Zayin
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| Zayin | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | Syriac | Hebrew | Aramaic | Phoenician |
|
ﺯ |
ܙ | ז |  |
 |
| Phonemic representation (IPA): | z | |||
| Position in alphabet: | 7 | |||
| Gematria/Abjad value: | 7 | |||
Zayin (also spelled Zain or Zayn) is the seventh letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew ז, Syriac ܙ and Arabic alphabet zāī ﺯ. It represents a voiced alveolar fricative, IPA /z/.
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Zeta (Ζ), Etruscan z 
, Latin Z, and Cyrillic Ze З.
The Proto-Canaanite glyph appears to be named after a sword or other weapon. The Proto-Sinaitic glyph according to Brian Colless may have been called ziqq, based on a hieroglyph depicting a "manacle".
[edit] Hebrew Zayin
| Hebrew alphabet | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| א ב ג ד ה ו | |||||
| ז ח ט י כך | |||||
| ל מם נן ס ע פף | |||||
| צץ ק ר ש ת | |||||
| History · Transliteration Niqqud · Dagesh · Gematria Cantillation · Numeration |
|||||
| Arabic alphabet | ||||||
| ﺍ || ﺏ || ﺕ || ﺙ || ﺝ || ﺡ || ﺥ | ||||||
| ﺩ || ﺫ || ﺭ || | ||||||
| ﺽ || ﻁ || ﻅ || ﻉ || ﻍ || ﻑ || ﻕ | ||||||
| ﻙ || ﻝ || ﻡ || ﻥ || هـ || ﻭ || ﻱ | ||||||
| History · Transliteration Diacritics · hamza ء Numerals · Numeration |
||||||
| Syriac alphabet | |||||
| ܐ | ܒ | ܓ | ܕ | ||
| ܗ | ܘ | ܙ | ܚ | ܛ | ܝ |
| ܟܟ | ܠ | ܡܡ | ܢܢ | ܣ | ܥ |
| ܦ | ܨ | ܩ | ܪ | ܫ | ܬ |
A chupchik can be placed in front of Zayin ('ז), making it represent /ʒ/.
[edit] Significance
In gematria, Zayin represents the number seven, and when used at the beginning of Hebrew years, it means 7000 (i.e. זתשנד in numbers would be the date 7754).
Zayin is also one of the seven letters which receive a special crown (called a tagin) when written in a Sefer Torah. See Shin, Ayin, Teth, Nun, Gimel, and Tzadi.
