Aramaic Letters: Taw

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The last letter of the Aramaic Alphabet is called Taw. It is pronounced TA-oo, a little like the Chinese word Tao. It corresponds to the Hebrew letter Tav in the Hebrew Alphabet. The letters in the Aramaic Alphabet are almost identical to those in Hebrew, but have slightly different names and sometimes slightly different sounds. The Aramaic letter Taw is similar to the Hebrew letter Tav, except that the Waw at the end is pronounced like w in Aramaic and v in Hebrew.

  Aramaic audio: Listen to the sound of Taw.

Here is what the Aramaic letter Taw looks like:

Here is how to write the letter Taw:



Taw in Aramaic has two pronunciations. With a dot, it is pronounced with a hard t sound, as in the words tin, time and tennis. Without the dot, it is pronounced with a soft th sound, like the words throne, thunder or thanks.

Here are the two versions of Taw:

  with the dot, pronounced t as in time

  without the dot, pronounced th as in thin

 
In Hebrew today, however, the corresponding letter (Tav) is always pronounced as t (just like the letter Tet), as in the words Tarshish, time or tell. It is worthwhile to know the Aramaic pronunciation, however, because it will help you to spell both Hebrew and Aramaic words correctly. For example, any time you see the letters th in an English word that has come from Hebrew or Aramaic, you know that the original Hebrew or Aramaic word must be spelled with the letter Taw, not Tet. In the words Bethesda or Bethlehem, for instance, the Hebrew uses the letter Taw.

Taw has the Gematria (numerical value) of 400.

Practise writing Taw in the grid lines below:









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