WAW (LETTER)

'Waw' (, also spelled 'vav' or 'vau') is the sixth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac , and Arabic (in abjadi order; it is 27th in modern Arabic order). In most Semitic languages it respresnts the voiced labial-velar approximant , and in some (particularly Arabic) also the long close back rounded vowel /uː/ depending on context, while in Hebrew it represents a labial approximant, either or , a pattern shared by the non-Semitic languages using the Arabic alphabet (e.g. Persian and Urdu).
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek digamma (, whose name in Greek was probably ) and upsilon (), Etruscan ''v'' (, ) and Latin F, V, and Y; V later developed into U and W.
Waw is derived from a hieroglyph depicting a hook.

Contents

Arabic wāw

Vav in Hebrew

Pronunciation

Vav as consonant

Vav with a dot on top

Vav with a dot in the middle

Numerical value

In foreign words

Words written as vav

External links

Arabic wāw

The letter is named ''wāw'', and is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:
Wāw is used to represent two distincts phonetic features:

★ A consonant, pronounced as a voiced labial-velar approximant , which is the case whenever it is at the beginnings of words, but normally occurs also in the middle or end. In this case it is followed by one of the three short vowels marked by diacritic on it; or a ''sukun'', indicating the absence of a short vowel.

★ A long close back rounded vowel . In this case it has no diacritic, but could be marked with a sukun in some traditions. The preceding consonant could either have no diacritic or a short-wāw-vowel mark, i.e damma, to aid in the pronunciation by hinting to the following long vowel.
As a vowel, wāw can serve as the "seat" of the hamza: ؤ.
Wāw serves several functions in the Arabic language. Perhaps foremost among them is that it is the primary conjunction in Arabic, equivalent to "and"; it is usually prefixed to other conjunctions, such as ولكن ''wa-lakin'', meaning "but". Another function is the "oath", by preceding a noun of great significantly valued by the speaker. It is often literally translatable to "By..." or "I swear to...", and is often used in the Qur'an in this way, and also in the generally fixed construction والله ''wallah'' ("By Allah!" or "I swear to God!").

Vav in Hebrew

Pronunciation

Vav has three orthographic variants, each with a different phonetic value:

★ ו:

★ וּ:

★ וֹ:

Vav as consonant

Consonantal vav (ו) represents a voiced labiodental fricative (like the English v) in Ashkenazi, European Sephardi and modern Israeli Hebrew; and a Labial-velar approximant () by most Jews of Eastern origin.

Vav with a dot on top

Vav can be used as a mater lectionis for an 'o' vowel, in which case it is known as a ''holom male'', and in pointed text is marked with a dot above and to the left and is usually pronounced as .
This vowel can also appear without the vav, as just the dot, and is known then as ''holom haser''. (The vav may still take a ''holom haser'' and thus appear identical to this vowel although the consonant is pronounced, thus representing the sound ''vo'' as in mitz''vo''t .)

Vav with a dot in the middle

Vav can also be used as a ''mater lectionis'' for an 'oo' vowel, in which case it is known as a ''shuruk'', and in pointed text is marked with a dot in the middle (on the left side) and usually represents as .

Numerical value

Vav in gematria represents the number six, and when used at the beginning of Hebrew years, it means 6000 (i.e. ותשנד in numbers would be the date 6754.)

In foreign words

Modern Hebrew has no way to distinguish orthographically between and . The pronunciation is either determined by prior knowledge or must be derived through context.
Some non standard transliterations of the sound are sometimes found in modern Hebrew texts, such as two Vavs side by side (officially used in a text without Niqqud to mark a non initial and a non final Vav as the consonant , as opposed to the vowels and which are always represented by a single Vav) or a Vav with a chupchik (like an apostrophe).
Loanwords with English W are often pronounced with .

Words written as vav

Vav at the beginning of the word has several possible meanings:

★ ''Vav Conjunctive'', when a vav connects two words or parts of a sentence; it is a grammatical conjunction meaning '' 'and' '', cognate to the Arabic. This is the most common usage.

★ ''Vav Consecutive'' (Vav Hahipuch, literally "the Vav of Reversal")- mainly biblical, commonly mistaken for the previous type of vav; it indicates consequence of actions and reverses the tense of the verb following it:

★
★ when placed in front of a verb in the future tense, it changes the verb to the past tense. For example, ''yomar'' means 'he will say' and ''vayomar'' means 'he said';

★
★ when placed in front of a verb in the past tense, it changes the verb to the future tense. For example, ''ahavtah'' means 'you loved', and ''ve'ahavtah'' means 'you will love'.

External links

★ The Mystical Significance of the Hebrew Letters: Vav

★ The famous discussion about how to spell W with vav – in Hebrew

★ Background of Vav on Balashon