Page:Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar (1910 Kautzsch-Cowley edition).djvu/51

 3. As the Table shows, five letters have a special form at the end of the word. They are called final letters, and were combined by the Jewish grammarians in the mnemonic word, or better, with A. Müller and Stade,  i.e. . Of these, , , ,  are distinguished from the common form by the shaft being drawn straight down, while in the usual form it is bent round towards the left. In the case of the letter is completely closed.

4. Hebrew is read and written from right to left. Words must not be divided at the end of the lines; but, in order that no empty space may be left, in MSS. and printed texts, certain letters suitable for the purpose are dilated at the end or in the middle of the line. In our printed texts these are the five following:  (mnemonic word  ). In some MSS. other letters suitable for the purpose are also employed in this way, as, , ; cf. Strack in the, 1882, No. 22; Nestle, 1906, p. 170 f.

Rem. 1. The forms of the letters originally represent the rude outlines of perceptible objects, the names of which, respectively, begin with the consonant represented (akrophony). Thus, in the earlier alphabets the rude picture of a hand, properly denotes (Heb. ), but as a letter simply the sound  (y), with which this word begins; , originally a circle, properly an  , stands for the consonant. In the Phoenician alphabet, especially, the resemblance of the forms to the objects denoted by the name is still for the most part recognizable (see the Table). In some letters the similarity is still preserved in the square character.

It is another question whether the present names are all original. They may be merely due to a later, and not always accurate, interpretation of the forms. Moreover, it is possible that in the period from about 1500 to 1000 B.C. the original forms underwent considerable change.

The usual explanation of the present names of the letters is: ,