Waw (letter)

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This article is about the Semitic letter. For other uses, see WAW (disambiguation).
Phonemic representation w, v, o, u
Position in alphabet 6
Numerical value 6
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician


In Arabic and thus in most Semitic languages it represents the sound [w].

Vav literally means hook/peg/spear.

Hebrew Waw[edit]

Orthographic variants
Various print fonts Cursive
Serif Sans-serif Monospaced
ו ו ו Hebrew letter Vav handwriting.svg Hebrew letter Vav Rashi.png

Hebrew spelling: וָו

Pronunciation in Modern Hebrew[edit]

Vav has three orthographic variants, each with a different phonemic value and phonetic realisation:[1]

Variant (with Niqqud) Without Niqqud Name Phonemic value Phonetic realisation English example


as initial letter:ו

Consonantal Vav
(Hebrew: Vav Itsurit ו׳ עיצורית)
/v/, /w/ [v], [w] vote
as middle letter:וו
as final letter:ו or יו



Vav Shruka ([väv ʃruˈkä] / ו׳ שרוקה) or
Shuruq ([ʃuˈruk] / שׁוּרוּק)
/u/ [u] glue



Vav Chaluma ([väv χäluˈmä] / ו׳ חלומה) or
Holam Male ([χo̞ˈläm maˈle̞] / חוֹלָם מָלֵא)
/o/ [] no, noh

In modern Hebrew, the frequency of the usage of vav, out of all the letters, is about 10.00%.

Vav as consonant[edit]

Consonantal vav (ו) generally represents a voiced labiodental fricative (like the English v) in Ashkenazi, European Sephardi, Persian, Caucasian, Italian and modern Israeli Hebrew, and was originally a labial-velar approximant /w/. It is pronounced like Arabic as a [w] by some Jews of Mizrahi origin.

In modern Israeli Hebrew, some loanwords, the pronunciation of whose source contains /w/, and their derivations, are pronounced with [w], too, e.g. ואחד – /ˈwaχad/ (but: ואדי/ˈvadi/).

Modern Hebrew has no standardized way to distinguish orthographically between [v] and [w].[1] The pronunciation is either determined by prior knowledge or must be derived through context.

Some non standard spellings of the sound [w] are sometimes found in modern Hebrew texts, such as word-initial double-vav, e.g. וואללה – /ˈwala/ (word-medial double-vav is both standard and common for both /v/ and /w/, see table above) or, rarely, vav with a geresh, e.g. ו׳יליאם – /ˈwiljam/.

Vav with a dot on top[edit]

Main article: Holam

Vav can be used as a mater lectionis for an o vowel, in which case it is known as a ḥolam male, which in pointed text is marked as vav with a dot above it. It is pronounced [] (phonemically transcribed more simply as /o/).

The distinction is normally ignored and the HEBREW POINT HOLAM (U+05B9) is used in all cases. This vowel can be denoted without the vav, as just the dot placed above and to the left of the letter it points, and is called then ḥolam ḥaser. Some inadequate typefaces don't support the distinction between the ḥolam maleוֹ/o/, the consonantal vav pointed with a ḥolam ḥaserוֺ/vo/ (compare ḥolam maleמַצּוֹת/maˈtsot/ and consonantal vav-ḥolam ḥaserמִצְוֺת/mitsˈvot/). To correctly display a consonantal vav with ḥolam ḥaser, the typeface must either support the vav with the Unicode combining character "HEBREW POINT HOLAM HASER FOR VAV" (U+05BA, HTML Entity (decimal) &#1466;) or the precomposed character ⟨⟩ (U+E801, HTML Entity (decimal) &#59393;).**** No - E801 is not a Unicode character, but part of the private use area. ****[2]

  • Compare between the three:
    1. The vav with the combining character HEBREW POINT HOLAM: מִצְוֹת
    2. The vav with the combining character HEBREW POINT HOLAM HASER FOR VAV: מִצְוֺת
    3. The precomposed character: מִצְת

Vav with a dot in the middle[edit]

Main article: Shuruk

Vav can also be used as a mater lectionis for [u], in which case it is known as a shuruk, and in text with niqqud is marked with a dot in the middle (on the left side).

Shuruk and vav with a dagesh look identical ("וּ") and are only distinguishable through the fact that in text with nikud, vav with a dagesh will normally be attributed a vocal point in addition, e.g. שׁוּק (/ʃuk/), "a market", (the "וּ" denotes a shuruk) as opposed to שִׁוֵּק (/ʃiˈvek/), "to market" (the "וּ" denotes a vav with dagesh and is additionally pointed with a zeire, " ֵ ", denoting /e/). In the word שִׁוּוּק (/ʃiˈvuk/), "marketing", the first ("וּ") denotes a vav with dagesh, the second a shuruk, being the vowel attributed to the first.

Numerical value[edit]


Words written as vav[edit]

Main article: Hebrew grammar

Vav at the beginning of the word has several possible meanings:

  • Vav Conjunctive (Vav Hachibur, literally "the Vav of Connection"—chibur means "joining, or bringing together") is a vav connecting two words or parts of a sentence; it is a grammatical conjunction meaning 'and' , cognate to the Arabic. This is the most common usage.
  • Vav Consecutive (Vav Hahipuch, literally "the Vav of Reversal"—hipuch means "inversion"), mainly biblical, commonly mistaken for the previous type of vav; it indicates consequence of actions and reverses the tense of the verb following it:


Syriac Waw[edit]

Syriac Eastern waw.svg Madnḫaya Waw
Syriac Estrangela waw.svg Serṭo Waw
Syriac Serta waw.svg Esṭrangela Waw

Syriac letter shapes Waw.PNG

In the Syriac alphabet, the sixth letter is ܘ — Waw ܘܐܘ, it is pronounced as a [w]. When used as a mater lectionis, a Waw with a dot above the letter is an [o] vowel, and a Waw with a dot under the letter is an [u] vowel. It's alphabetic-numeral is 6.

Arabic wāw[edit]

The letter و is named واو wāw and is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: و ـو ـو و

Wāw is used to represent three distinct phonetic features:

  • A long /uː/. The preceding consonant could either have no diacritic or a short-wāw-vowel mark, damma, to aid in the pronunciation by hinting to the following long vowel.
  • A diphthong, /aw/. In this case it has no diacritic, but could be marked with a sukun in some traditions. The preceding consonant could either have no diacritic or have fatḥa sign, hinting to the first vowel /a/ in the diphthong. In some dialects, the diphthong may be reduced to the long monophthong /oː/. It is also commonly used for the latter phoneme to transcribe names or loanwords.


Wāw serves several functions in Arabic. Perhaps foremost among them is that it is the primary conjunction in Arabic, equivalent to "and"; it is usually prefixed to other conjunctions, such as وَلَكِن wa-lākin, meaning "but". Another function is the "oath", by preceding a noun of great significantly valued by the speaker. It is often literally translatable to "By..." or "I swear to...", and is often used in the Qur'an in this way, and also in the generally fixed construction والله wallāh ("By Allah!" or "I swear to God!").

Derived letters[edit]

With an additional triple dot diacritic above waw, the letter then named ve is used to represent distinctively the consonant /v/ in some languages like Uyghur.

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: ۋ ـۋ ـۋ ۋ

/o/ for the Arabic-based Sorani Kurdish, /v/ in Kazakh, /ø/ for Uyghur.
It is also used for short vowel /o/ or /u/ in a lot of languages,for example "u" in bull (بۆل)

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: ۆ ـۆ ـۆ ۆ

for // or /u/, used in a lot of languages, for example o in bold (بۉلد)

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: ۉ ـۉ ـۉ ۉ

/y/ for the Arabic-based Uyghur language and also in other languages with a similar vowel.

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: ۈ ـۈ ـۈ ۈ

/ʉː/ for Southern Kurdish.

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: ۊ ـۊ ـۊ ۊ

In Jawi script: Used for /v/.

Position in word: Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form: ۏ ـۏ ـۏ ۏ

Other letters[edit]

See Arabic script in Unicode

Character encodings[edit]

Character ו و ܘ
Unicode 1493 U+05D5 1608 U+0648 1816 U+0718 2053 U+0805 64309 U+FB35 64331 U+FB4B
UTF-8 215 149 D7 95 217 136 D9 88 220 152 DC 98 224 160 133 E0 A0 85 239 172 181 EF AC B5 239 173 139 EF AD 8B
Numeric character reference &#1493; &#x5D5; &#1608; &#x648; &#1816; &#x718; &#2053; &#x805; &#64309; &#xFB35; &#64331; &#xFB4B;
Character 𐎆 𐡅 𐤅
Encodings decimal hex decimal hex decimal hex
Unicode 66438 U+10386 67653 U+10845 67845 U+10905
UTF-8 240 144 142 134 F0 90 8E 86 240 144 161 133 F0 90 A1 85 240 144 164 133 F0 90 A4 85
UTF-16 55296 57222 D800 DF86 55298 56389 D802 DC45 55298 56581 D802 DD05
Numeric character reference &#66438; &#x10386; &#67653; &#x10845; &#67845; &#x10905;


  1. ^ a b "Announcements of the Academy of the Hebrew Language" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-04-11. 
  2. ^ "List of fonts that support U+05BA at". Fileformat.info. Retrieved 2013-04-11. 

External links[edit]