Prefixes in Hebrew Prefixes in Hebrew There are several prefixes in the Hebrew language which are appended to regular words to introduce a new meaning. In Hebrew, the letters that form those prefixes are called "formative letters" (Hebrew: אוֹתִיּוֹת הַשִּׁמּוּשׁ, "Otiyot HaShimush"). Eleven of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet are considered "Otiyot HaShimush". These letters are Aleph (א), Bet (ב), He (ה), Vav (ו), Yud (י), Kaf (כ), Lamed (ל), Mem (מ), Nun (נ), Shin (ש), and Tav (ת). A mnemonic to remember these letters is איתן משה וכלב ("Eitan, Moshe, v'Kalev"), which translates to "Ethan, Moses, and Caleb." Prefixes in
Paleo-Hebrew alphabet began to fall out of use by the Jews in the 5th century BCE, when the Aramaic alphabet was adopted as the predominant writing system for Hebrew. The present Jewish "square-script" Hebrew alphabet evolved from the Aramaic alphabet. The Samaritans, now fewer than 1,000 people, have continued to use a derivative of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, known as the Samaritan alphabet. While the use of the script is negligible nowadays, it is present in some symbolic usage, such as the ₪1 coin and the logo of the Israeli town Nahariyah. The chart below compares the letters of the Phoenician script with