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Yodh (also spelled jodh, yod, or jod) is the tenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Arabic yāʾ ي‎, Aramaic yod 𐡉, Hebrew yud י‎, Phoenician yōd 𐤉, and Syriac yōḏ. Its sound value is /j/ in all languages for which it is used; in many languages, it also serves as a long vowel, representing /iː/.

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Iota (Ι), Latin I and J, Cyrillic І, Coptic iauda (Ⲓ) and Gothic eis .

The term yod is often used to refer to the speech sound [j], 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.

Before the late nineteenth century, the letter yāʼ was written without its two dots, especially those in the Levant.

Arabic yāʼ

The letter ي is named yāʼ (يَاء) /jaːʔ/. It is written in several ways depending on its position in the word:

It is pronounced in four ways:

• As a consonant, it is pronounced as a palatal approximant /j/, typically at the beginnings of words in front of short or long vowels.
• A long /iː/ usually in the middle or end of words. In this case it has no diacritic, but could be marked with a kasra in the preceding letter in some traditions.
• A long /eː/ In many dialects, as a result of the monophthongization that the diphthong /aj/ underwent in most words.
• A part of a diphthong, /aj/. Then, it has no diacritic but could be marked with a sukun in some traditions. The preceding consonant could have no diacritic or have fatḥa sign, hinting to the first vowel in the diphthong, i.e. /a/.

As a vowel, yāʾ can serve as the "seat" of the hamza: ئ

Yāʾ serves several functions in the Arabic language. Yāʾ as a prefix is the marker for a singular imperfective verb, as in يَكْتُب yaktub "he writes" from the root ك-ت-ب K-T-B ("write, writing"). Yāʾ with a shadda is particularly used to turn a noun into an adjective, called a nisbah (نِسْبَة). For instance, مِصْر Miṣr (Egypt) → مِصْرِيّ Miṣriyy (Egyptian). The transformation can be more abstract; for instance, مَوْضَوع mawḍūʿ (matter, object) → مَوْضُوعِيّ mawḍūʿiyy (objective). Still other uses of this function can be a bit further from the root: اِشْتِرَاك ishtirāk (cooperation) → اِشْتِرَاكِيّ ishtirākiyy (socialist). The common pronunciation of the final /-ijj/ is most often pronounced as [i] or [iː].

A form similar to but distinguished from yāʾ is the ʾalif maqṣūrah (أَلِف مَقْصُورَة) "limited/restricted alif", with the form ى. It indicates a final long /aː/.

Alif maqṣūrah

In Arabic, alif maqṣūrah is the letter yāʼ without its two dots, and it is thus written as:

However, this letter cannot be used initially or medially in Arabic. The alif maqṣūrah with hamza is thus written as:

Perso-Arabic ye

In the Persian alphabet, the letter is generally called ye following Persian-language custom. In its isolated and final forms, the letter does not have dots (ی), much like the Arabic Alif maqṣūrah or, more to the point, much like the custom in Egypt, Sudan and sometimes Maghreb. On account of this difference, Perso-Arabic ye is located at a different Unicode code point than both of the standard Arabic letters. In computers, the Persian version of the letter automatically appears with two dots initially and medially: (یـ ـیـ ـی).

In Kashmiri, it uses a ring instead of dots below (ؠ) (ؠ ؠـ ـؠـ ـؠ‎).

Returned yāʾ

In different calligraphic styles like the Hijazi script, Kufic, and Nastaʿlīq script, a final yāʾ might have a particular shape with the descender turned to the right (ـے), called al-yāʾ al-mardūdah/al-rājiʿah ("returned, recurred yāʾ"), either with two dots or without them.

In Urdu this is called baṛī ye ("big ye"), but is an independent letter used for /ɛː, eː/ and differs from the basic ye (choṭī ye, "little ye"). For this reason the letter has its own code point in Unicode. Nevertheless, its initial and medial forms are not different from the other ye (practically baṛī ye is not used in these positions).

Hebrew yod

Orthographic variants
Various print fonts			Cursive Hebrew	Rashi script
Serif	Sans-serif	Monospaced
י	י	י

Hebrew spelling: יוֹד ; colloquial יוּד

The letter appears with or without a hook on different sans-serif fonts, for example

• Arial, DejaVu Sans, Arimo, Open Sans: י
• Tahoma, Alef, Heebo: י

Pronunciation

In both Biblical and Modern Hebrew, Yod represents a palatal approximant ([j]). As a mater lectionis, it represents the vowel [i].

Significance

In gematria, Yod represents the number ten.

As a prefix, it designates the third person singular (or plural, with a Vav as a suffix) in the future tense.

As a suffix, it indicates first person singular possessive; av (father) becomes avi (my father).

"Yod" in Hebrew signifies iodine. Iodine is also called يود yod in Arabic.

In religion

Two Yods in a row designate the name of God Adonai and in pointed texts are written with the vowels of Adonai, which is done as well with the Tetragrammaton.

As Yod is the smallest letter, much kabbalistic and mystical significance is attached to it. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus mentioned it during the Antithesis of the Law, when he says: "One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Jot, or iota, refers to the letter Yod; it was often overlooked by scribes because of its size and position as a mater lectionis. In Modern Hebrew, the phrase "tip of the Yod" refers to a small and insignificant thing, and someone who "worries about the tip of a Yod" is someone who is picky and meticulous about small details.

Much kabbalistic and mystical significance is also attached to it because of its gematria value as ten, which is an important number in Judaism, and its place in the name of God.

Yiddish

In Yiddish, the letter yod is used for several orthographic purposes in native words:

• Alone, a single yod י may represent the vowel [i] or the consonant [j]. When adjacent to another vowel, or another yod, [i] may be distinguished from [j] by the addition of a dot below. Thus the word Yidish 'Yiddish' is spelled ייִדיש. The first yod represents ; the second yod represents and is distinguished from the adjacent by a dot; the third yod represents as well, but no dot is necessary.
• The digraph יי, consisting of two yods, represents the diphthong .
• A pair of yods with a horizontal line (pasekh) under them, ײַ, represents the diphthong in standard Yiddish.
• The digraph consisting of a vov followed by a yod, וי, represents the diphthong .

In traditional as well as in YIVO orthography, Loanwords from Hebrew or Aramaic in Yiddish are spelled as they are in their language of origin. In Soviet orthography, they are written phonetically like other Yiddish words.

Character encodings

References

1. Victor Parker, A History of Greece, 1300 to 30 BC, (John Wiley & Sons, 2014), 67.
2. Gacek, Adam (2008). The Arabic manuscript tradition: a glossary of technical terms and bibliography: supplement. Leiden: Brill. p. 29. ISBN 978-9004165403.
3. Yūsofī, Ḡolām-Ḥosayn (1990). "Calligraphy". Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. IV. pp. 680–704. Archived from the original on 2021-10-25. Retrieved 2015-10-03.
4. Morfix.mako.co.il
5. "Fileformat.info". Archived from the original on 2018-04-03. Retrieved 2018-03-21.
6. "Inner.org". Archived from the original on 2023-05-22. Retrieved 2004-11-06.
7. Weinreich, Uriel (1992). College Yiddish. New York: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. pp. 27–8.

External links

• Phoenician alphabet
• Arabic letters
• Hebrew letters
• Urdu letters
• Vowel letters