Ayin

Ayin
Ayin
Phoenician Hebrew Aramaic Syriac Arabic
Ayin ע Ayin ܥ ع‍,‍ع‍,ع
Alphabetic
derivatives
Greek Latin Cyrillic
Ο O О
Phonemic representation: ʕ
Position in alphabet: 16
Numerical (Gematria/Abjad) value: 70

Ayin or ʿayin (Hebrew: [ajin], Arabic: [ʕajn][see below]) is the sixteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew ע and Arabic ʿayn ع (in abjadi order). It is the twenty-first letter in the new Persian alphabet. It represents a sound like a voiced pharyngeal fricative (/ʕ/), which has no equivalent in English.

There are many possible transliterations, most commonly ʿ, (U+02BF) "modifier letter left half ring". For details, see section Transliteration.

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Origins