Dalet

{{Short description|Fourth letter of many Semitic alphabets}} {{about|the Semitic letter|the designation as "untouchable" in the Hindu caste system|Dalit|other uses}} {{For|the town in Myanmar|Dalet, Myanmar}}

{{Phoenician glyph|letname=Dalet|previouslink=Gimel|previousletter=Gimel|nextlink=He (letter)|nextletter=He|archar=د|sychar=ܕ|hechar=ד|smchar=ࠃ|amchar=𐡃|nbchar=𐢅|gechar=ደ|ugchar=𐎄|phchar=𐤃|nachar=𐪕|sachar=𐩵|grchar=Δ|lachar=D|cychar=Д|ipa={{IPA link|d}}, {{IPA link|ð}}|num=4|gem=4}}

'''Dalet''' ({{transliteration|sem|dāleth}}, also spelled '''Daleth''' or '''Daled''') is the fourth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''{{translit|Phnx|dālt}}'' 𐤃, Hebrew {{translit|he|dālet}} {{Script|Hebr|ד}}, Aramaic ''{{translit|Armi|dālaṯ}}'' 𐡃, Syriac ''{{translit|Syrc|dālaṯ}}'' ܕ, and Arabic {{translit|ar|dāl}} {{Script|Arabic|د}} (in abjadi order; 8th in modern order). Its sound value is the voiced alveolar plosive ({{IPA|[d]}}). It is also related to the Ancient North Arabian 𐪕‎‎, South Arabian {{lang|sem-x-oldsoara|𐩵}}, and Ge'ez {{lang|gez|ደ}}.

The letter is based on a glyph of the Proto-Sinaitic script, probably called ''{{translit|Psin|dalt}}'' {{gloss|door}} (''door'' in Modern Hebrew is '''delet'''), ultimately based on a hieroglyph depicting a door: <hiero>O31</hiero>

==Arabic ''dāl''== {{More|Ḏāl}}

The letter is named {{translit|ar|dāl}} ({{lang|ar|دَالْ}}), and is written in several ways depending on its position in the word: {{Arabic alphabet shapes|د}} The letter represents a {{IPA|/d/}} sound.

==Phoenician== {{Further|Phoenician alphabet}} The Phoenician dālet gave rise to the Greek delta (Δ), Latin D, and the Cyrillic letter Д.

==Aramaic== {{Further|Aramaic alphabet}} {{empty section|date=May 2025}}

==Hebrew dalet== {{Further|Hebrew alphabet}} {|class=wikitable style="text-align:center;" !colspan=5|Orthographic variants |- !colspan=3|Various print fonts !rowspan=2|Cursive<br>Hebrew !rowspan=2|Rashi<br>script |- !Serif !! Sans-serif !! Monospaced |- |width=20% style="font:30pt 'Times New Roman', 'SBL Hebrew', David, Narkisim, 'New Peninim MT', 'Taamey Frank CLM', serif;" | ד |width=20% style="font:29pt Arial, 'DejaVu Sans Condensed', 'DejaVu Sans', Tahoma, 'Noto Sans Hebrew', Alef, sans-serif;" | ד |width=20% style="font:30pt 'Courier New', 'Miriam Fixed', 'Miriam Mono CLM', FreeMono, monospace;" | ד |width=20%|22px |width=20%|35px |} Hebrew spelling: <big>{{lang|he|דָּלֶת}}</big>

The letter is ''dalet'' in the modern Israeli Hebrew pronunciation (see Tav (letter)). ''Dales'' is still used by many Ashkenazi Jews and ''daleth'' by some Jews of Middle-Eastern background, especially in the Jewish diaspora.{{Citation needed|date=March 2026}} In some academic circles, it is called ''daleth'', following the Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation. It is also called ''daled''. The {{Script|Hebr|'''ד'''}} like the English D represents a voiced alveolar stop. Just as in English, there may be subtle varieties of the sounds that are created when it is spoken.

===Variations=== Dalet can receive a dagesh, being one of the six letters that can receive Dagesh Kal (see Gimel). There are minor variations to this letter's pronunciation, such as * {{Script|Hebr|'''ד'''}} {{transliteration|he|dhaleth}} {{IPA|/d/}} ({{IPA|/ð/}} among Teimanim, Mizrachim and some Sephardim; {{IPA|/z/}} among some Ashkenazim.{{Citation needed|date=September 2025}}) or * {{Script|Hebr|'''דּ'''}} {{transliteration|he|dalet}} {{IPA|/d/}}. In addition, in modern Hebrew, the combination {{Script|Hebr|'''ד׳'''}} (dalet followed by a geresh) is used when transcribing foreign names to denote {{IPA|/ð/}}.

===Significance=== In gematria, dalet symbolizes the number four.

The letter dalet, along with the He (and very rarely Gimel) is used to represent the Names of God in Judaism. The letter He is used commonly, and the dalet is rarer. A good example is the keter (crown) of a tallit, which has the blessing for donning the ''tallit'', and has the name of God usually represented by a dalet. A reason for this is that He is used as an abbreviation for HaShem "The Name" and the dalet is used as a non-sacred way of referring to God.{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}}

Dalet as a prefix in Aramaic (the language of the Talmud) is a preposition meaning "that", or "which", or also "from" or "of"; since many Talmudic terms have found their way into Hebrew, one can hear dalet as a prefix in many phrases (as in ''Mitzvah '''D'''oraitah''; a mitzvah from the Torah).{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

In an undisclosed sample of Modern Hebrew writings the frequency of the usage of dalet was discovered to be is 2.59%.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.sttmedia.com/characterfrequency-hebrew |title=Alphabet and Character Frequency: Hebrew (עברית) |access-date=2023-02-13 |archive-date=2023-02-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214005808/https://www.sttmedia.com/characterfrequency-hebrew |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Syriac daled/dolath== {| class="wikitable" |- ! Daled/Dolath |- | 50px ''Madnḫaya'' {{transliteration|he|italic=no|daled}} |- | 50px ''Serṭo'' {{transliteration|he|italic=no|dolath}} |- | 50px ''Esṭrangela'' {{transliteration|he|italic=no|dalath}} |}

600px

In the Syriac alphabet, the fourth letter is {{lang|syr|ܕ}} — {{transliteration|he|dolath}} in western pronunciation, {{transliteration|he|dalath}} and {{transliteration|he|daled}} in eastern pronunciation ({{lang|syr|ܕܵܠܵܬ}}). It is one of six letters that represents two associated sounds (the others are bet, gimel, kaph, pe and taw). When daled/dolath has a hard pronunciation (''qûššāyâ'') it is a {{IPA|{{bracket|d}}}}. When it has a soft pronunciation (''rûkkāḵâ'') it is traditionally pronounced as a {{IPA|{{bracket|ð}}}}. The letter is very common in Syriac as it is often attached to the beginning of words as the relative pronoun.

Daled/dolath is always written with a point below it to distinguish it from the letter resh ({{lang|syr|ܪ}}), which is identical apart from having a point above. As a numeral, dalad/dolath stands for the number four. With various systems of dots and dashes, it can also stand for 4,000 and 40,000.

==Other uses==

===Mathematics===

In set theory, the dalet symbol {{unichar|2138}} is sometimes used to reference the fourth transfinite cardinal number.<ref>{{cite web |title=Letterlike Symbols |url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2100.pdf |website=The Unicode Standard |access-date=10 June 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=\[Dalet] |url=https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/character/Dalet.html |website=Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center |publisher=Wolfram |access-date=10 June 2024}}</ref>

==Character encodings== {{charmap |05D3|name1=Hebrew Letter Dalet |062F|name2=Arabic Letter Dal |0715|name3=Syriac Letter Dalath |0803|name4=Samaritan Letter Dalat |2138|name5=Dalet Symbol }}

{{charmap |10384|name1=Ugaritic Letter Delta |10843|name2=Imperial Aramaic Letter Daleth |10903|name3=Phoenician Letter Delt }}

==See also== * {{section link|History of the alphabet|Semitic alphabet}} * Proto-Sinaitic script

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Dalet (letter)}}

Category:Phoenician alphabet Category:Arabic letters Category:Hebrew letters Category:Urdu letters