Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Isaac,

Such playing with the shapes of the letters might look impressive in modern 
Hebrew (actually originally Aramaic) block letters, but Hebrew was 
originally written using the older ("Pheonician") forms of the letters, most 
of which are different enough so that such games don not work.


Yigal Levin



> No, it's a different letter, and they are different roots, those with
> a kaf and those with a chet
>
>
> Shoshana,
>
> You are right, but for diversity there is a kaf and there is a xet.
> The letter kaf is merely the letter xet turned upon its side. A he is
> a xet with a disconnected left leg, a qof is a he with an elongated
> leg, and gimel is a cross legged he.
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University