Editing Suret language (section)

===Letters===
{{Syriac alphabet}}
Three letters act as [[Mater lectionis|matres lectionis]]: rather than being a consonant, they indicate a vowel. ''[[Aleph (letter)|ʾĀlep̄]]'' ({{lang|syr|ܐ}}), the first letter, represents a [[glottal stop]], but it can also indicate the presence of certain vowels (typically at the beginning or the end of a word, but also in the middle). The letter ''[[Waw (letter)|Waw]]'' ({{lang|syr|ܘ}}) is the consonant ''w'', but can also represent the vowels ''o'' and ''u''. Likewise, the letter {{Nowrap|''[[Yodh|Yōḏ]]'' ({{lang|syr|ܝ}})}} represents the consonant ''y'', but it also stands for the vowels ''i'' and ''e''. In addition to foreign sounds, a marking system is used to distinguish ''{{transliteration|sem|qūššāyā}}'' ('hard' letters) from ''{{transliteration|sem|rūkkāḵā}}'' ('soft' letters). The letters ''Bēṯ'', ''Gāmal'', ''Dālaṯ'', ''Kāp̄'', ''Pē'' and ''Taw'', all [[plosives]] ('hard'), are able to be [[spirantization|spirantised]] into [[fricative]]s ('soft').

The system involves placing a single dot underneath the letter to give its 'soft' variant and a dot above the letter to give its 'hard' variant (though, in modern usage, no mark at all is usually used to indicate the 'hard' value).