Everything about Hebrew Alephbeth totally explained
The
Hebrew alphabet (
alephbet ’ivri) consists of 22 letters used for writing the
Hebrew language. Five of these letters have a different form when appearing as the last letter in a word. The Hebrew letters are also used in mildly adapted forms for writing several languages of the Jewish diaspora, most famously
Yiddish,
Ladino, and
Judeo-Arabic (for a full and detailed list, see
Jewish languages). Hebrew is written from
right to left.
The Hebrew word for "
alphabet" is אלפבית (
alephbet), named after the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The Hebrew alphabet is an
abjad, having letters for
consonants, but means were later devised to indicate vowels by separate vowel points or
niqqud. In rabbinic Hebrew, the consonant letters אהוי are used as
matres lectionis to represent vowels.
The number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, their order, their names, and their phonetic values are virtually identical to those of the
Aramaic alphabet, as both
Hebrews and
Arameans borrowed the
Phoenician alphabet for their uses during the end of the
2nd millennium BCE.
According to contemporary scholars, the modern
script used for writing Hebrew (usually called the
Jewish script by scholars, and also traditionally known as the
square script,
block script, or
Assyrian script — not to be confused with the Eastern variant of the
Syriac alphabet) evolved during the
3rd century BCE from the
Aramaic script, which was used by
Jews for writing Hebrew since the
6th century BCE. Prior to that, Hebrew was written using the
old Hebrew script, which evolved during the
10th century BCE from the Phoenician script; the
Samaritans still write Hebrew in a variant of this script for religious works (see
Samaritan alphabet). For other opinions, see below.
History
According to contemporary scholars, the original Hebrew script developed alongside others in the region during the course of the late second and first millennia BCE; it's closely related to the
Phoenician script, which itself probably gave rise to the use of alphabetic writing in
Greece (
Greek). It is sometimes claimed that around the
10th century BCE
a distinct Hebrew variant, the original "Hebrew script", emerged, which was widely used in the ancient kingdoms of
Israel and
Judah until they fell in the
8th and
6th centuries BCE, respectively. It isn't straightforward, however, to distinguish
Israelite/
Judahite scripts from others which were in use in the immediate area, most notably by the
Moabites and
Ammonites.
Following the
Babylonian exile,
Jews gradually stopped using the Hebrew script, and instead adopted the
Aramaic script (another offshoot of the same family of scripts). This script, used for writing Hebrew, later evolved into the Jewish, or "square" script, that's still used today. Closely related scripts were in use all over the Middle East for several hundred years, but following the rise of
Christianity (and later, the rise of
Islam), they gave way to the
Roman and
Arabic alphabets, respectively.
The Hebrew alphabet was later adapted in order to write down the languages of the
Jewish diaspora (
Karaim,
Judæo-Arabic,
Ladino,
Yiddish, etc.). The Hebrew alphabet was retained as the alphabet used for writing down the
Hebrew language during its rebirth in the 18th to
19th century.
Letter table
The Hebrew alphabet consists of the following letters, five of which have a different form at the ends of words, known as the final form. These are shown in the table below the normal form.
Description
Both the old Hebrew script and the modern Hebrew script have only one
case, but some letters have special
final forms, called
sofit (
Heb. סופית, meaning in this case "final" or "ending") form, used only at the end of a word, somewhat as in the
Arabic and
Mandaic alphabets. As can be seen in the tables given here, only five letters have a
sofit form: ך → כ (
kaph and
khaph), ם → מ (
mem), ן → נ (
nun), ף → פ (
pe and
phe), ץ → צ (
tsadi or
tsade).
The Hebrew alphabet is an
abjad:
vowels are normally not indicated. Where they are, it's because a weak
consonant such as
aleph,
hey,
vav, or
yod has combined with a previous vowel and become silent, or by imitation of such cases in the spelling of other forms. When used to write
Yiddish, the Hebrew writing system uses consonants to indicate all the vowels (see
Yiddish orthography), except where Hebrew words are written in Yiddish.
To preserve the proper vowel sounds, scholars developed several different sets of vocalisation and diacritical symbols called
niqqud (literally "applying points"). One of these, the
Tiberian system, eventually prevailed.
Aaron ben Moses ben Asher, and his family for several generations, are credited for refining and maintaining the system. These points are normally used only for special purposes, such as
Biblical books intended for study, in
poetry or when teaching the language to children. The Tiberian system also includes a set of
cantillation marks used to indicate how scriptural passages should be chanted, used in synagogue recitations of scripture (although these marks don't appear in the scrolls), called "trope".
Hebrew letters may also be used as
numbers; see the entry on
Hebrew numerals. This use of letters as numbers is common in
Kabbalah (
Jewish mysticism) in a practice known as
gematria, as well as in the
hebrew calendar.
Names, scripts, values, and transliteration of the letters
The following table is a breakdown of each letter in the Hebrew alphabet, showing the letter, its name, its numerical value, and its
transliteration for English. There are five letters with a second, "final form", used at the end of words, represented below on the right-hand side of the letter's column. For additional ancestral scripts, see
History of the Hebrew alphabet → Ancestral scripts and script varients
- unwritten in initial and final positions, though often not written at all
- unwritten in final positions
- "h" initial or after consonants, "ch" everywhere else
- "i" in final positions or before consonants
- often not written at all
Pronunciation
The descriptions that follow are based on the pronunciation of modern standard Israeli Hebrew. For a concise summary, see the article International Phonetic Alphabet for Hebrew. For further information on regional and historical variations in pronunciation, see Hebrew phonology.
»
Pronunciation of Ancient Hebrew
Some of the variations in sound mentioned above are due to a systematic feature of
Ancient Hebrew. The six consonants /b g d k p t/ were pronounced differently depending on their position. These letters were also called
BeGeDKePHeT letters. (The full details are very complex; this summary omits some points.) They were pronounced as
stops [b g d k p t] at the beginning of a syllable, or when doubled. They were pronounced as
fricatives [vɣ ð x f θ] when preceded by a vowel (commonly indicated with a macron, [ḇḡ ḏ ḵ p̄ ṯ]). The stop and double pronunciations were indicated by the
dagesh. In Modern Hebrew the sounds [ḏ] and [ḡ] have reverted to [d] and [g] respectively, and [ṯ] has become [t], so only the remaining three consonants /b k p/ show variation.
vav was a semivowel /w/ (as in English, not as in German).
chet and ayin were pharyngeal fricatives, tsadi was an emphatic /s/, tet was an emphatic /t/, and qoph was /q/. All these are common Semitic consonants.
sin (the /s/ variant of shin) was originally different from both shin and samekh, but had become /s/ the same as samekh by the time the vowel pointing was devised. Because of cognates with other Semitic languages, this phoneme is known to have originally been a lateral consonant, most likely the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative /ɬ/ (the sound of modern Welsh ll) or the voiceless alveolar lateral affricate /tɬ/ (like Náhuatl tl).
Diacritics
Niqqud is the system of dots the help determine vowels and consonants. In Hebrew, all forms of niqqud are often omitted in writing, except for children's books, prayer books, poetry, foreign words, and words which would be ambiguous to pronounce.
Vowel points
Israeli Hebrew has five vowel phonemes, /i e a o u/, but many more written symbols for them:
|
Name |
|
Symbol |
|
Israeli Hebrew |
|
|
|
Transliteration |
|
English
Example |
| Hiriq |
|
[i] |
i |
ski |
| Zeire |
|
[ɛ] and [ɛi] |
e and ei |
men,
main |
| Segol |
|
[ɛ], ([ɛi] with
succeeding yod) |
e, (ei with
succeeding yod) |
men |
| Patach |
|
[a] |
a |
nn |
| Kamatz |
|
[a], (or [ɔ]) |
a, (or o) |
trw |
| Holam |
|
[ɔ] |
o |
cone |
| Shuruk |
|
[u] |
u |
tube |
| Kubutz |
|
[u] |
u |
tube |
Note Ⅰ: The symbol "O" represents whatever Hebrew letter is used.
Note Ⅰ: The zeire is pronounced correctly as ei in modern Hebrew.
Note Ⅱ: The dagesh, mappiq, and shuruk have different functions, even though they look the same.
Note Ⅲ: The letter ו (vav) is used since it can only be represented by that letter.
Sh'va
By adding two vertical dots (called Sh'va) underneath the letter, the vowel is made very short.
|
Name |
|
Symbol |
|
Israeli Hebrew |
|
|
|
Transliteration |
|
English
Example |
| Sh'va |
|
[ɛ] or Ø |
apostrophe, e,
or nothing |
silent |
| Reduced Segol |
|
[ɛ] |
e |
men |
| Reduced Patach |
|
[a] |
a |
spa |
| Reduced Kamatz |
|
[ɔ] |
o |
cone |
Comparison table
|
Vowel Comparison Table |
|
Vowel Length
(phonetically not manifested in Israeli Hebrew) |
|
|
|
Transliteration |
|
English
Example |
| Long |
Short |
Very Short |
|
|
|
[a] |
a |
spa |
|
|
|
[ɛ] |
e |
temp |
|
|
ֳ |
[ɔ] |
o |
coke |
|
|
n/a |
[u] |
u |
tube |
|
|
[i] |
i |
ski |
|
Note Ⅰ: | By adding two vertical dots (sh'va)
the vowel is made very short.
|
|
Note Ⅱ: | The short o and long a have the same niqqud.
|
|
Note Ⅲ: | The short o is is usually promoted to a long o
in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation
|
|
Note Ⅳ: | The short u is is usually promoted to a long u
in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation
|
Not used in Hebrew
|
Symbol |
Explanation |
|
These are intended for Yiddish. They are not used in Hebrew. See: Yiddish orthography. |
|
The rafe niqqud is no longer used in Hebrew. It is still seen in Yiddish. In masoretic manuscripts, the soft fricative consonants are indicated by a small line on top of the letter. Its use has been largely discontinued in printed texts. |
Gershayim
The symbol is called a gershayim and is a punctuation mark used in the Hebrew language to denote acronyms. It is written before the last letter in the acronym. Gershayim is also the name of a note of cantillation in the reading of the Torah, printed above the accented letter.
Non-native sounds
The sounds [ʧ], [ʤ], [ʒ], written "", "", "" and [w], standardly transliterated as "" (while "" normally is a [v]), non-standardly sometimes transliterated or
A geresh is also used to denote initialisms, to denote a Hebrew numeral and as a note of cantillation in the reading of the Torah.
Unicode and HTML
The Unicode Hebrew block extends from U+0590 to U+05FF and from U+FB1D to U+FB40. It includes letters, ligatures, combining diacritical marks (niqqud and cantillation marks) and punctuation. The Numeric Character References is included for HTML. These can be used in many markup languages, and they're often used in Wiki to create the Hebrew glyphs compatible with the majority of web browsers.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Hebrew Alephbeth'.
|
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