[b-hebrew] The hebrew letter Taw

TedBro at aol.com TedBro at aol.com
Wed May 6 08:32:12 EDT 2009


James:
The original pictogram meanings of the various letters of the Hebrew  
alphabet is a topic that has always interested me. Some are obvious, like aleph  
= bull, gimel = camel, mem=water (mayim), ayin = eye; others less so.
 
In my understanding taw represents a mark. In ancient times it was written  
with two-crossed likes as X. Just as in English we say 'X marks the spot',  
Biblical usage also uses the word taw (Taw-Waw) to represent marking. 
(Ezekiel  9:4-6)
 
If you or others have a listing of suspected pictograms underlying each  
letter of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, I'd very much enjoy seeing  
it.
 
Best,
Ted Brownstein
 
 
In a message dated 5/6/2009 5:12:13 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
J.Read-2 at sms.ed.ac.uk writes:

Sure, I  guess there are aspects of this that would be better off list.

Allow me  to rephrase to a question which would have a better place on  
the  list:

Independently of the reasons why this subject interests me  does  
anybody know of any linguistic evidence, either from Hebrew  or  
cognates, for or against the theory that the letter Taw is from  an  
original pictogram with basic meaning 'sign' or  'signature'?

James Christian  Read


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