Everything about Yodh totally explained
Yodh (also spelled
Yud or
Yod) is the tenth letter of many
Semitic alphabets, including
Phoenician,
Aramaic,
Hebrew Yud,
Syriac ܝ and
Arabic (in
abjadi order, 28th in modern order). Its sound value is in all languages for which it's used; in many languages, it also serves as a
long vowel, representing .
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the
Greek Iota (Ι),
Latin I,
Cyrillic,
Coptic iauda (Ⲓ) and
Gothic eis (𐌹).
Origins
Yodh is thought to have originated with a pictograph of a hand (in Modern Hebrew and Modern Arabic,
yad). It may be related to the Egyptian hieroglyphic of an arm (
see Hieroglyphs).
a
Hebrew Yud
Pronunciation
In both Biblical and modern
Hebrew, Yud represents as a
palatal approximant .
Variations
Yud is a
mater lectionis, like
Aleph,
He, and
Vav. At the end of words with a vowel, it represents the formation of a
diphthong, such as /ei/, /ai/, or /oi/.
Significance
In
gematria, Yud 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).
In Judaism
Two Yuds 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 Yud 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 Yud; it was often overlooked by scribes because of its size and position as a mater lectiones. In modern Hebrew, the phrase "tip of the Yud" refers to a small and insignificant thing, and someone who "worries about the tip of a Yud" 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. See
The Mystical Significance of the Hebrew Letters - Yud
Arabic yāʼ
The letter is named
yāʼ, and is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:
Yāʼ is pronounced in two ways. As a consonant, it's pronounced as a
palatal approximant /j/, typically at the beginnings of words. In the middle and end of words, the yāʼ usually (though not always) becomes a
long close front unrounded vowel /iː/.
As a vowel, yāʼ can serve as the "seat" of the
hamza: ئ.
Yāʼ serves several functions in the Arabic language. Yāʼ with a
shadda is particularly used to turn a noun into an adjective,called نسبة. For instance مصر
Miṣr (
Egypt) → مصري
Miṣriyy (Egyptian). The transformation can be more abstract; for instance, موضوع
mawdū` (matter, object) → موضوعي
mawdū`iyy (
objective). Still other uses of this function can be a bit further from the root: شتراك
ishtirāk (cooperation) → إشتراكي
ishtirākiyy (
socialist); this is often used for creation of native terms for political philosophies:
ḥurr (free) becomes
ḥurriyy (
liberal);
muḥāfaẓa (guarding, preservation) becomes
muḥāfaẓiyy (
conservative).
A form similar to but distinguished from yāʼ is the
ʾalif maqṣūra (broken
alif), with the form ى. It indicates a final long
open front unrounded vowel /aː/.
Typically, Egyptians don't use dots under final yāʼ, both in handwriting and in print, resulting in substantial confusion with alif maqṣūra to those not accustomed to the practice
In the
Persian alphabet "Yodh" is written and pronounced a bit different from Arabic and has a different code in
Unicode.
Yodh in
Persian is called
Ye; in its final form, the letter doesn't have dots (
ی), similar to but distinguished from the Arabic
ʾalif maqṣūra.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Yodh'.
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