Editing Yodh (section)

{{Short description|Tenth letter of many Semitic alphabets}}
{{Distinguish|youth}}
{{Redirect|Yudh}}
{{More citations needed|date=March 2021}}

{{Infobox Semitic letter
 | letname = Yodh
 | previouslink = Teth
 | previousletter = Teth
 | nextlink = Kaph
 | nextletter = Kaph
 | archar = ي
 | sychar = ܝ
 | hechar = י
 | amchar = 𐡉
 | gechar = የ
 | phchar = 𐤉
 | grchar = [[Ι]]
 | lachar = [[I]], [[J]]
 | cychar = [[І]], [[Ј]]
 | ipa = {{IPA link|j}}, {{IPA link|i}}, {{IPA link|e}}
 | num = 10
 | gem = 10
}}

'''Yodh''' (also spelled '''jodh''', '''yod''', or '''jod''') is the tenth [[Letter (alphabet)|letter]] of the Semitic [[abjad]]s, including [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] ''yōd'' 𐤉, [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]] ''yod'' {{Script|Hebr|י}}, [[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]] ''yod'' 𐡉, [[Syriac alphabet|Syriac]] ''yōḏ'' ܝ, and [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] ''yāʾ'' {{Script|Arabic|ي}}. It is also related to the [[Ancient North Arabian]] 𐪚‎‎‎, [[Ancient South Arabian script|South Arabian]] {{lang|sem-x-oldsoara|𐩺}}, and [[Geʽez script|Ge'ez]] {{lang|gez|የ}}. Its sound value is {{IPAslink|j}} in all languages for which it is used; in many languages, it also serves as a [[vowel length|long vowel]], representing {{IPAslink|i|iː}}.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] [[Iota]] (Ι),<ref>Victor Parker, ''A History of Greece, 1300 to 30 BC'', (John Wiley & Sons, 2014), 67.</ref> [[Latin alphabet|Latin]] [[I]] and [[J]], <!--but NOT Y; the Latin Y comes from Waw via Upsilon.--> [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]] [[Dotted I (Cyrillic)|І]], [[Coptic alphabet|Coptic]] {{Transliteration|cop|italic=no|Iauda}} (Ⲓ) and [[Gothic alphabet|Gothic]] [[isaz|eis]] [[File:Gothic_letter_eis.svg|4px]].

The term '''yod''' is often used to refer to the speech sound {{IPAblink|j}}, a [[palatal approximant]], even in discussions of languages not written in Semitic abjads, as in phonological phenomena such as English "[[yod-dropping]]".