Nun (letter)

← Mem Nun Samekh →
Phoenician	𐤍
Hebrew	נ
Aramaic	𐡍
Syriac	ܢ
Arabic	ن
Phonemic representation	n
Position in alphabet	14
Numerical value	50
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician
Greek	Ν
Latin	N
Cyrillic	Н

Nunis the fourteenthletterof theSemitic abjads,includingPhoeniciannūn𐤍,Hebrewnūnנ,Aramaicnūn𐡍‎,Syriacnūnܢ, andArabicnūnن (inabjadi order). Itsnumerical valueis 50. It is the third letter inThaana(ނ), pronounced as "noonu". In all languages, it represents thealveolar nasal/n/.

The Phoenician letter gave rise to theGreeknu(Ν),Etruscan,LatinN,andCyrillicН.

Origins

Nun is believed to be derived from an Egyptianhieroglyph of a snake(the Hebrew word for snake,nachashbegins with a Nun) or eel. Somehave hypothesized a hieroglyph of fish in water as its origin (In Aramaic and Akkadiannunmeans fish, and in Arabic,nūnmeans large fish or whale). The Phoenician letter was namednūn"fish", but the glyph has been suggested to descend from a hypotheticalProto-Canaanitenaḥš"snake", based on the name inEthiopic,ultimately from ahieroglyphrepresenting a snake,

(seeMiddle Bronze Age alphabets).

Arabic nūn

Nūn
ن
Usage
Writing system	Arabic script
Type	Abjad
Language of origin	Arabic language
Sound values	/n/,/ɳ/,/ŋ/
History
Development	𓆓 𓆓 𐤫 𐤫 𐡍 𐢕 ں ن
Descendants	ݨ ں ڻ ڼ
Other
Writing direction	Right-to-left

The letter is namednūn,and is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Naskhglyph form: (Help)	ن‎	ـن‎	ـنـ‎	نـ‎
Nastaʿlīqglyph form:	ن	ــــن	ــــنــــ	نــــ

Some examples on its uses inModern Standard Arabic:

Nūn is used as a suffix indicating feminine plural verb conjugations; for exampleهِيَ تَكْتُبhiya taktub( "she writes" ) becomesهُنَّ يَكْتُبْنَhunna yaktubna( "they [feminine] write" ).

Nūn is also used as the prefix for first-person pluralimperfective/present tenseverbs. Thusهُوَ يَكْتُبhuwa yaktub( "he writes" ) →نَحْنُ نَكْتُبnaḥnu naktub( "we write" ).

Punjabi/Saraiki nūn

It isretroflex nasalconsonantalsound symbol, used in somespokenlanguages.The symbol in theInternational Phonetic Alphabetthat represents this sound is ⟨ɳ⟩, and the equivalentX-SAMPAsymbol isn`.Like all theretroflex consonants,the IPA symbol is formed by adding a rightward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of an en (the letter used for the correspondingalveolar consonant). It is similar to ⟨ɲ⟩, the letter for thepalatal nasal,which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the left stem, and to ⟨ŋ⟩, the letter for thevelar nasal,which has a leftward-pointing hook extending from the bottom of the right stem. Saraikiuses the letter ⟨ݨ⟩ for/ɳ/.It is a compound of nūn and rre (⟨ڑ⟩). For example:

کݨ مݨ، چھݨ چھݨ، ونڄݨ۔

Social media campaign (2014)

See also:Christians § Arabic terms,Persecution of Christians by ISIL,andSectarianism and minorities in the Syrian Civil War § Christians

After thefall of Mosul,ISIL demandedAssyrian Christiansin the city toconvert to Islam,pay tribute,or face execution.ISIL begun marking homes of Christian residents with the letternūnforNassarah( "Nazarene").Thousands of Christians, Yazidis (the latter of whom were given only the choice of conversion or death) and other, mostlyShi'a,Muslims, as well as any Muslim whose allegiance was to their home country (whom ISIL consider to beapostates) abandoned their homes and land.

In response to thepersecution of ChristiansandYazidisby ISIL, an international social media campaign was launched to raise global awareness of the plight of religious minorities in Mosul, making use of the letterن(nun)—the mark that ISIL troops spray painted on properties owned by Christians.Some Christians changed their profile pictures onFacebookandTwitterto pictures of the letterنas a symbol of support.The letterن,in relation to this social media campaign, is being called the "Mark of the Nazarene" fromnaṣrānī(نصراني;pluralnaṣārāنصارى), a normative Arabic term disparagingly used by ISIL to brand Christians.

The wordnaṣārā/nosrimdesignates Christians in both Arabic, Aramaic and Hebrew. The more common term used to refer to Christians inModern Standard Arabicismasihi(مسيحي,pluralمسيحيون).

Jawinya

In theJawi alphabet,the letternyais a modified form of the letternūnwith two additional dots. However, ifnyais initial or medial, its dots will be three dots below instead of three dots above, similarly how the Persian letterpeworks on medial or initial form due to its similar looking. This letter also looks liketsain general. This letter is thus written as:

Position in word	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form: (Help)	ڽ‎	ـڽ‎	ـڽـ‎	ڽـ‎

The letternyais also a suffix for indirect object belonging to him/her/it. The example isرومهڽ(rumahnyain Rumi alphabet), which means his/her/its house.

Hebrew nun

Calligraphic example of a terminal nun at a Polish synagogue: הדוכן (ha-dukhan,"the pulpit" )

Orthographicvariants
position in word	Various print fonts			Cursive Hebrew	Rashi script
	Serif	Sans-serif	Monospaced
non final	נ	נ	נ
final	ן	ן	ן

Hebrew spelling:נוּן

The letter in its final position appears with or without a top hook on different sans-serif fonts, for example

• Arial, DejaVu Sans, Arimo, Open Sans:ן
• Tahoma, Noto Sans Hebrew, Alef, Heebo:ן

Pronunciation

Nun represents analveolar nasal,(IPA:/n/), like the English letterN.

Variations

Nun, likeKaph,Mem,Pe,andTzadi,has afinal form,used at the end of words. Its shape changes fromנtoן. There are also nine instances of aninverted nun(׆) in theTanakh.

Significance

Ingematria,Nun represents the number 50. Its final form represents 700 but this is rarely used,TavandShin(400+300) being used instead.

As in Arabic, nun as an abbreviation can stand forneqevah,feminine. In medieval Rabbinic writings, Nun Sophit (Final Nun) stood for "Son of" (Hebrewben).

Nun is also one of the seven letters which receive a special crown (called atag:pluraltagin) when written in aSefer Torah.SeeTag (Hebrew writing),Shin,Ayin,Teth,Gimmel,Zayin,andTzadi.

In the game ofdreidel,a rolled Nun passes play to the next player with no other action.

Character encodings

Character information

Preview	נ		ן		ن		ࢽ		ܢ		ࠍ
Unicode name	HEBREW LETTER NUN		HEBREW LETTER FINAL NUN		ARABIC LETTER NOON		ARABIC LETTER AFRICAN NOON		SYRIAC LETTER NUN		SAMARITAN LETTER NUN
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	1504	U+05E0	1503	U+05DF	1606	U+0646	2237	U+08BD	1826	U+0722	2061	U+080D
UTF-8	215 160	D7 A0	215 159	D7 9F	217 134	D9 86	224 162 189	E0 A2 BD	220 162	DC A2	224 160 141	E0 A0 8D
Numeric character reference	נ	נ	ן	ן	ن	ن	ࢽ	ࢽ	ܢ	ܢ	ࠍ	ࠍ

Character information

Preview	𐎐		𐡍		𐤍
Unicode name	UGARITIC LETTER NUN		IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER NUN		PHOENICIAN LETTER NUN
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	66448	U+10390	67661	U+1084D	67853	U+1090D
UTF-8	240 144 142 144	F0 90 8E 90	240 144 161 141	F0 90 A1 8D	240 144 164 141	F0 90 A4 8D
UTF-16	55296 57232	D800 DF90	55298 56397	D802 DC4D	55298 56589	D802 DD0D
Numeric character reference	𐎐	𐎐	𐡍	𐡍	𐤍	𐤍

See also

• Nunation
• Setaceous Hebrew Character (Xestia c-nigrum)- amothof the familyNoctuidae.