Hebrew diacritics
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Hebrew orthography includes three types of diacritics:
- rafe sign and other rare glyphs are also listed as part of the niqqud system but are not in common use)[*];
- geresh and gershayim, two diacritics that are not considered a part of niqqud, each of which has several functions (e.g. to denote Hebrew numerals);
- and cantillation, "accents" which are used exclusively to indicate how Biblical passages should be chanted and may possess a punctuating function.
Several diacritical systems were developed in the Early Middle Ages. The most widespread system, and the only one still used to a significant degree today, was created by the Masoretes of Tiberias in the second half of the first millennium in the Land of Israel (see Masoretic Text, Tiberian Hebrew). The Niqqud signs and cantillation marks developed by the Masoretes are small in size compared to consonants, so they could be added to the consonantal texts without retranscribing them.
Pointing (niqqud)
In modern Israeli orthography, vowel and consonant pointing is seldom used, except in specialised texts such as dictionaries, poetry, or texts for children or for new immigrants. Israeli Hebrew has five vowel phonemes—/i/, /e/, /a/, /o/ and /u/—but many more written symbols for them. Niqqud distinguish the following vowels and consonants; for more detail, see the main article.
Name | Symbol | Unicode | Israeli Hebrew
|
Keyboard input | Hebrew | Alternate Names | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
IPA | Transliteration | English Example |
Letter | Key | |||||
Hiriq | U+05B4 | [i] | i | seek | 4 | חִירִיק | ‒ | ||
Tzere | U+05B5 | [e̞] and [ei̯] | e and ei | men | 5 | צֵירֵי or צֵירֶה | |||
Segol | U+05B6 | [e̞], ([ei̯] with succeeding yod) |
e, (ei with succeeding yod) |
men | 6 | סֶגוֹל | |||
Patach | U+05B7 | [ä] | a | far | 7 | פַּתָּח | |||
Kamatz | U+05B8 | [ä], (or [o̞]) | a, (or o) | far | 8 | קָמָץ | |||
Sin dot (left) | U+05C2 | [s] | s | sour | 9 | שִׂי״ן | |||
Shin dot (right) | U+05C1 | [ʃ] | sh | shop | 0 | שִׁי״ן | |||
Holam Haser | U+05B9 | [o̞] | o | bore | - | חוֹלָם חָסֵר | |||
Holam Male or Vav Haluma | וֹ | U+05B9 | חוֹלָם מָלֵא | ||||||
Dagesh or Mappiq;
Shuruk or Vav Shruqa |
U+05BC | N/A | N/A | N/A | = | דָּגֵשׁ or מַפִּיק | |||
U+05BC | [u] | u | cool | שׁוּרוּק | |||||
Kubutz | U+05BB | \ | קֻבּוּץ | ||||||
Below: Two vertical dots underneath the letter (called sh'va ) make the vowel very short.
| |||||||||
Shva | U+05B0 | [e̞] or [-] | apostrophe, e, or nothing |
silent | ~ | שְׁוָא | ‒ | ||
Reduced Segol | U+05B1 | [e̞] | e | men | 1 | חֲטַף סֶגוֹל | Hataf Segol | ||
Reduced Patach | U+05B2 | [ä] | a | far | 2 | חֲטַף פַּתָּח | Hataf Patakh | ||
Reduced Kamatz | U+05B3 | [o̞] | o | bore | 3 | חֲטַף קָמָץ | Hataf Kamatz |
Note 1: The symbol "ס" represents whatever Hebrew letter is used.
Note 2: The letter "
Note 3: The dagesh, mappiq, and shuruk are different, however, they look the same and are inputted in the same manner. Also, they are represented by the same Unicode character.
Note 4: The letter "
Vowel comparison table
Vowel Comparison Table | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Vowel length[1] | IPA | Transliteration | English example | |||||
Long | Short | Very short | ||||||
[3] | [2] | [ä] | a | far | ||||
[4] | [3][4] | [2] | [o̞] | o | cold | |||
[5] | [5] | N/A | [u] | u | you | |||
N/A | [i] | i | ski | |||||
[2] | [e̞] | e | let |
Notes:
- [1] : These vowels lengths are not manifested in Modern Hebrew.
- [2] : Adding two vertical dots (sh'va) to the "short-vowel" diacritic produces the diacritic for "very short vowel" (Hebrew: חטף ḥatáf ).
- [3] : The short /o/ and long /a/ are represented by the same diacritic.
- [4] : The short /holam male, vav with dot above) in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation.
- [5] : The short /shuruk, vav with middle dot) in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation.
Meteg
Meteg is a vertical bar placed below a character next to the niqqud for various purposes, including marking vowel length and secondary stress. Its shape is identical to the cantillation mark sof pasuq.
Geresh
Geresh is a mark, ⟨׳⟩ that may be used as a
As a diacritic, the geresh is combined with the following consonants:
letter | value | with geresh |
value | English example | usage |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
ג | [ɡ] | ג׳ | [dʒ] | age | loanwords (phonologically native sounds) |
ז | [z] | ז׳ | [ʒ] | vision | |
צ | [ts] | צ׳ | [tʃ] | change | |
(non standard[2]) | |||||
ו | [v] | ו׳[2] | [w] | quiet | |
ד | [d] | ד׳ | [ð] | there | For transliteration of sounds in foreign languages (non-native sounds, i.e. sounds foreign to Hebrew phonology).[3] |
ח | [ħ] | ח׳ | [χ][3] | loch | |
ס | [s] | ס׳ | [sˤ] | ||
ע | [ʕ] | ע׳ | [ɣ] | ||
ר | [r] | ר׳ | |||
ת | [t] | ת׳ | [θ] | think |
Cantillation
Cantillation has a more limited use than vowel pointing, as it is only used for reciting the Tanakh, and is not found in children's books or dictionaries.
Gershayim
Gershayim between the penultimate and last letters ( ״ e.g. פזצט״א) marks acronyms, alphabetic numerals, names of Hebrew letters, linguistic roots and, in older texts, transcriptions of foreign words. Placed above a letter (◌֞ e.g. פְּרִ֞י) it is one of the cantillation marks.
Disputes among Protestant Christians
Torah scrolls in Jewish synagogues do not have any diacritical marks whatsoever, only the letters themselves. It is expected of anyone reading out-loud to know the correct intonations.
See also
- Arabic diacritics
- Q're perpetuum
- Hebrew alphabet
- Hebrew spelling
Notes
- *matres lectionisare indicated by this sign.
References
- ^ Cantillation
- ^ a b Vav with geresh, "ו׳", is non standard and its usage is therefore inconsistent: "Transliteration Rules" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-02-28. issued by the Academy of the Hebrew Language states that both [v] and [w] be indistinguishably represented in Hebrew using the letter Vav. To pronounce foreign words and loanwords containing the sound [w], Hebrew readers must therefore rely on former knowledge and context, see also pronunciation of Hebrew Vav.
- ^ خ" from "ح" when transcribing Arabic (in which context just ח—without geresh—represents "ح" / [ħ]), whereas in everyday usage ח without geresh is pronounced [ħ] only dialecticallybut [χ] commonly.
External links
- A free online course to learn the Hebrew Vowel System
- Rules for Spelling without Niqqud - a simplified version of the Rules, published on the Academy of the Hebrew Language website.
- Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, §5m for usage of Geresh in abbreviations; §7, §8, §9, §10 for vowel signs; §12, §13, §14 for Dagesh, Mappiq and Rafe; §15, §16 for the cantillation signs and Maqqeph.
- Hebrew tutorial on how to use diacritics in Word Archived 2011-12-08 at the Wayback Machine