Influence On Other Languages
Later, in some adaptations of the Arabic alphabet (such those used for Persian and Uyghur) and of the Hebrew alphabet (such as those used for the Yiddish and Ladino languages), matres lectionis were generally used for all or most vowels, thus in effect becoming vowel letters: see Yiddish orthography. This tendency was taken to its logical conclusion in fully alphabetic scripts such as the Greek, Roman and Cyrillic alphabets. Many of the vowel letters in these languages historically go back to matres lectionis in the Phoenician script: for example, the letter was originally derived from the consonant letter yod. Similarly the vowel letters in Avestan are adapted from matres lectionis in the version of the Aramaic script used for Pahlavi.
Read more about this topic: Mater Lectionis
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