Aramaic Letters: Waw

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The next letter of the Aramaic Alphabet is called Waw, pronounced very similar to the English expression wow! but with a in the middle of the word instead of o. It corresponds to the Hebrew letter Vav 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.

  Aramaic audio: Listen to the sound of Waw.

Here is what the Aramaic letter Waw looks like:

Here is how to write Waw:



 
In Biblical times, Waw was pronounced with a w sound, like water or west. In Hebrew, however, the w changed to v because w is a weak sound and loses its impact in many words. (When we look at Aramaic grammar later, you will learn that this fact explains why verbs with the letter Waw act differently from other verbs and form a separate group - the so-called Hollow verbs). Thus, Waw would at one stage have been pronounced as waw in Hebrew too.

As we will see later when we come to look at the Aramaic vowels, Waw sometimes acts as a vowel instead of a consonant, in which case it is not pronounced as w but instead takes the sound of its vowel. If there is a dot inside the Waw, it is pronounced oo like the words pool or fool. If the dot is at the top left of the letter, it is pronounced o like the words pot or dot. This is explained in our lessons on the Aramaic vowels.

Here is the ordinary form of Waw, plus the two special forms which are actually vowels rather than the letter w:

  the ordinary letter, pronounced w

  dot in the middle, pronounced oo

  dot at the top left, pronounced o

Waw is the sixth letter of the Aramaic Alphabet. It therefore always has the Gematria (numerical value) of 6, regardless of whether it is being used as a consonant or a vowel.

Practise writing Waw in the grid lines below:










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