See also: ד־,
ד׳, and Appendix:Variations of "d"
Hebrew
Pronunciation
Letter
ד • (d)
- Dalet, daleth: the fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, after ג and before ה.
- The numeral 4 in Hebrew numbering.
- initialism of דָּרוֹם (daróm, “south”), equivalent to S.
Usage notes
- The letter ד represents the phoneme /d/. In Modern Israeli Hebrew, this phoneme is pronounced [d] (like the <d> in English dog).
- In the Masoretic Text, the letter ד takes a dagesh (דּ) not only when geminated, but also at the start of a word or after a consonant. In Yemenite Hebrew, it is pronounced [d] in those contexts, and [ð] (like the <th> in English this) in other contexts; it is commonly believed that the same was true in Classical Hebrew.
- In Modern Israeli Hebrew, the sound /ð/ (like the <th> in English that), which occurs in various foreign phrases and proper nouns, is commonly written ד׳ (dh).
- The letter ד does not have many "grammatical" uses — it mostly occurs only in the "main" part of a word — but one exception is in hitpa'el verbs (and derived nouns) where the first letter of the root is ז (z); for example, one says הִזְדַּקֵּן (hizdakén, “to grow old”) rather than *הִתְזַקֵּן (hit'zaken).
Coordinate terms
- Hebrew script letters (alphabet appendix, script appendix): א, ב, ג, ד, ה, ו, ז, ח, ט, י, כ~ך, ל, מ~ם, נ~ן, ס, ע, פ~ף, צ~ץ, ק, ר, ש, ת [edit]
Derived terms
- בְּד׳ אַמּוֹת (bedálet amót, “with four limbs”)
Mozarabic
Etymology
Inherited from Latin dē. Compare Portuguese and Spanish de.
Preposition
ד (d)
- of
c. 1100, Kharja H1, section 3:דשת אלזמאן- dšt ʔlzmʔn
- of this time
c. 1100, Kharja H1, section 4:... פליו דבן אלדיאן- ... flyw dbn ʔldyʔn
- ... son of Aben al-Dayyan
c. 1100, Kharja H3, section 3:כם ראיה דשול אשיד- km rʔyh dšwl ʔšyd
- He appears like a sunbeam
- (literally, “He comes out like (a) ray of (the) sun”)
c. 1100, Kharja H16, section 1:כי פראיו או כי שיראד דמיבי- ky frʔyw ʔw ky šyrʔd dmyby
- What shall I do, what will become of me?
- (literally, “What shall I do or what will be of me?”)
- from
c. 1100, Kharja H16, section 3:נון תיטולגש דמיבי- nwn tyṭwlgš dmyby
- Don't leave me!
- (literally, “Don't take yourself away from me!”)