Lamedh
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| Lamedh | |
|---|---|
| Phoenician | 𐤋 |
| Hebrew | ל |
| Aramaic | 𐡋 |
| Syriac | ܠ |
| Arabic | ل |
| Geʽez | ለ |
| Phonemic representation | l, (ɫ) |
| Position in alphabet | 12 |
| Numerical value | 30 |
| Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician | |
| Greek | Λ |
| Latin | L |
| Cyrillic | Л |
Lamedh or lamed is the twelfth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Hebrew lāmeḏ ל, Aramaic lāmaḏ 𐡋, Syriac lāmaḏ ܠ, Arabic lām ل, and Phoenician lāmd 𐤋. Its sound value is [l]. It is also related to the Ancient North Arabian 𐪁, South Arabian 𐩡, and Ge'ez ለ.
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Lambda (Λ), Latin L, and Cyrillic El (Л).
Origin
[edit]The letter is usually considered to have originated from the representation of an ox-goad, i.e. a cattle prod, or a shepherd's crook, i.e. a pastoral staff. In Proto-Semitic a goad was called *lamed-.[1]
Arabic lām
[edit]| Lām لام | |
|---|---|
| ل | |
| Usage | |
| Writing system | Arabic script |
| Type | Abjad |
| Language of origin | Arabic language |
| Sound values | l (ɫ) |
| Alphabetical position | 23 |
| History | |
| Development |
|
| Other | |
| Writing direction | Right-to-left |
.jpg/1280px-Iron_Double_Plowshare,_Saw,_&_Cow_Goad,_9th-7th_Century_BC_(29346426748).jpg)
The letter is named لام lām /laːm/.
Orthography
[edit]Its form depends on its position in the word:
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) | ل | ـل | ـلـ | لـ |
Grammatical functions
[edit]Lām has functions as a grammatical particle when used as a prefix:
- Prepositional lām (لام جارة)
- Lām of ownership (لام المُلك)
- Lām of association (لام الاختصاص)
- Lām of purpose (لام التعليل)
- Lām of absolute negation (لام الجحود)
- Imperative lām (لام الأمر)
- Lām of affirmative emphasis (لام التوكيد)
Lām-kasra (لـِ, /li/) is essentially a preposition meaning 'to' or 'for', as in لِوالدي liwālidī, 'for my father'. In this usage, it has become concatenated with other words to form new constructions often treated as independent words: for instance, لِماذا limāḏā, meaning 'why?', is derived from لـِ li and ماذا māḏā, meaning 'what?' thus getting 'for what?'. A semantically equivalent construction is found in most Romance languages, e.g. French pourquoi, Spanish por qué, and Italian perché (though ché is an archaism and not in current use).
The other construction, lām-fatḥa (لَـ /la/) is used as an emphatic particle in very formal Arabic and in certain fixed constructions, such as لَقد laqad (itself an emphatic particle for past-tense verbs) and in the conditional structure لو...لَـ law...la, effectively one of the forms of 'if...then...'.
Hebrew lamed
[edit]| Orthographic variants | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various print fonts | Cursive Hebrew | Rashi script | ||
| Serif | Sans-serif | Monospaced | ||
| ל | ל | ל |  | .svg){kind=small} |
Hebrew spelling: לָמֶד
Pronunciation
[edit]Lamed transcribes as an alveolar lateral approximant /l/.
Significance
[edit]Lamed in gematria represents the number 30.
With the letter Vav it refers to the Lamedvavniks, the 36 righteous people who save the world from destruction.
As an abbreviation, it can stand for litre. Also, a sign on a car with a Lamed on it means that the driver is a student of driving (the Lamed stands for lomed, learner). It is also used as the Electoral symbol for the Yisrael Beiteinu party.
As a prefix, it can have two purposes:
- It can be attached to verb roots, designating the infinitive (Daber means "speak", Ledaber means to speak).
- It can also act as a preposition meaning "to" or "for".
Syriac lamadh
[edit]| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) | ܠ | ـܠ | ـܠـ | ܠـ |
Character encodings
[edit]| Preview | ל | ل | ܠ | ࠋ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | HEBREW LETTER LAMED | ARABIC LETTER LAM | SYRIAC LETTER LAMADH | SAMARITAN LETTER LABAT | ||||
| Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
| Unicode | 1500 | U+05DC | 1604 | U+0644 | 1824 | U+0720 | 2059 | U+080B |
| UTF-8 | 215 156 | D7 9C | 217 132 | D9 84 | 220 160 | DC A0 | 224 160 139 | E0 A0 8B |
| Numeric character reference | ל | ל | ل | ل | ܠ | ܠ | ࠋ | ࠋ |
| Preview | 𐎍 | 𐡋 | 𐤋 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | UGARITIC LETTER LAMDA | IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER LAMEDH | PHOENICIAN LETTER LEMDA | |||
| Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
| Unicode | 66445 | U+1038D | 67659 | U+1084B | 67851 | U+1090B |
| UTF-8 | 240 144 142 141 | F0 90 8E 8D | 240 144 161 139 | F0 90 A1 8B | 240 144 164 139 | F0 90 A4 8B |
| UTF-16 | 55296 57229 | D800 DF8D | 55298 56395 | D802 DC4B | 55298 56587 | D802 DD0B |
| Numeric character reference | 𐎍 | 𐎍 | 𐡋 | 𐡋 | 𐤋 | 𐤋 |
Variants:
- U+08A6 ࢦ ARABIC LETTER LAM WITH DOUBLE BAR
References
[edit]- ^ "The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology". Egypt Exploration Society. March 3, 1916 – via Google Books.
External links
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| Lamedh | |
|---|---|
| Phoenician | 𐤋 |
| Hebrew | ל |
| Aramaic | 𐡋 |
| Syriac | ܠ |
| Arabic | ل |
| Geʽez | ለ |
| Phonemic representation | l, (ɫ) |
| Position in alphabet | 12 |
| Numerical value | 30 |
| Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician | |
| Greek | Λ |
| Latin | L |
| Cyrillic | Л |
Lamedh or lamed is the twelfth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Hebrew lāmeḏ ל, Aramaic lāmaḏ 𐡋, Syriac lāmaḏ ܠ, Arabic lām ل, and Phoenician lāmd 𐤋. Its sound value is [l]. It is also related to the Ancient North Arabian 𐪁, South Arabian 𐩡, and Ge'ez ለ.
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Lambda (Λ), Latin L, and Cyrillic El (Л).
Origin
The letter is usually considered to have originated from the representation of an ox-goad, i.e. a cattle prod, or a shepherd's crook, i.e. a pastoral staff. In Proto-Semitic a goad was called *lamed-.[1]
Arabic lām
| Lām لام | |
|---|---|
| ل | |
| Usage | |
| Writing system | Arabic script |
| Type | Abjad |
| Language of origin | Arabic language |
| Sound values | l (ɫ) |
| Alphabetical position | 23 |
| History | |
| Development |
|
| Other | |
| Writing direction | Right-to-left |
The letter is named لام lām /laːm/.
Orthography
Its form depends on its position in the word:
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) | ل | ـل | ـلـ | لـ |
Grammatical functions
Lām has functions as a grammatical particle when used as a prefix:
- Prepositional lām (لام جارة)
- Lām of ownership (لام المُلك)
- Lām of association (لام الاختصاص)
- Lām of purpose (لام التعليل)
- Lām of absolute negation (لام الجحود)
- Imperative lām (لام الأمر)
- Lām of affirmative emphasis (لام التوكيد)
Lām-kasra (لـِ, /li/) is essentially a preposition meaning 'to' or 'for', as in لِوالدي liwālidī, 'for my father'. In this usage, it has become concatenated with other words to form new constructions often treated as independent words: for instance, لِماذا limāḏā, meaning 'why?', is derived from لـِ li and ماذا māḏā, meaning 'what?' thus getting 'for what?'. A semantically equivalent construction is found in most Romance languages, e.g. French pourquoi, Spanish por qué, and Italian perché (though ché is an archaism and not in current use).
The other construction, lām-fatḥa (لَـ /la/) is used as an emphatic particle in very formal Arabic and in certain fixed constructions, such as لَقد laqad (itself an emphatic particle for past-tense verbs) and in the conditional structure لو...لَـ law...la, effectively one of the forms of 'if...then...'.
Hebrew lamed
| Orthographic variants | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various print fonts | Cursive Hebrew | Rashi script | ||
| Serif | Sans-serif | Monospaced | ||
| ל | ל | ל |  | .svg/1280px-Lamed_(Rashi-script_-_Hebrew_letter).svg.png){kind=small} |
Hebrew spelling: לָמֶד
Pronunciation
Lamed transcribes as an alveolar lateral approximant /l/.
Significance
Lamed in gematria represents the number 30.
With the letter Vav it refers to the Lamedvavniks, the 36 righteous people who save the world from destruction.
As an abbreviation, it can stand for litre. Also, a sign on a car with a Lamed on it means that the driver is a student of driving (the Lamed stands for lomed, learner). It is also used as the Electoral symbol for the Yisrael Beiteinu party.
As a prefix, it can have two purposes:
- It can be attached to verb roots, designating the infinitive (Daber means "speak", Ledaber means to speak).
- It can also act as a preposition meaning "to" or "for".
Syriac lamadh
| Position in word: | Isolated | Final | Medial | Initial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glyph form: (Help) | ܠ | ـܠ | ـܠـ | ܠـ |
Character encodings
| Preview | ל | ل | ܠ | ࠋ | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | HEBREW LETTER LAMED | ARABIC LETTER LAM | SYRIAC LETTER LAMADH | SAMARITAN LETTER LABAT | ||||
| Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
| Unicode | 1500 | U+05DC | 1604 | U+0644 | 1824 | U+0720 | 2059 | U+080B |
| UTF-8 | 215 156 | D7 9C | 217 132 | D9 84 | 220 160 | DC A0 | 224 160 139 | E0 A0 8B |
| Numeric character reference | ל | ל | ل | ل | ܠ | ܠ | ࠋ | ࠋ |
| Preview | 𐎍 | 𐡋 | 𐤋 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unicode name | UGARITIC LETTER LAMDA | IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER LAMEDH | PHOENICIAN LETTER LEMDA | |||
| Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex |
| Unicode | 66445 | U+1038D | 67659 | U+1084B | 67851 | U+1090B |
| UTF-8 | 240 144 142 141 | F0 90 8E 8D | 240 144 161 139 | F0 90 A1 8B | 240 144 164 139 | F0 90 A4 8B |
| UTF-16 | 55296 57229 | D800 DF8D | 55298 56395 | D802 DC4B | 55298 56587 | D802 DD0B |
| Numeric character reference | 𐎍 | 𐎍 | 𐡋 | 𐡋 | 𐤋 | 𐤋 |
Variants:
- U+08A6 ࢦ ARABIC LETTER LAM WITH DOUBLE BAR
References
- ^ "The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology". Egypt Exploration Society. March 3, 1916 – via Google Books.
External links
Arabic language | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overviews | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scripts | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Letters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Varieties |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Academic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Linguistics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Calligraphy · Script | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technical |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Other | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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