Biblical Hebrew Forum

[TedBro AT aol.com]

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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