Aleph?
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generally people say that hebrew has no vowels and therefore you can make them up for pronunciations sake, but this excludes the letter Aleph. its the first letter, meaning ox and equivalent to 1. in latin it is equivalent to the letter A, a vowel. some words use aleph as an a and some just leave it, this has confused me. when do you use aleph and why would you if there are no vowels?
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Aleph isn't the A (though you're right that it's the letter correspondent to the Greek Alpha and Latin A).
The sound of Aleph is a silent (unsounded) expulsion of breath. Like other Hebrew letters, it takes its vowel from diacritical marks which can give it the effect of any of several vowels - for example, and A (as in ALP aleph or HARTz ha-aretz), E (as in ARTz eretz or ALP eleph or ThPARTh tifereth), O (as in AVR or), even I or U (though I can't think of examples of the top of my head ... or, yeah, AVRIAL Uriel).
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thanks!
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93,
Ayin is in the same category as well.
IAO131
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@Jim Eshelman said
"Aleph isn't the A (though you're right that it's the letter correspondent to the Greek Alpha and Latin A).
The sound of Aleph is a silent (unsounded) expulsion of breath."
It's always puzzled me, therefore, that Crowley uses it so freely as though it were A - for example to enumerate Abrahadabra to 418. If a Hebrew speaker were to pronounce it as transliterated, it would sound like a fit of hiccups.
He's also given to using "ayin freely as O. Omicron has the equivalent position and value (70) in the Greek letter-number system; but when he counted "Villa Caldarazzo" [the site of the writing of the first part of Book Four] to total 418, if he were doing it in or through Greek, the O would surely be an omega.
In any case, the Rs in either count don't work in Greek as that alphabet has no equivalent of Tsade, so rho = 100, not 200.
I sometimes find it hard to see the "logic" of Crowley's gematria. But maybe I should look beyond logic.
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@Oliver P said
"It's always puzzled me, therefore, that Crowley uses it so freely as though it were A - for example to enumerate Abrahadabra to 418."
No, he was surely right to do that. If this were an actual Hebrew word, that's the letter that would be there. (And it probably does have a Hebrew source, ultimately.)
"If a Hebrew speaker were to pronounce it as transliterated, it would sound like a fit of hiccups."
I think you're confusing Aleph with A'ayin.
"He's also given to using "ayin freely as O."
If writing Hebrew, that would be rare. But using Hebrew letters to transliterate (say) English, it's simply 'the code' (in my view, the solution to the English gematria puzzle in Liber L.). (The two shouldn't be confused - writing Hebrew vs. using Hebrew letters to transliterate words in other languages.)
"Omicron has the equivalent position and value (70) in the Greek letter-number system; but when he counted "Villa Caldarazzo" [the site of the writing of the first part of Book Four] to total 418, if he were doing it in or through Greek, the O would surely be an omega."
So, as you're indicating, he wasn't treating it as Greek.
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@Jim Eshelman said
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@Oliver P said
"If a Hebrew speaker were to pronounce it as transliterated, it would sound like a fit of hiccups."I think you're confusing Aleph with A'ayin."
"ayin is more hicupp-ish, yes, but if you pronounced the word with all the 'alephs, those glottal stops (the apostrophes) would still show as an interruption to the enunciation. The "natural" way to pronounce it as written in Roman script is surely as a word of five open syllables flowing smoothly.
Compare "Michael" in English, where the a flows smoothly into the e and Mika'el as a Hebrew speaker would pronounce it, there is a discernible pause between the vowels. Hiccup is an exaggeration, but that's all I meant.
"But using Hebrew letters to transliterate (say) English, it's simply 'the code' (in my view, the solution to the English gematria puzzle in Liber L.). (The two shouldn't be confused - writing Hebrew vs. using Hebrew letters to transliterate words in other languages.) "
I see your point. Thank you. Is there a "definitive" (or even "well regarded") solution to the "puzzle" of AL II, 76 (connecting it with the command of II,55)?
Addendum: it would seem not to judge from posts on other threads here. I have found an online copy of 'Achad's Liber 31, which I will study with interest, but some of the other books referred to will be worth seeking out.
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@Oliver P said
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@Jim Eshelman said
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@Oliver P said
"If a Hebrew speaker were to pronounce it as transliterated, it would sound like a fit of hiccups."I think you're confusing Aleph with A'ayin."
"ayin is more hicupp-ish, yes, but if you pronounced the word with all the 'alephs, those glottal stops (the apostrophes) would still show as an interruption to the enunciation. The "natural" way to pronounce it as written in Roman script is surely as a word of five open syllables flowing smoothly."
Aleph doesn't introduce a glottal stop. 'Smoothness' is a basic characteristic of the letter.
"Compare "Michael" in English, where the a flows smoothly into the e and Mika'el as a Hebrew speaker would pronounce it, there is a discernible pause between the vowels. Hiccup is an exaggeration, but that's all I meant."
That break isn't the Aleph. The 'a' vowel in this case belongs with the Kaph. Aleph carries the 'e' vowel. The syllables of MYKAL are MiY-Ks-
eL (where
is the silent Aleph). Meym, Kaph, and Aleph carry the vowels on their backs."
"But using Hebrew letters to transliterate (say) English, it's simply 'the code' (in my view, the solution to the English gematria puzzle in Liber L.). (The two shouldn't be confused - writing Hebrew vs. using Hebrew letters to transliterate words in other languages.) "I see your point. Thank you. Is there a "definitive" (or even "well regarded") solution to the "puzzle" of AL II, 76 (connecting it with the command of II,55)?"
A zillion. BTW, there's no reason to presume that those two are linked (I side with those who think they are entirely different matters - the II:76 puzzle resolves for me smoothly when Hebrew and Greek are used.)
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@Jim Eshelman said
"...the II:76 puzzle resolves for me smoothly when Hebrew and Greek are used.)"
Would you elaborate? I'd love to hear your solution.
Dan
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@ar said
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@Jim Eshelman said
"...the II:76 puzzle resolves for me smoothly when Hebrew and Greek are used.)"Would you elaborate? I'd love to hear your solution."
No. I don't want to add to the insanity.