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The Hebrew word for "alphabet" is אלף-בית (alef-bet), named after the first
two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The Hebrew alphabet was in origin an
abjad, having letters for consonants only, but means were later devised to
indicate vowels, first by using consonant letters as matres lectionis and later
by separate vowel pointsor niqqud.
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.
The modern script used for writing Hebrew (usually called the Jewish script
by scholars, and also traditionally known as the square script, block
script, or Assyrian script — not to be confused with the Eastern variant of
the Syriac alphabet) 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 10th century BC from the Phoenician script; the
Samaritans still write Hebrew in a variant of this script for religious works
(see Samaritan alphabet).
two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The Hebrew alphabet was in origin an
abjad, having letters for consonants only, but means were later devised to
indicate vowels, first by using consonant letters as matres lectionis and later
by separate vowel pointsor niqqud.
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.
The modern script used for writing Hebrew (usually called the Jewish script
by scholars, and also traditionally known as the square script, block
script, or Assyrian script — not to be confused with the Eastern variant of
the Syriac alphabet) 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 10th century BC from the Phoenician script; the
Samaritans still write Hebrew in a variant of this script for religious works
(see Samaritan alphabet).
| The Hebrew alphabet is a set of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language. Five of these letters have a different form when appearing as the last letter in a word. The Hebrew letters are used in mildly adapted forms for writing several languages of the Jewish diaspora, most famously Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic (for a full and detailed list, see Jewish languages). Hebrew is written from right to left. |
