Taw (letter)

Taw or Tav is the twenty-second and last letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic alphabet . Its original value is an voiceless alveolar plosive, IPA ,

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Tau (Τ), Latin T, and Cyrillic Te (Т).

Origins of Taw

Taw is believed to have come from a simple mark; a cross or asterisk-like marking, perhaps indicating a signature.

Taw in Hebrew

Hebrew Pronunciation

The letter Taw is usually pronounced in modern Hebrew as the English letter T (IPA /t/). T is an alveolar plosive, although Tau may sometimes be pronounced as a dental plosive.

Variations on Written form/pronunciation

The letter Taw is one of the six letters which can receive a Dagesh Kal. The six are Bet, Gimmel, Daled, Kaph, Pe, and Taw (see Hebrew Alphabet for more about these letters). Three of them (Bet, Kaph, and Pe) have their sound changed in modern Hebrew from the fricative to the plosive by adding a dagesh. The other three have the same pronunciation in modern Hebrew, but have had alternate pronunciations at other times and places. Taw was pronounced in tranditional Ashkenazi pronunciation (a form which still is common today, especially among Diaspora Jews) as an alveolar fricative, like the English S, without the dagesh, and had the plosive form when it had the dagesh. In some Sephardi areas, such as Yemen, Taw without a dagesh was pronounced as /θ/ without a dagesh and the plosive form () with the dagesh. See Bet, Daled, Kaph, Pe, and Gimmel.

Significance of Taw

In gematria Taw represents the number 400, the largest number that can be made without using the Sophit forms (see Kaph, Mem, Nun, Pe, and Tzade).

A chupchik can also be placed in front of it ('ת), giving it the IPA sound /θ/ or /ð/.

In Judaism

Taw is the last letter of the Hebrew word emet, which means truth. The midrash explains that emet is made up of the first, middle, and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet (Aleph, Mem, and Taw). Sheqer (falsehood), on the other hand, is made up of the 19th, 20th, and 21st (and penultimate) letters. Thus, truth is all-encompassing, while falsehood is narrow and deceiving. In Jewish mythology it was the word emet that was carved into the head of the golem which ultimately gave it life.

Sayings with Taw

From Aleph to Taw describes something from beginning to end; the Hebrew equivalent of the English From A to Z.

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