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Ancient Hebrew Language and Alphabet

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Appendix A – <strong>Alphabet</strong> Reconstruction<br />

Phonetic (sound): <strong>Hebrew</strong>, Greek <strong>and</strong> Arabic agree that<br />

the sound for this letter is "n".<br />

Sin<br />

Pictographic (form): The four possibilities for the<br />

original form for this letter are (a fish), (possibly a<br />

thorn), (possibly a window) or (a thorn). All the<br />

letters from 3,000 BCE to the present day in the <strong>Hebrew</strong>,<br />

Arabic Greek <strong>and</strong> their sister cultures have used a<br />

derivative of suggesting that this is the original letter.<br />

Mnemonic (meaning): Shield -- thorn bushes were used<br />

by the shepherd to build a wall (shield) made to enclose<br />

his flock during the night to protect them from predators;<br />

Flock -- as protected in the wall of thorns; Pierce, Sharp -<br />

- from the sharpness of the thorn; Warrior -- as a wall of<br />

sharp weapons for protection; Boot -- as protection from<br />

thorns; Hate -- as a piercing of the heart)<br />

Syllabic (name): Of all the letters this is the most<br />

difficult to reconstruct due to the limited archeological<br />

<strong>and</strong> textual support. The Modern <strong>Hebrew</strong> name for this<br />

letter is xms / samech, with no apparent connection to a<br />

two letter word or to the original picture of this letter. The<br />

Arabic alphabet does not have this letter <strong>and</strong> the Greek<br />

name for the letter is ksi. The 21st letter of the <strong>Hebrew</strong><br />

alphabet (X) has two names <strong>and</strong> sounds, !v / Shin (sh) <strong>and</strong><br />

!f / Sin (s). All the words using the sin are related in<br />

meaning to the words using a samech in the same place as<br />

the sin. It is possible that the original name for the samech<br />

63

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