# Differences between Samekh, Tsade and Teth



## Kasper83

I was also wondering what Samekh, Tsade and teth could be. Just as in my previous question with vov = o and mem could be m. etc. Thanks in advance.



Kasper


----------



## RaLo18

Samekh - s (written ס)
Tsade - ts (written צ. Final form - ץ). Tsade with geresh (apostrophe-like sign) also stands for the ch or tch sounds, which don't exist in Hebrew. 
Teth - t (written ט). Teth with geresh stands for the Arabic letter ﻅ (Ẓāʾ)


----------



## Talib

The letter ט was originally pronounced like Arabic ط, and צ was like Arabic ص, in case that helps. But you don't have to pronounce them that way because most people don't. They just sound like t and ts, respectively.

Sometimes צ is written tz which I find odd. I suppose it's a convention carried over from German.


----------



## hadronic

And samekh ס and sin ש (with right-side dot) are pronounced exactly the same, even in the oldest known stage of Hebrew. These are the sole two really homophonic letters. The other homophonic pairs arouse much more later (tav/tet, khaf/chet, aleph/3ayn, kaf/qof,....).


----------



## ahshav

I thought צ corresponded to ﻅ, not ص - regardless of how they are pronounced today. Anyone know for sure?


----------



## hadronic

צ tsade corresponds to ﻅ Zâd, ص Sâd and ض Dâd.
Examples : 
Zâd : عظم עצם bone           
       ظبي צבי deer
Sâd : صغير צעיר young, small
صادق צודק faithfull
Dâd : أرض ארצ earth
ضلع צלע rib


----------



## Talib

hadronic said:


> צ tsade corresponds to ﻅ Zâd, ص Sâd and ض Dâd.


Correct. All three sounds merged into צ in the early development of Hebrew. 


> ظبي צבי deer


Interesting. I didn't catch this before. I know "deer" as أيل _ayyil_.


> Sâd : صغير צעיר young, small


This word also shows that Arabic غ corresponds to Hebrew ע. Similarly خ corresponds to ח. What these sounds have in common is that they're made at the back of the mouth.


> Dâd : أرض ארצ earth


Minor quibble: This is properly spelled ארץ (sofith).


----------



## Kasper83

Thanks, that helped, but I was also wondering you'd convert it into latin. I've looked it up on wikipeida, but there's not latin latin translation for the words i posted.

Example: Aleph tanslates to a

Remember, I'm still a rookie. So even though it may seem too simple, it is..


----------



## Flaminius

Here it goes.  For the transliteration methods, see here.  Hebrew pronunciation differs from the transliteration occasionally.  The actual pronunciation in Modern Hebrew is [ts] for <ṣ>, and [k] for <q>.

Ṣadi for Ẓā
bone: עצם (ʾeṣem), عظم (ʾaẓm)
deer: צבי (ṣbi), ظبي (ẓabī)

Ṣadi for Ṣād
young, small: צעיר (ṣaʿir), صغير (ṣaġīr)
upright?: צודק (ṣodeq), صادق (???)

Ṣadi for Ḍād
earth: ארץ (ʾereṣ), أرض (ʾarḍ)
rib: צלע (ṣelaʿ), ضلع (ḍilaʿ)


----------



## hadronic

Kasper83 said:


> but there's not latin latin translation for the words *i posted*.


 
What words did you post ?


----------



## Kasper83

I posted Samekh, Ayin, and Tsade. Those are the ones I can't find a direct translation into a latin letter for.

Does both Tav and Teth cover the same latin letter ?


Thanks for your replies.


----------



## Flaminius

Hello Kasper,

Maybe you could tell me what "a direct translation into a *L*atin letter" means for a Hebrew letter?  Some of the Hebrew letters have equivalents in the Latin alphabet (<B> is for bet, eg.) and others don't.

Tav and Teth are pronounced the same in Modern Hebrew ([t]).  You could use <T> to represent the pronunciation.  If, however, you want to use Latin alphabets to represent Hebrew letters (perhaps you'd want to convert them back to Hebrew letters later on), they should be somehow distinguished (Eg. t for Tav and th for Teth).  Please tell us which method you want to use to romanise Hebrew texts.


----------



## Kasper83

I wanted to use the hebrew alphabet to convert latin names into hebrew letters and visa versa. So I think it's the latter example.


----------



## hadronic

"Samekh", "Ayin", and "Tsade" are not _words_. They are _letters_.

You ask here for something very difficult. There are Latin letters that don't have Hebrew equivalent, and Hebrew letters that don't have Latin equivalent.

Generally, in the L->H sens, people usually translate the sounds rather than the letters ("light" will be something like לאייט , rather than ליגהת ).
On the opposite, in the H->L sens, following your purpose, you may have very descriptive sign-to-sign translitteration, that will allow all nuances of vowel quantity, emphatics, gutturals, geminates, schwas... (usually for grammar or etymological stuffs), or very basic tanscription that would follow the pronounciation (thus merging tav/teth, khaf/het, segol/tsere/schwa, ....).


----------



## Flaminius

Kasper83 said:


> I wanted to use the hebrew alphabet to convert latin names into hebrew letters and visa versa. So I think it's the latter example.


Then, what you are attempting is transliteration (as opposed to transcription).  Like *hadronic* says, there are levels of accuracy for transliteration.  You might want to take a look at this discussion to see how accurate you want to go with it.


----------



## Talib

Basically, in academic transcription, they are ṣ, ṭ ʿ respectively. In everyday use they are written tz, t and '.


----------

