Bet, Beth, Beh, or Vet is the second letter of the Semitic abjads, including Arabic bāʾ ب, Aramaic bēṯ 𐡁, Hebrew bēt ב, Phoenician bēt 𐤁, and Syriac bēṯ ܒ. Its sound value is the voiced bilabial stop ⟨b⟩ or the voiced labiodental fricative ⟨v⟩.

Quick Facts ← AlephGimel →, Phoenician ...
Bet
Phoenician
𐤁
Hebrew
ב
Aramaic
𐡁
Syriac
ܒ
Arabic
ب
Phonemic representationb, (v)
Position in alphabet2
Numerical value2
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician
GreekΒ
LatinB
CyrillicВ, Б
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The letter's name means "house" in various Semitic languages (Arabic bayt, Akkadian bītu, bētu, Hebrew: bayīṯ, Phoenician bēt etc.; ultimately all from Proto-Semitic *bayt-), and appears to derive from an Egyptian hieroglyph of a house by acrophony.

O1

The Phoenician letter gave rise to, among others, the Greek beta (Β, β), Latin B (B, b) and Cyrillic Be (Б, б) and Ve (В, в).

Origin

The name bet is derived from the West Semitic word for "house" (as in Hebrew: בַּיִת, romanized: bayt), and the shape of the letter derives from a Proto-Sinaitic glyph that may have been based on the Egyptian hieroglyph Pr

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, which depicts a house.[citation needed]

More information Hieroglyph, Proto-Sinaitic ...
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Arabic bāʾ

Quick Facts bāʾ باء, Usage ...
bāʾ باء
ب
Usage
Writing systemArabic script
TypeAbjad
Language of originArabic language
Sound valuesb
Alphabetical position2
History
Development
𐤁‎
  • 𐡁
    • 𐢂 ,𐢃
      • ٮ
        • ب
Other
Writing directionRight-to-left
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and  , see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
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The Arabic letter ب is named بَاءْ bāʾ (bāʔ). It is written in several ways depending on its position in the word

More information Position in word, Isolated ...
Position in word Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form:
(Help)
ب ـب ـبـ بـ
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[citation needed]

The letter normally renders /b/ sound, except in some names and loanwords where it can also render /p/, often Arabized as /b/, as in بَرْسِيلْ (Persil). For /p/, it may be used interchangeably with the Persian letter پ - pe (with 3 dots) in this case.[citation needed]

Interpretation of ب

Bāʾ is the first letter of the Quran [ 1:1], the first letter of Basmala.[1] The letter bāʾ as a prefix may function as a preposition meaning "by" or "with". Some tafsirs interpreted the positioning of bāʾ as the opener of the Qur'an with "by My (God's) cause (all is present and happen)".[2]

Variant

A variant letter of bāʾ named pe is used in Persian with three dots below instead of just one dot below. However, it is not included on one of the 28 letters on the Arabic alphabet. It is thus written as:

More information Position in word, Isolated ...
Position in word Isolated Final Medial Initial
Glyph form:
(Help)
پ ـپ ـپـ پـ
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[citation needed]

Hebrew bet

More information Orthographic variants, Various print fonts ...
Orthographic variants
Various print fonts Cursive
Hebrew
Rashi
script
SerifSans-serifMonospaced
ב ב ב
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Hebrew spelling: בֵּית

The Hebrew letter represents two different phonemes: a "b" sound (/b/) (bet) and a "v" sound (/v/) (vet). When Hebrew is written Ktiv menuqad (with niqqud diacritics) the two are distinguished by a dot (called a dagesh) in the centre of the letter for /b/ and no dot for /v/. In modern Hebrew, the more commonly used Ktiv hasar niqqud spelling, which does not use diacritics, does not visually distinguish between the two phonemes.[citation needed]

This letter is named bet and vet, following the modern Israeli Hebrew pronunciation, bet and vet (/bet/), in Israel and by most Jews familiar with Hebrew, although some non-Israeli Ashkenazi speakers pronounce it beis (or bais)[3] and veis (/bejs/) (or vais or vaiz).[4] It is also named beth, following the Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation, in academic circles.[citation needed]

In modern Hebrew the frequency of the usage of bet, out of all the letters, is 4.98%.[citation needed]

Variations on written form/pronunciation

More information Name, Symbol ...
Name Symbol IPA Transliteration Example
Vet ב /v/ v vote
Bet בּ /b/ b boat
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Bet with the dagesh

When the Bet appears as בּ with a "dot" in its center, known as a dagesh, then it represents /b/. There are various rules in Hebrew grammar that stipulate when and why a dagesh is used.[citation needed]

Bet without the dagesh (Vet)

In Ktiv menuqad spelling, which uses diacritics, when the letter appears as ב without the dagesh ("dot") in its center it represents a voiced labiodental fricative: /v/. In Ktiv hasar niqqud spelling, without diacritics, the letter without the dot may represent either phoneme.[citation needed]

Significance as prefix

As a prefix, i.e. when attached to the beginning of a word, the letter bet may function as a preposition meaning "in", "at", or "with".[citation needed]

Numerological and mystical significance

As a numeral, the letter represents the number 2, and, using various systems of dashes above or below, can stand for 2,000 and 20,000.[citation needed]

Bet in gematria represents the number 2.[citation needed]

Bet is the first letter of the Torah. As Bet is the number 2 in gematria, this is said to symbolize that there are two parts to Torah: the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. According to Jewish legend, the letter Bet was specially chosen among the 22 letters in Hebrew by God as the first letter of Torah as it begins with "Bereshit (In the beginning) God created heaven and earth."[5]

Genesis Rabbah points out that the letter is closed on three sides and open on one; this is indicate that one can investigate what happened after creation, but not what happened before it, or what is above the heavens or below the earth.[6]

Syriac beth

More information Beth ...
Beth
Madnḫaya Beth
Serṭo Beth
Esṭrangela Beth
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In the Syriac alphabet, the second letter is ܒ — Beth (ܒܹܝܬ). It is one of six letters that represents two associated sounds (the others are Gimel, Dalet, Kaph, Pe and Taw). When Beth has a hard pronunciation (qûššāyâ) it is a [b]. When Beth has a soft pronunciation (rûkkāḵâ) it is traditionally pronounced as a [v], similar to its Hebrew form. However, in eastern dialects, the soft Beth is more often pronounced as a [w], and can form diphthongs with its preceding vowel. Whether Beth should be pronounced as a hard or soft sound is generally determined by its context within a word. However, wherever it is traditionally geminate within a word, even in dialects that no longer distinguish double consonants, it is hard. In the West Syriac dialect, some speakers always pronounce Beth with its hard sound.[citation needed]

Other uses

Mathematics

In set theory, the beth numbers stand for powers of infinite sets.[citation needed]

Character encodings

More information Preview, ב ...
Character information
Previewבبܒ
Unicode name HEBREW LETTER BET ARABIC LETTER BEH SYRIAC LETTER BETH SAMARITAN LETTER BIT BET SYMBOL
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode1489U+05D11576U+06281810U+07122049U+08018502U+2136
UTF-8215 145D7 91216 168D8 A8220 146DC 92224 160 129E0 A0 81226 132 182E2 84 B6
Numeric character referenceבבببܒܒࠁࠁℶℶ
Named character referenceℶ
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More information Preview, 𐎁 ...
Character information
Preview𐎁𐡁𐤁
Unicode name UGARITIC LETTER BETA IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER BETH PHOENICIAN LETTER BET
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechex
Unicode66433U+1038167649U+1084167841U+10901
UTF-8240 144 142 129F0 90 8E 81240 144 161 129F0 90 A1 81240 144 164 129F0 90 A4 81
UTF-1655296 57217D800 DF8155298 56385D802 DC4155298 56577D802 DD01
Numeric character reference𐎁𐎁𐡁𐡁𐤁𐤁
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See also

References

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