Mater lectionis
Letters to indicate vowels in some Semitic languages / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A mater lectionis (/ˌmeɪtər ˌlɛktiˈoʊnɪs/ ⓘ MAY-tər LEK-tee-OH-niss, /ˌmɑːtər -/ MAH-tər -;[1][2] Latin for 'mother of reading', pl. matres lectionis /ˌmɑːtreɪs -/ MAH-trayss -;[2] original Hebrew: אֵם קְרִיאָה, romanized: ʾēm qərîʾāh) is any consonants that is used to indicate a vowel, primarily in the writing of Semitic languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac. The letters that do this in Hebrew are aleph א, he ה, waw ו and yod י, with the latter two in particular being more often vowels than they are consonants. In Arabic, the matres lectionis (though they are much less often referred to thus) are ʾalif ا, wāw و and yāʾ ي.
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The original value of the matres lectionis corresponds closely to what is called in modern linguistics glides or semivowels.[3]