Back أم قراءة Arabic Mater lectionis AST Mater lectionis Catalan Mater lectionis German Vicvokalo Esperanto Mater lectionis Spanish Mater lectionis French אם קריאה HE Mater lectionis Italian 準母音 Japanese
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A mater lectionis (/ˌmeɪtər ˌlɛktiˈoʊnɪs/ ⓘ MAY-tər LEK-tee-OH-niss, /ˌmɑːtər -/ MAH-tər -;[1][2] Latin for 'mother of reading', pl. matres lectionis /ˌmɑːtreɪs -/ MAH-trayss -;[2] original Hebrew: אֵם קְרִיאָה, romanized: ʾēm qərîʾāh) is any consonant letter that is used to indicate a vowel, primarily in the writing of Semitic languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac. The letters that do this in Hebrew are aleph א, he ה, vav ו and yud י, with the latter two in particular being more often vowels than they are consonants. In Arabic, the matres lectionis (though they are much less often referred to thus) are ʾalif ا, wāw و and yāʾ ي.
The original value of the matres lectionis corresponds closely to what are called in modern linguistics glides or semivowels.[3]
- ^ "mater lectionis". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/OED/1199943965. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ a b "mater lectionis". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.
- ^ Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, Brill, 2006, 2.238, 308-9.
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