"PRIOR: The sexual politics of this are very confusing. God, for example is a man. Well, not a man, he's a flaming Hebrew letter, but a male flaming Hebrew letter.
ANGEL: The Aleph Glyph. Deus Erectus. Pater omnipotent."
(pt. 2, act 2, scene 2)
Aleph
Origin
Aleph is thought to be derived from the West Semitic for "ox", and the shape of the letter derives from a Proto-Sinaitic glyph based on a hieroglyph depicting an ox's head,
In modern Hebrew, "meulaf" (derived from the Hebrew root "alef" or the verb "le'alef" which means to domesticate) means a domesticated animal, such as a bull or a sheep. In modern Arabic, "aleef" literally means "domesticated".
Hebrew Aleph
Hebrew alphabet
א ב ג ד ה ו
ז ח ט י כך
ל מם נן ס ע פף
צץ ק ר ש ת
History Transliteration
Niqqud Dagesh Gematria
Cantillation Numeration
In Modern Israeli Hebrew, the letter represented either a glottal stop, or has no pronunciation besides that of the vowel under it.
In gematria, aleph represents the number 1, and when used at the beginning of Hebrew years, it means 1000 (i.e. א'תשנ"ד in numbers would be the date 1754).
Aleph is the subject of a midrash which praises its humility in not demanding to start the Bible. (In Hebrew the Bible is begun with the second letter of the alphabet, Bet.) In this folktale, Aleph is rewarded by being allowed to start the Ten Commandments. (In Hebrew, the first word is 'Anokhi, which starts with an aleph.)
Aleph also begins the three words that make up God's mystical name in Exodus, I Am That I Am, (in Hebrew, 'Ehye 'Asher 'Ehye), and aleph is an important part of mystical amulets and formulas.
In Modern Israeli Hebrew, the letter represents either a glottal stop, or no pronunciation besides that of the vowel under it. The pronunciation varies from group to group.
Aleph, along with Ayin, Resh, He, and Heth, cannot receive a dagesh.
Aleph is sometimes used as a mater lectionis to denote a vowel, usually /a/. Such use is more common in words of Aramaic and Arabic origin, in foreign names and some other borrowed words.
In Judaism
Aleph is the subject of a midrash which praises its humility in not demanding to start the Bible. (In Hebrew the Bible is begun with the second letter of the alphabet, Bet.) In this folktale, Aleph is rewarded by being allowed to start the Ten Commandments. (In Hebrew, the first word is 'Anokhi, which starts with an aleph.)
In the Sefer Yetzirah, The letter Aleph is King over Breath, Formed Air in the universe, Temperate in the Year, and the Chest in the soul.
Aleph is also the first letter of the Hebrew word emet, which means truth. In Jewish mythology it was the letter aleph that was carved into the head of the golem which ultimately gave it life.
Aleph also begins the three words that make up God's mystical name in Exodus, I Am That I Am, (in Hebrew, 'Ehye 'Asher 'Ehye), and aleph is an important part of mystical amulets and formulas.
Hebrew Sayings with Aleph
From Aleph to Taw describes something from beginning to end; the Hebrew equivalent of the English From A to Z.
One who doesn't know how to make an Aleph is someone who is illiterate.
No...with a big Aleph! (lo b'aleph rabati) means Absolutely not!.
Mathematics
In set theory, The Hebrew aleph glyph is used as the symbol to denote the aleph numbers, which represent the cardinality of infinite sets.
Arabic Alif
Arabic alphabet
ﺍ || ﺏ || ﺕ || ﺙ || ﺝ || ﺡ || ﺥ
ﺩ || ﺫ || ﺭ || ﺯ || ﺱ || ﺵ || ﺹ
ﺽ || ﻁ || ﻅ || ﻉ || ﻍ || ﻑ || ﻕ
ﻙ || ﻝ || ﻡ || ﻥ || هـ || ﻭ || ﻱ
History Transliteration
Diacritics hamza ء
Numerals Numeration
Main article: Alif
Historically, the Arabic letter was used to render either a long /aː/, or a glottal stop /ʔ/. This led to orthographical confusion, and to introduction of the additional letter hamza ﺀ.
The ʾalif madda is, as it were, a double alif, expressing both a glottal stop and a long vowel: ﺁ (final ﺂ) ʼā [ʔː]
The ʾalif maqṣūra is actually a dotless yāʼ, ﻯ (final ﻰ) ā (ISO 233 ỳ) pronounced [ɛ̈].
In Egyptology
The Egyptian
hieroglyph (commonly transliterated as 3 and by convention pronounced as /a/) is also referred to as alef, on grounds that it has traditionally been taken to represent a glottal stop, although some recent suggestions[1] tend towards an ɹ sound instead.
References
^ Schneider, Thomas. 2003. "Etymologische Methode, die Historizitt der Phoneme und das gyptologische Transkriptionsalphabet." Lingua aegyptia: Journal of Egyptian Language Studies 11:187199.