Mem

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Mem (also spelled Meem or Mim) is the thirteenth letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic alphabet ﻡ. Its value is m.

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Mu (Μ), Etruscan 𐌌, Latin M, and Cyrillic М.

Origins

Mem is usually assumed to come from the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol for water which had been simplified by the Phoenicians and named after their word for water, mem (mayim in modern Hebrew, mye in modern Arabic).

Hebrew Mem

Orthographic variants
Various Print Fonts			Cursive Hebrew	Rashi Script
Serif	Sans-serif	Monospaced	Cursive Hebrew	Rashi Script
מ	מ	מ

Hebrew pronunciation

Mem represents a bilabial nasal, (m), like the English M.

Variations on written form/pronunciation

Orthographic variants
Various Print Fonts			Cursive Hebrew	Rashi Script
Serif	Sans-serif	Monospaced	Cursive Hebrew	Rashi Script
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. The pronunciation is not changed.

Significance

In gematria, Mem represents the number 40. Its final form represents 600 but this is rarely used, Tav and Resh (400+200) being used instead.

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.

The final form of Mem is used in the middle of a word only once in the Bible. In Isaiah 9:6, it says:

לםרבה (לְמַרְבֵּה) הַמִּשְׂרָה וּלְשָׁלוֹם אֵין-קֵץ.
That the rule may be increased, and of peace there be no end.

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

Mem, as the thirteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet is most often associated with Death, Atu XIII. Aleister Crowley, however, in his Thoth tarot deck, assigns Nun to the thirteenth card, and Mem to the The Hanged Man.

Arabic mīm

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

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 of Stem III verbs (the masdar of verbs on the pattern fā`ala is mufā`ala), of subject and object nouns for verbs of Stems II-X (using the example of Stem II, subject nouns — called fā`il words because of their form in Stem I — are mufa``il, and object nouns — called maf`ūl also because of their Stem I form — take the form mufa``al). Place-nouns are also created with mīm; the pattern maf`al is used to create maktab "office" from the triliteral k-t-b (to write) and maṣna` "factory" from ṣ-n-` (to make).

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Last updated on Saturday March 01, 2008 at 17:43:45 PST (GMT -0800)
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