Hebrew alphabet.html



Note: This article contains special characters.

The Hebrew alphabet (Hebrew: אָלֶף-בֵּית עִבְרִי‎,¹ 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 only 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 scholars², 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 had been used by Jews for writing Hebrew since the 6th century BCE, retaining the old script only for the Name of God. 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

Main article: History of the Hebrew alphabet

Aleppo Codex: 10th century CE Hebrew Bible with Masoretic pointing

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 is 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^{3verification needed} 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 is not 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, as used for writing Hebrew, later evolved into the Jewish, or "square" script, that is 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.

Note: The chart reads from right to left.

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.⁴ 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).⁵

The Hebrew alphabet is an abjad: vowels are normally not indicated. Where they are, it is because a weak consonant such as א aleph, ה hey, ו vav, or י 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 (ניקוד, 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 do not appear in the scrolls), called "trope". In everyday writing of modern Hebrew, niqqud are absent; however, patterns of how words are derived from Hebrew roots (called shoreshim, or triliteral roots) allow Hebrew speakers to determine the vowel-structure of a given word from its consonants based on the word's context and part of speech.

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

Further information: Romanization of Hebrew, Hebrew numerals, Cursive Hebrew, Rashi script

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 variants

Symbol		Name			Israeli Transliteration	Numerical Value	Scripts
		Israeli	Ashkenazi	Unicode			Hebrew				Ancestral
							Cursive		Rashi		Phoenician	Paleo-Hebrew	Aramaic
א		alef	alef	alef	- (1)	1
ב		bet, vet	beis, veis	bet	b, v	2
ג		gimel	gimmel	gimel	g	3
ד		dalet	daled	dalet	d	4
ה		he	hei	he	h (2)	5
ו		vav	vov/vof	vav	v	6
ז		zayin	zayin	zayin	z	7
ח		khet	ches	het	kh (or ch/h) (3)	8
ט		tet	tes	tet	t	9
י		yod	yud	yod	y (4)	10
כ	ך	kaf, khaf	kof, chof	kaf	k, kh (or ch)	20
ל		lamed	lomed	lamed	l	30
מ	ם	mem	mem	mem	m	40
נ	ן	nun	nun	nun	n	50
ס		samekh	somech	samekh	s	60
ע		ayin	ayin/oyin	ayin	- (5)	70
פ	ף	pe, fe	pei, fei	pe	p, f	80
צ	ץ	tsadi	tsodi/tsodik	tsadi	ts (or tz/z)	90							,
ק		kuf	kuf	qof	k (or q)	100
ר		resh	reish	resh	r	200
ש		shin, sin	shin, sin	shin	sh, s	300
ת		taf	tov/tof, sov/sof	tav	t	400

1. unwritten in initial and final positions, though often not written at all
2. unwritten in final positions
3. "h" initial or after consonants, "ch" everywhere else
4. "i" in final positions or before consonants
5. often not written at all

Pronunciation

Further information: Hebrew phonology and International Phonetic Alphabet for Hebrew

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.

Shin and sin

Further information: Shin (letter)

Shin and sin are represented by the same letter, ש, but are two separate phonemes. They are not mutually allophonic. When vowel diacritics are used, the two phonemes are differentiated with a shin-dot or sin-dot; the shin-dot is above the upper-right side of the letter, and the sin-dot is above the upper-left side of the letter.

Dagesh

Main article: Dagesh

Historically, the consonants ב bet, ג gimel, ד dalet, כ kaf, פ pe and ת tav each had two sounds: one hard (plosive), and one soft (fricative), depending on the position of the letter and other factors. When vowel diacritics are used, the hard sounds are indicated by a central dot called dagesh (דגש), while the soft sounds lack a dagesh. In modern Hebrew, however, the dagesh only changes the pronunciation of ב bet, כ kaf, פ pe, and ת tav (tav only changes in Ashkenazi and Yemenite pronunciations).

* Only in Ashkenazi pronunciations. In Israeli Hebrew, it is always a tav, with a /t/ sound.
** The letters gimmel (ג) and dalet (ד) also have dagesh (dotted) forms, but these do not differ phonetically from the forms without the dagesh in most of the Modern Hebrew dialects. Israeli Hebrew also exhibits no phonetic distinction between tav (ת) with or without a dagesh.

Same pronunciation

In Israel's general population, many consonants have the same pronunciation. They are:

* Varyingly

Matres lectionis

Main article: Mater lectionis

א aleph, ה he, ו vav and י yod are consonants that can sometimes fill the position of a vowel. The latter two in particular are more often vowels than they are consonants.

Symbol	Name	Vowel value
א	aleph	ê, ệ, ậ, â, ô
ה	he	ê, ệ, ậ, â, ô
ו	vav	ô, û
י	yud	î, ê, ệ

Pronunciation of Ancient Hebrew

Further information: Biblical 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 (pronounced /ˌbeɪgɛdˈkɛfɛt/) 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 [v ɣ ð x f θ] when preceded by a vowel (commonly indicated with a macron, [ḇ ḡ 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.

• ו vav was a semivowel /w/ (as in English, not as in German).
• ח chet and ע ayin were pharyngeal fricatives, צ tsadi was an emphatic /s/, ט tet was an emphatic /t/, and ק qoph was /q/. All these are common Semitic consonants.
• שׂ sin (the /s/ variant of ש shin) was originally different from both שׁ shin and ס samekh, but had become /s/ the same as ס 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

Main article: Niqqud

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
		IPA	Transliteration	English example
Hiriq		[i]	i	see
Zeire		[ɛ] and [ɛi]	e and ei	men, main
Segol		[ɛ], ([ɛi] with succeeding yod)	e, (ei with succeeding yod)	men
Patach		[a]	a	car
Kamatz		[a], <car>(or [ɔ])	a, (or o)</car>	car
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

Main article: Sh'va

By adding two vertical dots (called Sh'va) underneath the letter, the vowel is made very short.

Name	Symbol	Israeli Hebrew
		IPA	Transliteration	English example
Sh'va		[ɛ] or