In the spelling of
Arabic and some other
Semitic languages,
matres lectionis (; from
Latin "mothers of reading", singular form:
mater lectionis,
Hebrew: אֵם קְרִיאָה
'em k'ri'á), refers to the use of certain consonants to indicate a vowel. In
Arabic, the
matres lectionis (though they are much less often referred to thus) are
alif ا,
waw و, and
ya' ي. The letters that do this in
Hebrew are
aleph,
he,
waw (or
vav) and
yod (or
yud). The yod and waw in particular are more often vowels than they are consonants.