LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Hebrew Alphabet: Letters
built 290 days ago
The Hebrew alphabet has other quirks as well. Five Hebrew letters (khaf, mem, nun, peh, tsadi), have special forms when they come at the end of a word: called (otiot sofiot). In addition, there are seven "prefix letters," (otiot ha-shimush), that are added on to the beginnings of words. These are indicated by the mnemonic device (moshe ve-calev), after Moses and the "good spy" Caleb. That Jewish tradition holds the letter and the printed word in high esteem is expressed most succinctly by the proverbial Hebrew expression (otiot mahkimot). "Letters will make you wise." You can count on it.
Source:
[T]he first letter of the Hebrew alphabet is aleph [a]. As the first letter of the alphabet, aleph represents God Himself, the Creator and King of the Universe. It stands for God's eternal and omnipotent nature -- His Godhood. And as the first letter of the alphabet, it has a numerical value of one [1]. In other words, this truth points out that the true God is "One God" -- not a multitude of deities and gods, such as the pagans believed.
Source:
The independent Hebrew script evolved by developing numerous cursive features, the lapidary features of the Phoenician alphabet being ever less pronounced with the passage of time. The aversion of the lapidary script may indicate that the custom of erecting stelae by the kings and offering votive inscriptions to the deity was not widespread in Israel. Even the engraved inscriptions from the 8th century exhibit elements of the cursive style, such as the shading, which is a natural feature of pen-and-ink writing. Examples of such inscriptions include the Siloam inscription, numerous tomb inscriptions from Jerusalem, a fragmentary Hebrew inscription on an ivory which was taken as war spoils (probably from Samaria) to Nimrud, and the hundreds of 8th to 6th-century Hebrew seals from various sites. The most developed cursive script is found on the 18 Lachish ostraca, letters sent by an officer to the governor of Lachish just before the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE.
Source:
The Hebrew language is normally written in the Hebrew alphabet. Due to publishing difficulties, and the unfamiliarity of many readers with the alphabet, there are many ways of transcribing Hebrew into Roman letters. The most accurate method is the International Phonetic Alphabet. It is used (in a simplified ASCII form) in the section concerned with Phonology, to describe the sounds of the Hebrew language. However, the IPA is quite obscure and redundant when it comes to transcribing the words of a single language to a general audience. Therefore the system that this article will feature will try to restore the sound of Hebrew, and at least some orthographic peculiarities.
Source:
The Hebrew alphabet has only one case, but some letters have special final forms used only at the end of a word. This is similar to Arabic, although much simpler. Hebrew is an abjad script: vowels are normally not indicated. There is a set of diacritical symbols (points or nikkud) that can be used to annotate a word with its vowels---this is done, for instance, when teaching the language to children. There are ... cantillation marks used to indicate how scriptural passages should be chanted, and decorative "crowns" used only for Torah scrolls.
Source:
The Hebrew alphabet is a consonant-based syllabary. It consists of 22 consonants, five of which have a special word-final form. Vowels are generally not indicated. However, in some texts such as those for children, foreigners, prayer books, and Bibles, vowels can be represented by diacritics. Such texts are called vowelled or vocalized. Below are the letters of the Hebrew alphabet (from Wikipedia).
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Letters