Nun is the fourteenth letter
of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic,
Hebrew נ and Arabic alphabet nūn ن (in abjadi order). It
is the third letter in Thaana (ނ), pronounced as "noonu".
Its sound value is IPA: [n].
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek nu (Ν),
Etruscan N 𐌍, Latin N, and Cyrillic Н.Nun is the
fourteenth letter of many Semitic abjads, including
Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew נ and Arabic alphabet nūn ن
(in abjadi order). It is the third letter in Thaana (ނ),
pronounced as "noonu". Its sound value is IPA: [n].
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek nu (Ν),
Etruscan N 𐌍, Latin N, and Cyrillic Н.
Nun is thought to have come
from a pictogram of a snake (the Hebrew word for snake,
nachash begins with a Nun and snake in Aramaic is nun) or
eel. Some have hypothesized a hieroglyph of a fish in
water for its origin (in Arabic, nūn means large fish or
whale). The Phoenician letter was named nūn "fish", but
the glyph likely descends from Proto-Canaanite naḥš
"snake", ultimately from a hieroglyph representing a snake
Pronunciation
Nun represents an alveolar nasal, (IPA: /n/), like the
English letter N.
Variations
Nun, like Kaph, Mem, Pe, and Tzadi, has a final form, used
at the end of words. Its shape changes from נ to ן. There
are also nine instances of an inverted nun (׆) in the
Tanakh.
Significance
In gematria, Nun represents the number 50. Its final form
represents 700 but this is rarely used, Tav and Shin
(400+300) being used instead.
As in Arabic, nun as an abbreviation can stand for neqevah,
feminine. In medieval Rabbinic writings, Nun Sophit (Final
Nun) stood for "Son of" (Hebrew ben or ibn).
Nun 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, Gimmel, Zayin, and Tzadi.
In the game of dreidel, a rolled Nun passes play to the
next player with no other action. |