Mem

Thirteenth letter of many Semitic alphabets

This article is about the Semitic letter. For other uses, see Mem (disambiguation).

← Lamedh

Mem

Nun →

Phoenician|

Hebrew|

Aramaic|

Syriac|

Arabic|

Phonemic representation| m
Position in alphabet| 13
Numerical value| 40
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician
Greek| Μ
Latin| M
Cyrillic| М

Mem (also spelled Meem, Meme, or Mim) is the thirteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Hebrew mēm מ, Aramaic mem 𐡌, Syriac mīm ܡ, Arabic mīm م, and Phoenician mēm 𐤌. Its sound value is [m]. The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek mu (Μ), Etruscan , Latin M, and Cyrillic М.

## Origins

[edit]

Mem is believed to derive from the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol for water,

which had been simplified by the Phoenicians and named after their word for "water", mem (), ultimately coming from Proto-Semitic *may-.

## Arabic mīm

[edit]

Mīm

Usage
Writing system| Arabic script
Type| Abjad
Language of origin| Arabic language
Sound values| [m]
In Unicode| `U+0645 م ARABIC LETTER MEEM`
History
Development|

* م

Other
Writing direction| Right-to-left
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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

Position in word  | Isolated  | Final  | Medial  | Initial

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Glyph form:
(Help)  | م | ـم | ـمـ | مـ

Some examples on its uses in Modern Standard Arabic:

Mīm is used in the creation of ism words (i.e. nouns and adjectives; they are treated fundamentally the same in Arabic grammar). Specifically, mīm is used in the creation of the masdar (verbal noun) of Stem III verbs (the masdar of verbs on the pattern fāʿala is mufāʿala), of subject and object nouns for verbs of Stems II-X (using the example of Stem II, subject nouns--called fāʿil words because of their form in Stem I--are mufaʿʿil for verbs of Stems II-X, and object nouns--called mafʿūl also because of their Stem I form--take the form mufaʿʿal for verbs of Stems II-X). Place-nouns are also created with mīm; the pattern mafʿal is used to create maktab "office" from the triliteral k-t-b (to write) and maṣnaʿ "factory" from ṣ-n-ʿ (to make).

## Hebrew mem

[edit]

Orthographic variants of non-final form

Various print fonts | Cursive
Hebrew | Rashi
script
Serif | Sans-serif | Monospaced
מ | מ | מ |  |

Hebrew spelling: מֵם

### Hebrew pronunciation

[edit]

Mem represents a bilabial nasal [m].

### Variations on written form/pronunciation

[edit]

Orthographic variants of final form

Various Print Fonts | Cursive
Hebrew | Rashi
Script
Serif | Sans-serif | Monospaced
ם | ם | ם |  |

In Hebrew, Mem, like Kaph, Nun, Pe, and Tzadi, has a final form, used at the end of words: its shape changes from מ to ם.

### Significance

[edit]

In gematria, Mem represents the number 40 in both the Standard and Mispar Gadol Methods of Gematria; However, (mem sofit) final mem's value is 40 in the Standard Method and 600 in the Mispar Gadol method. The Standard Method adds the values of Tav and Resh (400+200) to denote the value of mem sofit.

In the Sefer Yetzirah, the letter Mem is King over Water, Formed Earth in the Universe, Cold in the Year, and the Belly in the Soul.

As an abbreviation, it stands for metre. In the Israeli army it can also stand for mefaked, commander. In Hebrew religious texts, it can stand for the name of God Makom, the Place.

### Mem and Tarot

[edit]

Mem is associated with The Hanged Man (Atu XII), the element of water and the path between Geburah and Hod on the Tree of Life.

## Syriac mim

[edit]

Position in word  | Isolated  | Final  | Medial  | Initial

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Glyph form:
(Help)  | ܡ | ـܡ | ـܡـ | ܡـ

## Character encodings

[edit]

Character information  Preview | מ | ם | م | ܡ | ࠌ | ﬦ | מּ

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Unicode name  | HEBREW LETTER MEM  | HEBREW LETTER FINAL MEM  | ARABIC LETTER MEEM  | SYRIAC LETTER MIM  | SAMARITAN LETTER MIM  | HEBREW LETTER WIDE FINAL MEM  | HEBREW LETTER MEM WITH DAGESH
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex
Unicode | 1502 | U+05DE | 1501 | U+05DD | 1605 | U+0645 | 1825 | U+0721 | 2060 | U+080C | 64294 | U+FB26 | 64318 | U+FB3E
UTF-8 | 215 158 | D7 9E | 215 157 | D7 9D | 217 133 | D9 85 | 220 161 | DC A1 | 224 160 140 | E0 A0 8C | 239 172 166 | EF AC A6 | 239 172 190 | EF AC BE
Numeric character reference | &#1502; | &#x5DE; | &#1501; | &#x5DD; | &#1605; | &#x645; | &#1825; | &#x721; | &#2060; | &#x80C; | &#64294; | &#xFB26; | &#64318; | &#xFB3E;

Character information  Preview | 𐎎 | 𐡌 | 𐤌

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Unicode name  | UGARITIC LETTER MEM  | IMPERIAL ARAMAIC LETTER MEM  | PHOENICIAN LETTER MEM
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex | dec | hex
Unicode | 66446 | U+1038E | 67660 | U+1084C | 67852 | U+1090C
UTF-8 | 240 144 142 142 | F0 90 8E 8E | 240 144 161 140 | F0 90 A1 8C | 240 144 164 140 | F0 90 A4 8C
UTF-16 | 55296 57230 | D800 DF8E | 55298 56396 | D802 DC4C | 55298 56588 | D802 DD0C
Numeric character reference | &#66446; | &#x1038E; | &#67660; | &#x1084C; | &#67852; | &#x1090C;

## See also

[edit]

* Nun (letter)

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mem (letter).

* v
* t
* e

Hebrew language

Overviews|

* Language
* Alphabet
* History
* Ancient inscriptions
* Transliteration to English / from English
* Gematria

Eras|

* Biblical (northern dialect)
* Mishnaic
* Medieval
* Modern

Reading traditions|

* Ashkenazi
* Sephardi
* Romaniote
* Italian
* Mizrahi (Syrian)
* Yemenite
* Samaritan
* Tiberian (extinct)
* Palestinian (extinct)
* Babylonian (extinct)

Orthography|

| Eras|

* Biblical

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Scripts|

* Rashi
* Braille
* Ashuri
* Cursive
* Crowning
* Paleo-Hebrew
* Solitreo

Alphabet|

* Alef
* Bet
* Gimel
* Dalet
* Hei
* Vav
* Zayin
* Ḥet
* Tet
* Yud
* Kaf
* Lamed
* Mem
* Nun
* Samech
* Ayin
* Pei
* Tsadi
* Kuf
* Resh
* Shin
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Niqqud|

* Tiberian
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* Palestinian
* Samaritan

* Shva
* Hiriq
* Tzere
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* Pataḥ
* Kamatz
* Holam
* Kubutz/shuruk
* Dagesh
* Mappiq
* Maqaf
* Rafe
* Sin/Shin dot

Spelling|

* with Niqqud / missing / full
* Mater lectionis
* Abbreviations
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Punctuation|

* Diacritics
* Meteg
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Phonology|

* Biblical Hebrew
* Modern Hebrew
* Philippi's law
*   * Law of attenuation

Grammar|

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Academic|

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Reference works|

* Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar
* Gesenius' Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures
* Brown–Driver–Briggs
* Strong's Concordance
* Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament

* v
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Arabic language

Overviews|

* Language
* Alphabet
* History
* Romanization
* Numerology
* Influence on other languages

Scripts|

* Nabataean script
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* Ancient North Arabian
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* Arabic Braille
* Algerian Braille
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* Diacritics
* i‘jām
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* Harakat
* Nunation (tanwin)
* Shaddah
* Hamza
* Dagger alif
* Maltese alphabet

Letters|

* ʾAlif
* Bāʾ
* Tāʾ
* Ṯāʾ
* Ǧīm
* Ḥāʾ
* Ḫāʾ
* Dāl
* Ḏāl
* Rāʾ
* Zāy
* Sīn
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* Ṣād
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* Ṭāʾ
* Ẓāʾ
* ʿAyn
* Ġayn
* Fāʾ
* Qāf
* Kāf
* Lām
* Mīm
* Nūn
* Hāʾ
* Wāw
* Yāʾ

Varieties|

| Pre-Islamic|

* Proto-Arabic
* Nabataean Arabic
* Old Arabic
* Old Hijazi Arabic
* Pre-classical Arabic

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Literary|

* Classical
* Modern Standard

Modern
spoken|

| Maghrebi|

| Pre-Hilalian|

* Andalusi
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Hilalian|

* Central Hilal
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Nile Valley|

* Egyptian
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Levantine|

| North|

* Cilician
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South|

* Jordanian
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Mesopotamian|

| Gilit|

* Baghdadi
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North (Qeltu)|

* Anatolian
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Peninsular|

* Bahrani
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Others|

* Central Asian
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* Shirvani

Sociological|

* Bedouin Arabic

Judeo-Arabic|

* Judeo-Algerian
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* Baghdadi
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* Kjal
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* Judeo-Tripolitanian
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* Adeni
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Creoles
and pidgins|

* Bimbashi
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* Turku
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Academic|

* Literature
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Linguistics|

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Calligraphy
· Script|

* Ajami script
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Technical|

* Arabic keyboard
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* ISO/IEC 8859-6
* Windows-1256
* MS-DOS codepages
* 708
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* 710
* 711
* 720
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* MacArabic encoding

Other|

* Islam and Arabic language

* Italics indicate extinct languages
* Languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left.
* Category

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* e

The Northwest Semitic abjad

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