U+0710 "ܐ" Syriac Letter Alaph Unicode Character

U+0710 "ܐ" Syriac Letter Alaph is the first letter of the Syriac alphabet, representing the glottal stop sound in its consonantal form and often serving as a mater lectionis to indicate a long vowel when carrying certain diacritical marks. It is used in the three major Syriac scripts, Estrangela, Serto, and East Syriac, to write a significant corpus of Christian liturgical and theological texts. This character is distinct from other Semitic alphabetic equivalents like the Hebrew Aleph or Arabic Alif, though it shares a common historical origin in the Proto-Sinaitic script. Its shape in its isolated form resembles a rounded loop with a tail descending to the right, and it is a foundational element of the Syriac writing system, which developed from the Aramaic script around the first century AD.