HOME





Mapiq
The mappiq ( ''mapík''; also ''mapiq'', ''mapik'', ''mappik'', lit. "causing to go out") is a diacritic used in the Hebrew alphabet. It is part of the Masoretes' system of niqqud (vowel points), and was added to Hebrew orthography at the same time. It takes the form of a dot in the middle of a letter (usually , '' he''). An identical point with a different phonetic function (marking different consonants) is called a dagesh. The ''mappiq'' is used to indicate that the corresponding letter is to be pronounced as a consonant, although in a position where the letter usually indicates a vowel. Typically, the mappiq is used in the middle of ('' he''), though it historically and biblically has been used with (yodh), ( vav), and (aleph). Before the vowel points were invented, some consonants were used to indicate vowel sounds. These consonants are called ''matres lectionis'' (New Latin: sg. ''māter lēctiōnis'' "mother of reading", pl. ''mātrēs lēctiōnis'' "mothers of reading ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Rafe
In Hebrew orthography the rafe or raphe (, , meaning "weak, limp") is a diacritic (), a subtle horizontal overbar placed above certain letters to indicate that they are to be pronounced as fricatives. It originated with the Tiberian Masoretes as part of the extended system of ''niqqud'' (vowel points), and has the opposite meaning of ''dagesh qal'', showing that one of the letters is to be pronounced as a fricative and not as a plosive, or (sometimes) that a consonant is single and not double; or, as the opposite to a ''mappiq'', to show that the letters or are silent (''mater lectionis''). The rafe generally fell out of use for Hebrew with the coming of printing, although according to Gesenius (1813) at that time it could still be found in a few places in printed Hebrew Bibles, where the absence of a ''dagesh'' or a ''mappiq'' was noticeable. (e.g. Exodus 20:13,14,15; Deuteronomy 5:13,17,18,19; 2 Samuel 11:1; Isaiah 22:10; Jeremiah 20:17; Psalm 119:99; Zechariah 5:11) ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language while translating its components, so as to create a new word or phrase ( lexeme) in the target language. For instance, the English word ''skyscraper'' has been calqued in dozens of other languages, combining words for "sky" and "scrape" in each language, as for example in German, in Portuguese, in Dutch, in Spanish, in Italian, in Turkish, and ''matenrō'' in Japanese. Calques, like direct borrowings, often function as linguistic gap-fillers, emerging when a language lacks existing vocabulary to express new ideas, technologies, or objects. This phenomenon is widespread and is often attributed to the shared conceptual frameworks across human languages. Speakers of different languages tend to perceive the world through common categori ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

New Latin
Neo-LatinSidwell, Keith ''Classical Latin-Medieval Latin-Neo Latin'' in ; others, throughout. (also known as New Latin and Modern Latin) is the style of written Latin used in original literary, scholarly, and scientific works, first in Italy during the Italian Renaissance of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and then across northern Europe after about 1500, as a key feature of the humanist movement. Through comparison with Latin of the Classical period, scholars from Petrarch onwards promoted a standard of Latin closer to that of the ancient Romans, especially in grammar, style, and spelling. The term ''Neo-Latin'' was however coined much later, probably in Germany in the late eighteenth century, as ''Neulatein'', spreading to French and other languages in the nineteenth century. Medieval Latin had diverged quite substantially from the classical standard and saw notable regional variation and influence from vernacular languages. Neo-Latin attempts to return to the ideal o ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Matres Lectionis
A ''mater lectionis'' ( , ; , ''matres lectionis'' ; original ) is any consonant letter that is used to indicate a vowel, primarily in the writing of Semitic languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac. The letters that do this in Hebrew are ''aleph'' , '' he'' , '' vav'' and '' yud'' , with the latter two in particular being more often vowels than they are consonants. In Arabic, the ''matres lectionis'' (though they are much less often referred to thus) are ''ʾalif'' , ''wāw'' and ''yāʾ'' . The original value of the ''matres lectionis'' corresponds closely to what are called in modern linguistics '' glides'' or ''semivowels''. Overview Because the scripts used to write some Semitic languages lack vowel letters, unambiguous reading of a text might be difficult. Therefore, to indicate vowels (mostly long), consonant letters are used. For example, in the Hebrew construct-state form ''bēt'', meaning "the house of", the middle letter in the spelling acts as a vowe ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Aleph
Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first Letter (alphabet), letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician ''ʾālep'' 𐤀, Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew ''ʾālef'' , Aramaic alphabet, Aramaic ''ʾālap'' 𐡀, Syriac alphabet, Syriac ''ʾālap̄'' ܐ, Arabic alphabet, Arabic ''ʾalif'' , and Ancient North Arabian, North Arabian 𐪑. It also appears as Ancient South Arabian script, South Arabian 𐩱 and Ge'ez script, Ge'ez ''ʾälef'' አ. These letters are believed to have derived from an Egyptian hieroglyph depicting an ox's head to Acrophony, describe the initial sound of ''*ʾalp'', the West Semitic languages, West Semitic word for ox (compare Biblical Hebrew ''ʾelef'', "ox"). The Phoenician variant gave rise to the Alpha (letter), Greek alpha (), being re-interpreted to express not the glottal consonant but the accompanying vowel, and hence the A, Latin A and A (Cyrillic), Cyrillic А and possibly the Armenian letter Ayb (Armenian le ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Vav (letter)
Waw ( "hook") is the sixth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''wāw'' 𐤅, Aramaic ''waw'' 𐡅, Hebrew ''vav'' , Syriac ''waw'' ܘ and Arabic ''wāw'' (sixth in abjadi order; 27th in modern Arabic order). It is also related to the Ancient North Arabian 𐪅‎‎‎, South Arabian , and Ge'ez . It represents the consonant in classical Hebrew, and in modern Hebrew, as well as the vowels and . In text with niqqud, a dot is added to the left or on top of the letter to indicate, respectively, the two vowel pronunciations. It is the origin of Greek Ϝ (digamma) and Υ (upsilon); Latin F, V and later the derived Y, U and W; and the also derived Cyrillic У and Ѵ. Origin The letter likely originated with an Egyptian hieroglyph which represented the word ''mace'' (transliterated as ''ḥḏ'', ''hedj''): T3 A mace was a ceremonial stick or staff, similar to a scepter, perhaps derived from weapons or hunting tools. In Modern Hebrew, the wor ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Yodh
Yodh (also spelled jodh, yod, or jod) is the tenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''yōd'' 𐤉, Hebrew ''yod'' , Aramaic ''yod'' 𐡉, Syriac ''yōḏ'' ܝ, and Arabic ''yāʾ'' . It is also related to the Ancient North Arabian 𐪚‎‎‎, 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 (Ι), Latin I and J, Cyrillic І, Coptic (Ⲓ) 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". Origins Yod originated from a hieroglyphic "hand", or *yad. D36 Before the late nineteenth century, the letter yāʼ was written without its two dots, especially those in the Levant. Arabic yāʼ The letter is named ' (). It is wri ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Orthography
An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national and international languages have an established writing system that has undergone substantial standardization, thus exhibiting less dialect variation than the spoken language. These processes can fossilize pronunciation patterns that are no longer routinely observed in speech (e.g. ''would'' and ''should''); they can also reflect deliberate efforts to introduce variability for the sake of national identity, as seen in Noah Webster's efforts to introduce easily noticeable differences between American and British spelling (e.g. ''honor'' and ''honour''). Orthographic norms develop through social and political influence at various levels, such as encounters with print in education, the workplace, and the state. Some nations have established ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Niqqud
In Hebrew orthography, niqqud or nikud ( or ) is a system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Several such diacritical systems were developed in the Early Middle Ages. The most widespread system, and the only one still used to a significant degree today, was created by the Masoretes of Tiberias in the second half of the first millennium AD in the Land of Israel (see Masoretic Text, Tiberian Hebrew). Text written with niqqud is called '' ktiv menuqad''. Niqqud marks are small compared to the letters, so they can be added without retranscribing texts whose writers did not anticipate them. In modern Israeli orthography ''niqqud'' is mainly used in specialised texts such as dictionaries, poetry, or texts for children or new immigrants to Israel. For purposes of disambiguation, a system of spelling without niqqud, known in Hebrew as '' ktiv maleh'' (, literally "full spelling") had develope ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Masoretes
The Masoretes (, lit. 'Masters of the Tradition') were groups of Jewish scribe- scholars who worked from around the end of the 5th through 10th centuries CE, based primarily in the Jewish centers of the Levant (e.g., Tiberias and Jerusalem) and Mesopotamia (e.g., Sura and Nehardea). Each group compiled a system of pronunciation and grammatical guides in the form of diacritical notes ('' niqqud'') on the external form of the biblical text in an attempt to standardize the pronunciation, paragraph and verse divisions, and cantillation of the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh) for the worldwide Jewish community. The ben Asher family of Masoretes was largely responsible for the preservation and production of the Masoretic Text, although there existed an alternative Masoretic text of the ben Naphtali Masoretes, which has around 875 differences from the ben Asher text. The halakhic authority Maimonides endorsed the ben Asher as superior, although the Egyptian Jewish scholar, the Saa ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]