Aramaic Letters: Yood

This series of web pages provides free lessons on the Aramaic Alphabet.

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The next letter of the Aramaic Alphabet is called Yood, pronounced yod or yood. It corresponds to the Hebrew letter Yod 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  Aramaic audio: Listen to the sound of Yood.

Here is what the Aramaic letter Yood looks like: Aramaic letter of the Aramaic alphabet - Yood

Here is how to write Yood:

Animation showing how to write the Aramaic letter Yood

When Yood is used as a consonant, it is pronounced with a y sound, like the words yonder, yoke or yellow.

Yood has the Gematria (numerical value) of 10, since it is the tenth letter of the Aramaic Alphabet.

Practise writing Yood in the grid lines below:

Grid showing how to write the Aramaic letter Yood

Grid showing how to write the Aramaic letter Yood

Grid showing how to write the Aramaic letter Yood

Grid showing how to write the Aramaic letter Yood

 
Incidentally, names of people and places in the Hebrew Bible which start with the letter j, such as Judah, Jerusalem or Jehovah, generally start with the letter Yood. The letter j is used in the English translation rather than y because Latin had no letter y, so j was used instead. The use of Latin as the standard ‘holy language’ for centuries in Christian churches led to j being used throughout later centuries, even in English translations.

We have seen, then, that Yood is pronounced with a y sound when it is used as a consonant. Sometimes in Aramaic, however, Yood is used as the vowel i (pronounced ee as in the words feel or reel) if there is a dot below the previous letter. A good example of this is in the different spellings of the name David that occur frequently in both Hebrew and Aramaic. In books such as Samuel or Kings, David is spelt like this:

Aramaic word David - short spelling   David, pronounced Da-veed

whereas in books such as Chronicles and Nehemiah, David is spelt with the addition of the letter Yood acting as a vowel to make the i sound:

Aramaic word David - long spelling   David, pronounced Da-veed

 
In both cases, the actual pronunciation of David remains the same - but, as we will see in the lessons about the Aramaic vowels, the Yood is often used as a vowel to make the Aramaic easier to read.
 
Aramaic Well done! You now know the first 10 letters of the Aramaic Alphabet. You should now be able to read the tablets of stone shown opposite. Tablets like this are a common sight in Jewish houses. They are a reminder of the Ten Commandments given in Exodus 20, but show the first ten letters of the Hebrew and Aramaic Alphabets to represent each of the commandments.

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