Taw

Taw, tav, or taf is the twenty-second and last letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Tāw , Hebrew Tav ת, Aramaic Taw , Syriac Taw ܬ, and Arabic Tāʼ ت (in abjadi order, 3rd in modern order). Its original sound value is /t/.

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek tau (Τ), Latin T, and Cyrillic Т.

Origins of taw

Taw is believed to be derived from the Egyptian hieroglyph meaning "mark"

Hebrew tav

Hebrew spelling: תָו

Hebrew pronunciation

The letter tav in modern Hebrew usually represents a voiceless alveolar plosive: /t/.

Variations on written form and pronunciation

The letter tav is one of the six letters which can receive a dagesh kal diacritic, besides bet, gimel, dalet, kaph and pe. Three of them – bet, kaph and pe – have their sound values changed in modern Hebrew from the fricative to the plosive by adding a dagesh. In modern Hebrew, the other three – including tav – do not change their pronunciation with or without a dagesh, but have had alternate pronunciations at other times and places.