Hebrew alphabet

:This article is mainly about Hebrew letters. For Hebrew diacritical marks, see niqqud (for the vowel points) and cantillation.

Related Topics:
Niqqud - Cantillation

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The Hebrew alphabet is a set of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language. It has also been used in mildly adapted forms for writing several languages of the Jewish diaspora, most famously Yiddish, Ladino, and Judaeo-Arabic (for a full and detailed list, see Jewish languages). Hebrew is written from right to left.

Related Topics:
Alphabet - Hebrew language - Yiddish - Ladino - Judaeo-Arabic - Jewish languages

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The Hebrew word for "alphabet" is ???-??? (alef-bet), named after the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The Hebrew alphabet was in origin an abjad, in other words it had letters for consonants only, but means were later devised to indicate vowels, first by using consonant letters as matres lectionis, later by separate vowel points or nikud.

Related Topics:
Abjad - Consonant - Matres lectionis - Nikud

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The number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, their order, their names, and their phonetic values are virtually identical to those of the Aramaic alphabet, as both Hebrews and Arameans borrowed the Phoenician alphabet for their uses during the end of the 2nd millennium BC.

Related Topics:
Aramaic alphabet - Hebrews - Arameans - Phoenician alphabet - 2nd millennium BC

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The modern script used for writing Hebrew (usually called the Jewish script by scholars, and also traditionally known as the square script, or the Assyrian script), evolved during the 3rd century BC from the Aramaic script, which was used by Jews for writing Hebrew since the 6th century BC. Prior to that, Hebrew was written using the old Hebrew script, which evolved during the 9th century BC from the Phoenician script; the Samaritans still write Hebrew in a variant of this script for religious works (see Samaritan alphabet).

Related Topics:
3rd century BC - Aramaic script - Jews - 6th century BC - 9th century BC - Samaritans - Samaritan alphabet

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