Yodh (also spelled jodh, yod, or jod) is the tenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician yà Âd ð¤Â, Hebrew yod , Aramaic yod ð¡Â, Syriac yà ÂḠÃÂ, and Arabic yÃÂþ . It is also related to the Ancient North Arabian ðªÂâÂÂâÂÂâÂÂ, South Arabian , and Ge'ez . Its sound value is in all languages for which it is used; in many languages, it also serves as a long vowel, representing .
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Iota (ÃÂ), Latin I and J, Cyrillic ÃÂ, Coptic (â²Â) and Gothic eis .
The term yod is often used to refer to the speech sound , a palatal approximant, even in discussions of languages not written in Semitic abjads, as in phonological phenomena such as English "yod-dropping".
Yod is derived from an Egyptian hieroglyph representing a hand, as in the Biblical Hebrew word yad (ÃÂøÃÂ) 'hand'.
Before the late nineteenth century, the letter yÃÂü was written without its two dots, especially those in the Levant.
The letter is named ' (). It is written in several ways depending on its position in the word:
It is pronounced in four ways:
As a vowel, yÃÂþ can serve as the "seat" of the hamza:
YÃÂþ serves several functions in the Arabic language. YÃÂþ as a prefix is the marker for a singular imperfective verb, as in ' "he writes" from the root K-T-B ("write, writing"). YÃÂþ with a shadda is particularly used to turn a noun into an adjective, called a nisbah (). For instance, ' (Egypt) â Miá¹£riyy (Egyptian). The transformation can be more abstract; for instance, mawá¸Âà «Ã¿ (matter, object) â mawá¸Âà «Ã¿iyy (). Still other uses of this function can be a bit further from the root: ishtirÃÂk (cooperation) â ishtirÃÂkiyy (socialist). The common pronunciation of the final is most often pronounced as or .
A form similar to but distinguished from yÃÂþ is the ' () "limited/restricted alif", with the form . It indicates a final long .
In Arabic, alif maqá¹£à «rah is the letter yÃÂü without its two dots, and it is thus written as:
However, this letter cannot be used initially or medially in Arabic. The alif maqá¹£à «rah with hamza is thus written as:
In the Persian alphabet, the letter is generally called ye following Persian-language custom. Traditionally, in its isolated and final forms, the letter does not have dots (), much like the Arabic ' or, in the Quran, much like the custom in Egypt, Sudan, and sometimes Maghreb. On account of this difference, Perso-Arabic ye is located at a different Unicode code point than both of the standard Arabic letters. In computers, the Persian version of the letter automatically appears with two dots initially and medially: (<big></big>).
In Kashmiri, it uses a ring instead of dots below (ÃÂ ) (<big></big>).
In different calligraphic styles like the Hijazi script, Kufic, and Nastaÿlëq script, a final yÃÂþ might have a particular shape with the descender turned to the right (<span style="margin-right:1em;"></span>), called ("returned, recurred yÃÂþ"), either with two dots or without them.
In Urdu this is called baá¹Âë ye ("big ye"), but is an independent letter used for /ÃÂÃÂ, eÃÂ/ and differs from the basic ye (choá¹Âë ye, "little ye"). For this reason the letter has its own code point in Unicode. Nevertheless, its initial and medial forms are not different from the other ye (practically baá¹Âë ye is not used in these positions).
Hebrew spelling: <big></big> <span style="unicode-bidi:bidi-override">;</span> colloquial <big></big>
In both Biblical and Modern Hebrew, Yod represents a palatal approximant (). As a mater lectionis, it represents the vowel .
In gematria, Yod 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).
Two Yods in a row () designate the name of God and in pointed texts are written with the vowels of Adonai, which is done as well with the Tetragrammaton.
As Yod is the smallest letter, much kabbalistic and mystical significance is attached. 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 Yod; scribes often overlooked it because of its size and position as a mater lectionis. In Modern Hebrew, "tip of the yod" refers to a small and insignificant thing, and someone who "worries about the tip of a yod" is picky and meticulous about minor 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.
In Yiddish, the letter yod is used for several orthographic purposes in native words:
In traditional and YIVO Yiddish orthography, loanwords from Hebrew or Aramaic ("loshn koydesh") are spelled as they are in their language of origin. In the Soviet orthography, they are written phonetically like other Yiddish words.
The Syriac script variant is â¨<big></big>â©.