Dalet (dāleth, also spelledDaleth orDaled) is the fourthletter of theSemitic abjads, includingPhoeniciandālt 𐤃,Hebrewdāletד‎,Aramaicdālaṯ 𐡃,Syriacdālaṯ ܕ, andArabicdālد‎ (inabjadi order; 8th in modern order). Its sound value is thevoiced alveolar plosive ([d]). It is also related to theAncient North Arabian 𐪕‎‎,South Arabian𐩵, andGe'ezደ.

The letter is based on a glyph of theProto-Sinaitic script, probably calleddalt "door" (door in Modern Hebrew isdelet), ultimately based on ahieroglyph depicting a door:

The letter is nameddāl دَالْ, and is written in several ways depending on its position in the word:

The letter represents a/d/ sound.

The Phoenician dālet gave rise to the Greekdelta (Δ), LatinD, and theCyrillic letterД.

Orthographic variants
Various print fonts			Cursive Hebrew	Rashi script
Serif	Sans-serif	Monospaced
ד	ד	ד

Hebrew spelling:דָּלֶת

The letter isdalet in the modern Israeli Hebrew pronunciation (seeTav (letter).Dales is still used by manyAshkenazi Jews anddaleth by someJews ofMiddle-Eastern background, especially in theJewish diaspora. In some academic circles, it is calleddaleth, following theTiberian Hebrew pronunciation. It is also calleddaled. Theד‎ like theEnglishD represents avoiced alveolar stop. Just as in English, there may be subtlevarieties of the sound that are created when it is spoken.

Dalet can receive adagesh, being one of the six letters that can receive Dagesh Kal (see Gimel).There are minor variations to this letter's pronunciation, such as

• ד‎dhaleth/d/ (/ð/ amongTeimanim,Mizrachim and someSephardim;/z/ among some Ashkenazim.) or
• דּ‎dalet/d/.

In addition, in modern Hebrew, the combinationד׳‎ (dalet followed by ageresh) is used when transcribing foreign names to denote/ð/.

Ingematria, dalet symbolizes the number four.

The letter dalet, along with theHe (and very rarelyGimel) is used to represent theNames of God in Judaism. The letter He is used commonly, and the dalet is rarer. A good example is theketer (crown) of atallit, which has the blessing for donning thetallit, 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]}

Dalet as aprefix in Aramaic (the language of theTalmud) is a preposition meaning "that", or "which", or also "from" or "of"; since manyTalmudic terms have found their way into Hebrew, one can hear dalet as a prefix in many phrases (as inMitzvahDoraitah; a mitzvah from theTorah.)^{[citation needed]}

In modern Hebrew the frequency of the usage of dalet, out of all the letters, is 2.59%.^[1]

Daled/Dolath
Madnḫayadaled
Serṭodolath
Esṭrangeladalath

In theSyriac alphabet, the fourth letter isܕ —dolath in western pronunciation,dalath anddaled in eastern pronunciation (ܕܵܠܵܬ). It is one of six letters that represents two associated sounds (the others arebet,gimel,kaph,pe andtaw). When daled/dolath has a hard pronunciation (qûššāyâ) it is a[d]. When it has a soft pronunciation (rûkkāḵâ) it is traditionally pronounced as a[ð]. The letter is very common in Syriac as it is often attached to the beginning of words as therelative pronoun.

Daled/dolath is always written with a point below it to distinguish it from the letterresh (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.

Inset theory, the dalet symbolU+2138 ℸDALET SYMBOL is sometimes used to reference the fourthtransfinite cardinal number.^[2][3]

• History of the alphabet § Semitic alphabet
• Proto-Sinaitic script

Wikimedia Commons has media related toDalet (letter).

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