Waw

Waw, also known as vav in Hebrew and waw in Arabic, is a letter in several Semitic alphabets. In Hebrew, it is the sixth letter of the alphabet and is written as ו; in Arabic, it is the twenty-third letter and is written as و. The character plays a central role in the orthography and phonology of both languages and also appears in the historical development of other scripts.

The name and origin of the letter trace back to the Proto-Semitic alphabet, where it was linked to a pictograph commonly interpreted as a hook or peg. In Phoenician, the letter was called waw, and its shape and value influenced the early development of other alphabets. In the line of descent to Greek and Latin, the Phoenician waw contributed to later letters such as Upsilon and the Latin U/Y. The glyphs in Hebrew and Arabic subsequently diverged: the Hebrew vav is a simple vertical stroke, while the Arabic waw is a curved stroke.

Phonetic value varies by language and context. In modern Hebrew, vav generally represents the consonant /v/, though historically it could denote /w/. When not used as a consonant, vav commonly functions as a mater lectionis to indicate vowels, producing sounds like /o/ or /u/ with appropriate diacritical marks. In Arabic, waw represents the consonant /w/ and can indicate long vowels /uː/ or /oː/ depending on diacritics, serving both as a letter and as a vowel carrier in the script.

Numerically, waw has the value 6 in Hebrew gematria and in traditional Abjad numeral systems. In modern usage, it remains an essential letter across Hebrew and Arabic, appearing in countless words and names and shaping pronunciation and vowel representation.