Dalet
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Dalet (Template:Transliteration, also spelled Daleth or Daled) is the fourth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Template:Translit 𐤃, Hebrew Template:Translit Template:Script, Aramaic Template:Translit 𐡃, Syriac Template:Translit ܕ, and Arabic Template:Translit Template:Script (in abjadi order; 8th in modern order). Its sound value is the voiced alveolar plosive (Script error: No such module "IPA".). It is also related to the Ancient North Arabian 𐪕, South Arabian Script error: No such module "Lang"., and Ge'ez Script error: No such module "Lang"..
The letter is based on a glyph of the Proto-Sinaitic script, probably called Template:Translit Template:Gloss (door in Modern Hebrew is delet), ultimately based on a hieroglyph depicting a door: <hiero>O31</hiero>
Arabic dāl
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The letter is named Template:Translit (Script error: No such module "Lang".), and is written in several ways depending on its position in the word:
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) |
Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic | Template:Script/Arabic |
The letter represents a Script error: No such module "IPA". sound.
Phoenician
Script error: No such module "labelled list hatnote". The Phoenician dālet gave rise to the Greek delta (Δ), Latin D, and the Cyrillic letter Д.
Aramaic
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Hebrew dalet
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| Orthographic variants | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various print fonts | Cursive Hebrew |
Rashi script | ||
| Serif | Sans-serif | Monospaced | ||
| ד | ד | ד | File:Hebrew letter Daled handwriting.svg | File:Daled (Rashi-script - Hebrew letter).svg |
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Hebrew spelling: Script error: No such module "Lang".
The letter is dalet in the modern Israeli Hebrew pronunciation (see Tav (letter)). Dales is still used by many Ashkenazi Jews and daleth by some Jews of Middle-Eastern background, especially in the Jewish diaspora. In some academic circles, it is called daleth, following the Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation. It is also called daled. The Template:Script like the English D represents a voiced alveolar stop. Just as in English, there may be subtle varieties of the sounds that are created when it is spoken.
Variations
Dalet can receive a dagesh, being one of the six letters that can receive Dagesh Kal (see Gimel). There are minor variations to this letter's pronunciation, such as
- Template:Script Template:Transliteration Script error: No such module "IPA". (Script error: No such module "IPA". among Teimanim, Mizrachim and some Sephardim; Script error: No such module "IPA". among some Ashkenazim.) or
- Template:Script Template:Transliteration Script error: No such module "IPA"..
In addition, in modern Hebrew, the combination Template:Script (dalet followed by a geresh) is used when transcribing foreign names to denote Script error: No such module "IPA"..
Significance
In gematria, dalet symbolizes the number four.
The letter dalet, along with the He (and very rarely Gimel) is used to represent the Names of God in Judaism. The letter He is used commonly, and the dalet is rarer. A good example is the keter (crown) of a tallit, which has the blessing for donning the tallit, and has the name of God usually represented by a dalet. A reason for this is that He is used as an abbreviation for HaShem "The Name" and the dalet is used as a non-sacred way of referring to God.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Dalet as a prefix in Aramaic (the language of the Talmud) is a preposition meaning "that", or "which", or also "from" or "of"; since many Talmudic terms have found their way into Hebrew, one can hear dalet as a prefix in many phrases (as in Mitzvah Doraitah; a mitzvah from the Torah.)Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
In modern Hebrew the frequency of the usage of dalet, out of all the letters, is 2.59%.[1]
Syriac daled/dolath
| Daled/Dolath |
|---|
| File:Syriac Eastern dalat.svg Madnḫaya Template:Transliteration |
| File:Syriac Serta dalat.svg Serṭo Template:Transliteration |
| File:Syriac Estrangela dalat.svg Esṭrangela Template:Transliteration |
File:Syriac letter shapes Dalath.PNG
In the Syriac alphabet, the fourth letter is Script error: No such module "Lang". — Template:Transliteration in western pronunciation, Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration in eastern pronunciation (Script error: No such module "Lang".). It is one of six letters that represents two associated sounds (the others are bet, gimel, kaph, pe and taw). When daled/dolath has a hard pronunciation (qûššāyâ) it is a Script error: No such module "IPA".. When it has a soft pronunciation (rûkkāḵâ) it is traditionally pronounced as a Script error: No such module "IPA".. The letter is very common in Syriac as it is often attached to the beginning of words as the relative pronoun.
Daled/dolath is always written with a point below it to distinguish it from the letter resh (Script error: No such module "Lang".), which is identical apart from having a point above. As a numeral, dalad/dolath stands for the number four. With various systems of dots and dashes, it can also stand for 4,000 and 40,000.
Other uses
Mathematics
In set theory, the dalet symbol Template:Unichar is sometimes used to reference the fourth transfinite cardinal number.[2][3]
Character encodings
See also
References
External links
Template:Arabic language Template:Hebrew language Template:Northwest Semitic abjad