings, in [[Unicode]] (as of version 5.1, in the [[Latin Extended D]] range) encoded at U+A722 Ꜣ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER EGYPTOLOGICAL ALEF and U+A723 ꜣ LATIN SMALL LETTER EGYPTOLOGICAL ALEF. A fallback representation is the numeral ''3'', or the Middle English character ''ȝ'' [[Yogh#In Egyptology|Yogh]]; neither are to be preferred to the genuine Egyptological characters.

==Other uses==
===Mathematics===
In [[set theory]], the Hebrew aleph glyph is used as the symbol to denote the [[aleph number]]s, which represent the [[cardinality]] of infinite sets. This notation was introduced by mathematician [[Georg Cantor]].

==See also==
* [[ʾ]]
* [[Al-]]
* [[Yodh#Arabic yāʼ|Arabic {{unicode|yāʼ}}]]
* [[Hamza]]
* [[Aleph number]]

==References==

[[Category:Phoenician alphabet]]
[[Category:Hebrew alphabet]]
==See Also==

* ''Aleph'' is also the shorthand designation for [[Codex Sinaiticus]], a 4th-century manuscript of the Bible

Aleph (letter) - Revision history

Nick: New page: '''ʾĀlp''' is the first letter of many Semitic abjads (alphabets), including Phoenician '''Aleph''' 15px|, [[Syriac al...