Nun (letter)
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| Nun | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | Syriac | Hebrew | Aramaic | Phoenician |
|
ﻧ,ﻥ | ܢܢ | נ,ן | 
| 
|
| Phonemic representation (IPA): | n | |||
| Position in alphabet: | 14 | |||
| Gematria/Abjad value: | 50 | |||
Nun is the fourteenth letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew נ and Arabic alphabet nūn ﻥ (in abjadi order). It is the third letter in Thaana(ނ)- pronounced as "noonu". Its sound value is IPA: [n].
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek nu (Ν), Etruscan Image:EtruscanN-01.png 𐌍, Latin N, and Cyrillic Н.
Contents |
[edit] Origins
Nun is thought to have come from a pictogram of a snake (the Hebrew word for snake, nachash begins with a Nun and snake in Aramaic is nun) or eel. Some have hypothesized a hieroglyph of a fish in water for its origin (in Arabic, nūn means large fish or whale). The Phoenician letter was named nūn "fish", but the glyph likely descends from Proto-Canaanite naḥš "snake", ultimately from a hieroglyph representing a snake, <hiero>I10</hiero> (see Middle Bronze Age alphabets). Naḥš in modern Arabic literally means "bad luck". The cognate letter in Ge'ez and descended Semitic languages of Ethiopia is nehas, which also means "brass".
[edit] Hebrew Nun
| 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 | |||||
| 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 | ||||||
| Syriac alphabet | |||||
| ܐ | ܒ | ܓ | ܕ | ||
| ܗ | ܘ | ܙ | ܚ | ܛ | ܝ |
| ܟܟ | ܠ | ܡܡ | ܢܢ | ܣ | ܥ |
| ܦ | ܨ | ܩ | ܪ | ܫ | ܬ |
[edit] Pronunciation
Nun represents an alveolar nasal, (IPA: {{IPA|/n/), like the English letter N.
[edit] Variations
Nun, like Kaph, Mem, Pe, and Tzadi, has a final form, used at the end of words. Its shape changes from נ to ן.
[edit] Significance
In gematria, Nun represents the number 50. Its final form represents 700 but this is rarely used, Tav and Shin (400+300) being used instead.
Nun as an abbreviation can stand for neqevah, feminine. In medieval Rabbinic writings, Nun Sophit (Final Nun) stood for "Son of" (Hebrew ben or ibn).
Nun is also one of the seven letters which receive a special crown (called a tagin) when written in a Sefer Torah. See Shin, Ayin, Teth, Gimmel, Zayin, and Tzadi.
In modern Israeli slang, the word Nun has come to mean "failure" (from Hebrew Nichshal, he lost).
[edit] See also
am:ነሐስ (ፊደል) ar:ن arc:ܢܘܢ br:Nun (lizherenn) de:Nun (Hebräisch) es:Nun fr:Nun (lettre) he:נ nl:Noen (letter) fi:Nun (kirjain)
