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Comments on What sound did the letter ℵ encode in ancient Hebrew, and why did it morph into the greek vowel Α?

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What sound did the letter ℵ encode in ancient Hebrew, and why did it morph into the greek vowel Α?

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Here are two claims I've often heard or read:

  1. The Hebrew language originally did not write down vowels.

  2. The Greek (and subsequently the Latin) alphabet developed from the Hebrew alphabet. In particular, the letter ℵ (aleph) developed into the Greek Α (alpha) and finally the Latin A.

Now I noticed some apparent contradiction in this: The Greek Α as well as the Latin A both encode a vowel. So if it evolved from the Hebrew ℵ, it seems that this should also encode the same vowel. But that cannot be if there were no vowels in ancient Hebrew.

Therefore I guess that not only the letter, but also the sound associated with that letter changed. Therefore my question:

What sound did the letter ℵ encode in ancient Hebrew, and why did it morph into the greek vowel Α?

Hebrew historical-linguistics pronunciation Greek evolution-of-languages
posted over 3 years ago
3y ago
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celtschk‭
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ℵ (aleph) is a consonant in Hebrew, not a vowel. Like other consonants, it can carry a vowel.[1] You'll see the vowel markers (nikud) in "pointed" Hebrew, but someone who is fluent in Hebrew doesn't need them for comprehension so they're left out of most texts other than children's/learners' texts and (for precision) prayer books and print/study copies of biblical texts.[2]

Aleph is a consonant, but it's silent. I've seen (but can't currently source) a passage in the talmud (completed around 500CE) that talks about the revelation at Sinai beginning with a silent letter (aleph is the first letter of the first word), so it was silent at least back that far. I can't prove one way or the other whether it was silent in the ancient near east.

I can't answer the part of the question about the transition into Greek, but I figured I could at least offer half an answer.

  1. There are five gutteral consonants and the rules are different for them. Aleph isn't one of them. ↩︎

  2. The torah scroll that you'll see used in synagogues does not have the vowel markings. I'm referring to print copies that are often accompanied by translations and commentary. Those usually have vowels marked in the Hebrew. ↩︎

posted over 3 years ago
3y ago
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Monica Cellio‭ staff
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celtschk‭ wrote over 3 years ago
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Thank you, that's very interesting. I never considered the possibility of a totally silent letter (as opposed to characters that turn silent in certain situations, which of course can be found in many languages, including English).

Skipping 2 deleted comments.

celtschk‭ wrote over 3 years ago
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Actually after reading Jirka Hanika's answer, I noticed that I indeed did encounter a completely silent character before, which I had forgotten about: AFAIK the French “h” is silent in all circumstances. Interestingly, as mentioned in that answer, the “h” sound, like the glottal stop, is a voiceless consonant articulated with the glottis. That looks like a pattern to me: “Glottal consonant” characters tend to turn into silent characters.

Jirka Hanika‭ wrote over 3 years ago · edited over 3 years ago
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@celtschk - You might want to read up about the process called "lenition". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenition. Pretty much any consonant can disappear over time, but usually not abruptly, but rather through certain articulatory pathways. One of those pathways is debuccalization, and that may explain why a mandatory and later an optional glottal stop could often be the last stages before the ultimate disappearance of an oral consonant.

celtschk‭ wrote over 3 years ago
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@JirkaHanika: Thank you, very interesting.