Inverted nun

Inverted nun (נו"ן מנוזרת "isolated nun" or נו"ן הפוכה "inverted nun" or "׆" in Hebrew) is a rare glyph used in classical Hebrew. Its function in the ancient texts is disputed. It takes the form of the letter nun in mirror image, and appears in the Masoretic text of the Tanakh in nine different places:

The images at right show three common variants of the inverted nun – vertically flipped, horizontally flipped, and Z-shaped. Other renderings exist, corresponding to alternative interpretations of the term "inverted". It may also occur with a dot above.

Occurrence and appearance

Inverted nuns are found in nine passages of the Masoretic Text of the Bible. The exact shape varies between different manuscripts and printed editions. In many manuscripts, a reversed nun is found—referred to as a "nun hafucha" by the Masoretes. In some earlier printed editions, they are shown as the standard nun upside down or rotated, because the printer did not want to bother to design a character to be used only nine times. The recent scholarly editions of the Masoretic text show the reversed nun as described by the Masoretes. In some manuscripts, however, other symbols are occasionally found instead. These are sometimes referred to in rabbinical literature as "simaniyot" (markers).