Hebrew alphabet
1
6.3
- noun
- /ˈhiːbruː ˈælfəˌbɛt/
:
alfabeto hebreo
- There are 27 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, including 5 final forms.
- letters of the Hebrew alphabet
Examples
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Yiddish, though primarily of Germanic derivation, uses a modified Hebrew alphabet and is read, like Hebrew, from right to left.
Academic text (2000) -
There are 27 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, 22 letters, and 5 final forms.
Blog text (15) -
The ancient Hebrew alphabet contained no vowels so God's name was rendered only in consonants.
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Josh is learning to write the Hebrew alphabet to improve his language skills.
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Each letter in the Hebrew alphabet has its unique sound and shape.
Synonyms
A set of letters used to write Hebrew and related languages like Yiddish and Ladino
An alphabet of letters used to write Hebrew and other Jewish languages, for example Yiddish and Ladino
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a straightforward compositional noun phrase: 'Hebrew' specifies the language/cultural domain and 'alphabet' denotes a set of letters, so a learner who knows both words can infer it means the set of letters used for Hebrew. The structure is descriptive and mirrors common cross-linguistic patterns, so the meaning is immediately derivable rather than idiomatic.
Etymology
Hebrew alphabet began long ago when the signs for sounds were simple pictures, such as an ox or a house that stood for a sound. One popular story says these picture-signs slowly became the 22 written 'letters', so Hebrew alphabet is the name for that particular set of letters used to write Hebrew today.