Waw (letter)

This article is about the Semitic letter. For other uses, see WAW (disambiguation).
Waw

ו

ܘ
و
Phonemic representation w, v, o, u
Position in alphabet 6
Numerical value 6
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician

Ϝ Υ

F V U W Y

У

Waw (wāw "hook") is the sixth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician wāw , Aramaic waw , Hebrew vav (also vau) ו, Syriac waw ܘ and Arabic wāw و (sixth in abjadi order; 27th in modern Arabic order).

It represents the consonant [w] (in Modern Hebrew also [v]) and the vowels [u] and [o].

It is the origin of Greek Ϝ (digamma), Υ (upsilon) and Latin F, V and the derived letters U, W, Y.

Hebrew Waw

Orthographic variants
Various print fonts Cursive
Hebrew
Rashi
script
Serif Sans-serif Monospaced
ו ו ו

Hebrew spelling: וָו

Pronunciation in Modern Hebrew

Vav has three orthographic variants, each with a different phonemic value and phonetic realisation:[1]

Variant (with Niqqud)Without NiqqudNamePhonemic valuePhonetic realisationEnglish example

ו

as initial letter:ו

Consonantal Vav
(Hebrew: Vav Itsurit ו׳ עיצורית)
/v/, /w/ [v], [w] vote
wall
as middle letter:וו
as final letter:ו or יו

וּ

ו

Vav Shruka ([väv ʃruˈkä] / ו׳ שרוקה) or
Shuruq ([ʃuˈruk] / שׁוּרוּק)
/u/[u]glue

וֹ

ו

Vav Chaluma ([väv χäluˈmä] / ו׳ חלומה) or
Holam Male ([χo̞ˈläm maˈle̞] / חוֹלָם מָלֵא)
/o/[]no, noh

In modern Hebrew, the frequency of the usage of vav, out of all the letters, is about 10.00%.

Vav as consonant

Consonantal vav (ו) generally represents a voiced labiodental fricative (like the English v) in Ashkenazi, European Sephardi, Persian, Caucasian, Italian and modern Israeli Hebrew, and was originally a labial-velar approximant /w/. It is pronounced, like in Arabic, as a [w] by some Jews of Mizrahi origin.

In modern Israeli Hebrew, some loanwords, the pronunciation of whose source contains /w/, and their derivations, are pronounced with [w]: ואחד – /ˈwaχad/ (but: ואדי/ˈvadi/).

Modern Hebrew has no standardized way to distinguish orthographically between [v] and [w].[1] The pronunciation is determined by prior knowledge or must be derived through context.

Some non standard spellings of the sound [w] are sometimes found in modern Hebrew texts, such as word-initial double-vav: וואללה – /ˈwala/ (word-medial double-vav is both standard and common for both /v/ and /w/, see table above) or, rarely, vav with a geresh:ו׳יליאם – /ˈwiljam/.

Vav with a dot on top

Main article: Holam

Vav can be used as a mater lectionis for an o vowel, in which case it is known as a ḥolam male, which in pointed text is marked as vav with a dot above it. It is pronounced [] (phonemically transcribed more simply as /o/).

The distinction is normally ignored and the HEBREW POINT HOLAM (U+05B9) is used in all cases. This vowel can be denoted without the vav, as just the dot placed above and to the left of the letter it points, and is called then ḥolam ḥaser. Some inadequate typefaces don't support the distinction between the ḥolam maleוֹ/o/, the consonantal vav pointed with a ḥolam ḥaserוֺ/vo/ (compare ḥolam maleמַצּוֹת/maˈtsot/ and consonantal vav-ḥolam ḥaserמִצְוֺת/mitsˈvot/). To correctly display a consonantal vav with ḥolam ḥaser, the typeface must either support the vav with the Unicode combining character "HEBREW POINT HOLAM HASER FOR VAV" (U+05BA, HTML Entity (decimal) ֺ)[2] or the precomposed character (U+FB4B).

Vav with a dot in the middle

Main article: Shuruk

Vav can also be used as a mater lectionis for [u], in which case it is known as a shuruk, and in text with niqqud is marked with a dot in the middle (on the left side).

Shuruk and vav with a dagesh look identical ("וּ") and are only distinguishable through the fact that in text with niqqud, vav with a dagesh will normally be attributed a vocal point in addition, e.g. שׁוּק (/ʃuk/), "a market", (the "וּ" denotes a shuruk) as opposed to שִׁוֵּק (/ʃiˈvek/), "to market" (the "וּ" denotes a vav with dagesh and is additionally pointed with a zeire, " ֵ ", denoting /e/). In the word שִׁוּוּק (/ʃiˈvuk/), "marketing", the first ("וּ") denotes a vav with dagesh, the second a shuruk, being the vowel attributed to the first.

Numerical value

Vav in gematria represents the number six, and when used at the beginning of Hebrew years, it means 6000 (i.e. ותשנד in numbers would be the date 6754.)

Words written as vav

Vav at the beginning of the word has several possible meanings:

(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.)

Syriac Waw

Waw
Madnḫaya Waw
Serṭo Waw
Esṭrangela Waw

In the Syriac alphabet, the sixth letter is ܘ — Waw ܘܐܘ, it is pronounced as a [w]. When used as a mater lectionis, a Waw with a dot above the letter is an [o] vowel, and a Waw with a dot under the letter is an [u] vowel. It's alphabetic-numeral is 6.

Arabic wāw

The letter و is named واو wāw and is written in several ways depending on its position in the word:

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: و ـو ـو و

Wāw is used to represent four distinct phonetic features:


As a vowel, wāw can serve as the carrier of a hamza: ؤ.

Wāw serves several functions in Arabic. Perhaps foremost among them is that it is the primary conjunction in Arabic, equivalent to "and"; it is usually prefixed to other conjunctions, such as وَلَكِن wa-lākin, meaning "but". Another function is the "oath", by preceding a noun of great significantly valued by the speaker. It is often literally translatable to "By..." or "I swear to...", and is often used in the Qur'an in this way, and also in the generally fixed construction والله wallāh ("By Allah!" or "I swear to God!").

Derived letters

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: ۋ ـۋ ـۋ ۋ

With an additional triple dot diacritic above waw, the letter then named ve is used to represent distinctively the consonant /v/ sometimes in Arabic-based Sorani Kurdish and in Arabic-based Uyghur.

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: ۆ ـۆ ـۆ ۆ

/o/ in Sorani Kurdish; /v/ in Arabic-based Kazakh; /ø/ in Uyghur.
It is also used for short vowel /o/ or /u/ in a lot of languages, for example "u" in bull (بۆل)

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: ۉ ـۉ ـۉ ۉ

for // or /u/, used in a lot of languages, for example o in bold (بۉلد)

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: ۈ ـۈ ـۈ ۈ

/y/ in Uyghur and also in other languages with a similar vowel.

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: ۊ ـۊ ـۊ ۊ

/ʉː/ in Southern Kurdish.

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: ۏ ـۏ ـۏ ۏ

In Jawi script: Used for /v/.

Other letters

See Arabic script in Unicode

Character encodings

Character ו و ܘ
Unicode name HEBREW LETTER VAV ARABIC LETTER WAW SYRIAC LETTER WAW SAMARITAN LETTER BAA HEBREW LETTER VAV WITH DAGESH HEBREW LETTER VAV WITH HOLAM
Encodings decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex
Unicode 1493 U+05D5 1608 U+0648 1816 U+0718 2053 U+0805 64309 U+FB35 64331 U+FB4B
UTF-8 215 149 D7 95 217 136 D9 88 220 152 DC 98 224 160 133 E0 A0 85 239 172 181 EF AC B5 239 173 139 EF AD 8B
Numeric character reference ו ו و و ܘ ܘ ࠅ ࠅ וּ וּ וֹ וֹ
Character 𐎆 𐡅 𐤅
Unicode name UGARITIC LETTER WO IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER WAW PHOENICIAN LETTER WAU
Encodings decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex
Unicode 66438 U+10386 67653 U+10845 67845 U+10905
UTF-8 240 144 142 134 F0 90 8E 86 240 144 161 133 F0 90 A1 85 240 144 164 133 F0 90 A4 85
UTF-16 55296 57222 D800 DF86 55298 56389 D802 DC45 55298 56581 D802 DD05
Numeric character reference 𐎆 𐎆 𐡅 𐡅 𐤅 𐤅

References

  1. 1 2 "Announcements of the Academy of the Hebrew Language" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-04-11.
  2. "List of fonts that support U+05BA at". Fileformat.info. Retrieved 2013-04-11.

External links

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