| Taw (letter) |
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Taw or '''Tav''' is the twenty-second and last letter in many Semitic Abjads , including Phoenician , Aramaic , Hebrew and Arabic Alphabet . Its original sound value is a Voiceless Alveolar Plosive , IPA , The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Tau (Τ), Latin T , and Cyrillic Te (Т). ORIGINS OF TAW Taw is believed to have come from a simple mark; a cross or asterisk-like marking, perhaps indicating a signature. ARABIC Tā The letter is named ''tā'', and is written is several ways depending in its position in the word: The form ''tā marbuta'' (ة ,ـة) is used at the end of words to mark Feminine Gender for Noun s and Adjective s (which in Arabic are considered to be two types of the same general class of words). Initial tā is used to mark feminine gender in Third-person Imperfective / Present Tense Verb s. Final ت◌ (''kasra'', then tā, pronounced /at/) is used to mark feminine gender for third-person Perfective / Past Tense verbs, while final تَ (tā-fatḥa, /ta/) is used to mark past-tense second-person singular masculine verbs, final تِ (tā-kasra, /ti/) to mark past-tense second-person singular feminine verbs, and final تُ (tā-ḍamma, /tu/) to mark past-tense first-person singular verbs. TAV IN HEBREW Hebrew Pronunciation The letter Tav in modern Hebrew usually represents a Voiceless Alveolar Plosive ). Variations on Written form/pronunciation The letter Tav is one of the six letters which can receive a Dagesh Kal. The six are Bet , Gimmel , Daled , Kaph , Pe , and Tav (see Hebrew Alphabet for more about these letters). Three of them ( Bet , Kaph , and Pe ) have their sound values changed in modern Hebrew from the fricative to the plosive by adding a dagesh. The other three have the same pronunciation in modern Hebrew, but have had alternate pronunciations at other times and places. In traditional Ashkenazi pronunciation, it represented a (a form which still is common today, especially among Diaspora Jews) without the Dagesh , and had the plosive form when it had the dagesh. In some Sephardi areas, such as Yemen , Tav without a dagesh represented a Voiceless Dental Fricative without a dagesh and the plosive form with the dagesh. See Bet , Daled , Kaph , Pe , and Gimmel . Significance of Tav In Gematria Tav represents the number 400, the largest number that can be made without using the Sophit forms (see Kaph , Mem , Nun , Pe , and Tzade ). In representing names from foreign languages, a Geresh or "chupchik" can also be placed after the tav ('ת), making it represent . In Judaism Tav is the last letter of the Hebrew word ''emet'', which means Truth . The midrash explains that ''emet'' is made up of the first, middle, and last letters of the Hebrew Alphabet ( Aleph , Mem , and Tav). ''Sheqer'' (falsehood), on the other hand, is made up of the 19th, 20th, and 21st (and penultimate) letters. Thus, truth is all-encompassing, while falsehood is narrow and deceiving. In Jewish Mythology it was the word ''emet'' that was carved into the head of the golem which ultimately gave it life. Sayings with Taw From Aleph to Taw describes something from beginning to end; the Hebrew equivalent of the English ''From A to Z''. SEE ALSO |
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