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The Hebrew alphabet (aleph-bet) (Alef Beis) (alephbet ’ivri) consists of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
. 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
Yiddish language

Yiddish is a non-territorial High German languages of Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. Unlike other such languages, Yiddish is written with the Hebrew alphabet as opposed to a Latin alphabet....
, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic
Judeo-Arabic languages

The Jud?o-Arabic languages are a collection of Varieties of Arabic spoken by Jews living or formerly living in the Arab world; the term also refers to more or less classical Arabic written in the Hebrew alphabet, particularly in the Middle Ages....
 (for a full and detailed list, see Jewish languages
Jewish languages

The Jewish languages are a set of languages and dialects that developed in various Jewish communities around the world, more notably in Europe, West Asia, and North Africa....
). Hebrew is written from right to left.

The Hebrew word for "alphabet
Alphabet

An alphabet is a standardized set of letter basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a phoneme, a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past....
" is ?????? (alephbet), named after the first two letters of the Greek (and Hebrew) alphabet (Alpha/aleph, Beta).






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The Hebrew alphabet (aleph-bet) (Alef Beis) (alephbet ’ivri) consists of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
. 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
Yiddish language

Yiddish is a non-territorial High German languages of Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. Unlike other such languages, Yiddish is written with the Hebrew alphabet as opposed to a Latin alphabet....
, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic
Judeo-Arabic languages

The Jud?o-Arabic languages are a collection of Varieties of Arabic spoken by Jews living or formerly living in the Arab world; the term also refers to more or less classical Arabic written in the Hebrew alphabet, particularly in the Middle Ages....
 (for a full and detailed list, see Jewish languages
Jewish languages

The Jewish languages are a set of languages and dialects that developed in various Jewish communities around the world, more notably in Europe, West Asia, and North Africa....
). Hebrew is written from right to left.

The Hebrew word for "alphabet
Alphabet

An alphabet is a standardized set of letter basic written symbols each of which roughly represents a phoneme, a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past....
" is ?????? (alephbet), named after the first two letters of the Greek (and Hebrew) alphabet (Alpha/aleph, Beta). The Hebrew alphabet is an abjad
Abjad

An abjad is a type of writing system in which each symbol stands for a consonant; the reader must supply the appropriate vowel. It is a term suggested by Peter T....
, having letters only for consonant
Consonant

In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx....
s, but means were later devised to indicate vowels by separate vowel points or niqqud
Niqqud

In Hebrew language orthography, niqqud or nikkud is the system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of consonants of the Hebrew alphabet....
. In rabbinic Hebrew, the consonant letters ???? are used as matres lectionis
Mater lectionis

In the spelling of Hebrew language and some other Semitic languages, matres lectionis , refers to the use of certain consonants to indicate a vowel....
 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
Aramaic alphabet

The Aramaic alphabet has been called an abjad--that is, a consonantal alphabet -- used for writing Aramaic language. It is adapted from the Phoenician alphabet, and became distinctive from it by the eighth century BCE....
, as both Hebrews
Hebrews

Hebrews are an ancient people defined as descendants of biblical Patriarch Abraham , a descendent of Noah.In the Bible, the patriarch Abraham is referred to a single time as the ivri, which is the singular form of the Hebrew-language word for Hebrew ....
 and Arameans borrowed the Phoenician alphabet
Phoenician alphabet

The Phoenician alphabet is a continuation of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, by convention taken to originate around 1050 BC. It was used for the writing of Phoenician language, a Northern Semitic languages language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia....
 for their uses during the end of the 2nd millennium BCE
2nd millennium BC

The 2nd millennium BC marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age.Its first half is dominated by the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and Babylonia....
.

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
Syriac alphabet

The Syriac alphabet is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language from around the 2nd century BC. It is one of the Semitic languages abjads directly descending from the Proto-Canaanite alphabet and shares similarities with the Phoenician alphabet, Aramaic alphabet, and Hebrew alphabet alphabets....
) evolved during the 3rd century BCE
3rd century BC

The 3rd century BC started the first day of 300 BC and ended the last day of 201 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period....
 from the Aramaic script
Aramaic alphabet

The Aramaic alphabet has been called an abjad--that is, a consonantal alphabet -- used for writing Aramaic language. It is adapted from the Phoenician alphabet, and became distinctive from it by the eighth century BCE....
, which had been used by Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
s for writing Hebrew since the 6th century BCE
6th century BC

The 6th century BC started the first day of 600 BC and ended the last day of 501 BC.In India, Panini, sometime during this century, composed a grammar for sanskrit, which is the oldest extant grammar of any language....
, retaining the old script only for the Name of God. Prior to that, Hebrew was written using the old Hebrew script
Paleo-Hebrew alphabet

The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, also known as Ktav Ivri, is an offshoot of the ancient Semitic alphabet . At the very least it dates to the 10th century BCE....
, which evolved during the 10th century BCE
10th century BC

The 10th century BC started the first day of 1000 BC and ended the last day of 901 BC....
 from the Phoenician script; the Samaritan
Samaritan

The Samaritans , known in the Talmud as Cuthim , are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Ancestrally, they claim descent from a group of Israelite inhabitants who have connections to ancient Samaria from the beginning of the Babylonian Exile up to the beginning of the Common Era....
s still write Hebrew in a variant of this script for religious works (see Samaritan alphabet
Samaritan alphabet

The Samaritan alphabet is used by the Samaritans for religious writings, including the Samaritan Pentateuch, writings in Samaritan Hebrew, and for commentaries and translations in Samaritan Aramaic language and occasionally Arabic language....
). For other opinions, see below.

History

Aleppo Codex
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
Phoenician alphabet

The Phoenician alphabet is a continuation of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, by convention taken to originate around 1050 BC. It was used for the writing of Phoenician language, a Northern Semitic languages language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia....
, which itself probably gave rise to the use of alphabetic writing in Greece
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
 (Greek
Greek alphabet

The Greek alphabet is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th century BC or early 8th century BCE....
). It is sometimes claimed that around the 10th century BCE
10th century BC

The 10th century BC started the first day of 1000 BC and ended the last day of 901 BC....
  a distinct Hebrew variant, the original "Hebrew script"
Paleo-Hebrew alphabet

The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, also known as Ktav Ivri, is an offshoot of the ancient Semitic alphabet . At the very least it dates to the 10th century BCE....
, emerged, which was widely used in the ancient kingdoms of Israel
Kingdom of Israel

The Kingdom of Israel was one of the successor states to the older United Monarchy . It existed roughly from the 930s BC until about the 720s BC....
 and Judah
Kingdom of Judah

The Kingdom of Judah existed at two periods in Jewish history. According to the Hebrew Bible, a kingdom emerged in Judah after the death of Saul, when the tribe of Judah elevated David to rule over it....
 until they fell in the 8th
8th century BC

The 8th century BC started the first day of 800 BC and ended the last day of 701 BC....
 and 6th
6th century BC

The 6th century BC started the first day of 600 BC and ended the last day of 501 BC.In India, Panini, sometime during this century, composed a grammar for sanskrit, which is the oldest extant grammar of any language....
 centuries BCE, respectively. It is not straightforward, however, to distinguish Israelite
Israelite

According to the Tanakh, the Israelites were the descendants of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. They were divided into twelve tribes, each descended from one of twelve sons or grandsons of Jacob....
/Judahite scripts from others which were in use in the immediate area, most notably by the Moabites and Ammon
Ammon

Ammon or Ammonites , also referred to in the Bible as the "children of Ammon," were a people living east of the Jordan river whose origin the Old Testament traces to an illegitimate son of Lot , the nephew of the patriarch Abraham, as with the Moabites....
ites.

Following the Babylonian exile, Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
s 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
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
 (and later, the rise of Islam
Islam

Islam is a Monotheism, Abrahamic religion originating with the teachings of the Prophets of Islam Muhammad, a 7th century Arab religious and political figure....
), they gave way to the Roman and Arabic
Arabic alphabet

The Arabic alphabet is the writing system used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa, such as Arabic language, Persian language, and Urdu language....
 alphabets, respectively.

The Hebrew alphabet was later adapted in order to write down the languages of the Jewish diaspora
Jewish diaspora

The Jewish diaspora , the presence of Jews outside of the Land of Israel, is a result of the expulsion or emigration of Jews from Israel and religious conversion to Judaism....
 (Karaim
Karaim language

The Karaim language is a Turkic languages with Hebrew language influences, in a similar manner to Yiddish language or Ladino language. It is spoken by Crimean Karaites - ethnic Turkic adherents of Karaite Judaism in Crimea, Lithuania, Poland and western Ukraine....
, Judæo-Arabic, Ladino, Yiddish
Yiddish language

Yiddish is a non-territorial High German languages of Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. Unlike other such languages, Yiddish is written with the Hebrew alphabet as opposed to a Latin alphabet....
, etc.). The Hebrew alphabet was retained as the alphabet used for writing down the Hebrew language
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 during its rebirth in the 18th to 19th century.

Description


The Hebrew alphabet is an abjad
Abjad

An abjad is a type of writing system in which each symbol stands for a consonant; the reader must supply the appropriate vowel. It is a term suggested by Peter T....
: vowel
Vowel

In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis....
s are normally not indicated. Where they are, it is because a weak consonant
Consonant

In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx....
 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
Yiddish orthography

The Yiddish language is written using Hebrew alphabet as the basis of a full vocalic alphabet. This adaptation uses letters that are silent or glottal stops in Hebrew, as vowels in Yiddish....
), 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
Niqqud

In Hebrew language orthography, niqqud or nikkud is the system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of consonants of the Hebrew alphabet....
 (literally "applying points"). One of these, the Tiberian system
Tiberian vocalization

Tiberian Hebrew is an extinct but very well documented oral tradition of pronunciation for ancient Hebrew language, especially the Hebrew of the Tanakh, that was given written form by Masoretes scholars in the Jewish community at Tiberias, in the early Middle Ages, beginning in the 8th century....
, eventually prevailed. Aaron ben Moses ben Asher
Aaron ben Moses ben Asher

Aaron ben Moses ben Asher was a Judaism sofer who refined the Tiberian system for writing down vowel sounds in Hebrew alphabet, which is still in use today, and serves as the basis for grammatical analysis....
, 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
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
 books intended for study, in poetry
Poetry

Poetry is a form of literature art in which language is used for its aesthetics and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning ....
 or when teaching the language to children. The Tiberian system also includes a set of cantillation
Cantillation

Cantillation is the ritual chanting of readings from the Bible in synagogue Jewish services.The chants are rendered in accordance with the special signs or marks printed in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible to complement the letters and vowel points....
 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.

Both the old Hebrew script and the modern Hebrew script have only one case, but some letters
Letter (alphabet)

A letter is an element in an alphabetic system of writing, such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants. Each letter in the written language is usually associated with one phoneme in the spoken form of the language....
 have special final form
Final form

In many languages, the final form is a special character used to represent a letter only when it occurs at the end of a word. For example, in Hebrew:...
s, called sofit (Heb.
Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic languages of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Modern Hebrew is spoken by more than seven million people in Israel and Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jews communities around the world....
 ?????, meaning in this case "final" or "ending") form, used only at the end of a word, somewhat as in the Arabic
Arabic alphabet

The Arabic alphabet is the writing system used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa, such as Arabic language, Persian language, and Urdu language....
 and Mandaic alphabet
Mandaic alphabet

The Mandaic alphabet is based on the Aramaic alphabet, and is used for writing the Mandaic language.The Mandaic name for the script is Abagada or Abaga, after the first letters of the alphabet....
s. As can be seen in the tables given here, only five letters have a sofit form: ? ? ? (kaph and khaph), ? ? ? (mem), ? ? ? (nun), ? ? ? (pe and phe), ? ? ? (tsadi or tsade).These are shown below the normal form, in the following table.

Aleph
Aleph

* Aleph or Alef is the first letter of the Semitic abjads descended from Proto-Canaanite alphabet, Arabic alphabet, Phoenician alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, Syriac alphabet....
Bet/Vet
Bet (letter)

Bet, Beth, or Vet is the second Letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician language, Aramaic language, Hebrew language Syriac alphabet and Arabic alphabet ....
GimelDalet
Dalet

Dalet is the fourth Letter of many Semitic languages alphabets, including Phoenician alphabet, Aramaic alphabet, Hebrew alphabet , Syriac alphabet and Arabic alphabet ....
He
He (letter)

He is the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician alphabet , Aramaic alphabet, Hebrew alphabet , Syriac alphabet and Arabic alphabet ....
Vav
Waw (letter)

Waw is the sixth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician alphabet, Aramaic alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, Syriac alphabet, and Arabic alphabet ....
Zayin
Zayin

Zayin is the seventh letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician language , Aramaic language , Hebrew language , Syriac alphabet and Arabic alphabet []....
Chet
Heth

Heth may refer to:* Heth , a letter in many Semitic alphabets* Children of Heth, a Canaanite nation in the Hebrew Bible, purportedly named after Heth, son of Canaan, son of Ham, son of Noah...
Tet
Teth

is the ninth letter of many Semitic abjads , including Phoenician alphabet, Aramaic alphabet, Hebrew alphabet 'Tet' , Syriac alphabet and Arabic alphabet ; it is 9th in abjadi order and 16th in modern Arabic order....
Yodh
Yodh

Yodh is the tenth letter of many Semitic History of the alphabet, including Phoenician language, Aramaic language, Hebrew language Yud , Syriac alphabet and Arabic alphabet ....
Kaf/Khaph
Kaph

Kaph is the eleventh letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician language, Aramaic language, Hebrew language Kaf , Arabic alphabet , Persian alphabet ....
???????????
?
Lamed
Lamedh

Lamed or Lamedh is the twelfth letter in many Semitic languages abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Aramaic alphabet, Hebrew alphabet Lamed and Arabic alphabet ....
Mem
Mem

Mem is the thirteenth letter of many Semitic languages abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Aramaic alphabet, Hebrew alphabet and Arabic alphabet ....
Nun
Nun (letter)

Nun is the fourteenth letter of many Semitic language abjads, including Phoenician language, Aramaic language, Hebrew language and Arabic alphabet ....
Sameh
Samekh

Samekh or Simketh is the fifteenth letter in many Semitic languages alphabets, including Phoenician alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, and Aramaic alphabet, representing ....
Ayin
Ayin

' or ' is the sixteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Aramaic language, Hebrew language and Arabic alphabet ....
Pei/Fei
Pe (letter)

Pe is the seventeenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician language, Aramaic language, Hebrew language Pei , Persian alphabet Pe and Arabic alphabet ....
Tsadi
Tsade

'Tsade' is the eighteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician language, Aramaic language, Hebrew language 'Tsadi' and Arabic alphabet ....
Quph
Qoph

Qoph or Qop is the nineteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician language, Aramaic language, Hebrew language and Arabic alphabet ....
Reish
Resh

Resh is the twentieth letter of many Semitic History of the alphabet, including Phoenician language, Aramaic language, Hebrew language and Arabic alphabet ....
Shin/Sin
Shin (letter)

Shin is the twenty-first letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician language, Aramaic language, Hebrew language , and Arabic alphabet ....
Tav|sof
Taw

Taw may refer to:* Taw , the twenty-second letter in many Semitic alphabets* the shooter marble in a game of marbles* The River Taw in Devon, England...
???????????
????


Note: The chart reads from right to left.

Hebrew letters may also be used as number
Number

A number is a mathematical object used in counting and measurement. A notational symbol which represents a number is called a Numeral system, but in common usage the word number is used for both the abstract object and the symbol, as well as for the numeral for the number....
s; see the entry on Hebrew numerals
Hebrew numerals

The system of Hebrew numerals is a quasi-decimal alphabetic numeral system using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.In this system, there is no notation for 0 , and the numeric values for individual letters are added together....
. This use of letters as numbers is common in Kabbalah
Kabbalah

Kabbalah is a discipline and school of thought discussing the mysticism aspect of Judaism. It is a set of esoteric teachings that are meant to explain the relationship between an infinite, eternal and essentially unknowable Creator deity with the finite and mortal universe of His creation....
 (Jewish
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
 mysticism
Mysticism

Mysticism is the pursuit of communion with, Unio Mystica with, or conscious awareness of an ultimate reality, divinity, Spirituality, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight....
) in a practice known as gematria
Gematria

Gematria or gimatria is a system of assigning number to an alphabet. The word "gematria" is generally held to derive from Greek geometria, "geometry", which was used a translation of gema?riya....
, as well as in the Hebrew calendar
Hebrew calendar

The Hebrew calendar or Jewish calendar is a lunisolar calendar used by Jews, now predominantly for religious purposes. It is used to reckon the Jewish New Year and dates for Jewish holidays, and also to determine appropriate Torah reading of Torah portions, Yahrzeits , and daily Psalm reading, among many ceremonial uses....
.

Letter variants and values


The following table is a breakdown of each letter in the Hebrew alphabet, showing the letter, its name, its numerical value, and its transliteration
Transliteration

Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice....
 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
History of the Hebrew alphabet

The History of the Hebrew alphabet dates back several thousand years....


Symbol Name Israeli
Transliteration
Romanization of Hebrew

Hebrew language uses the Hebrew alphabet with optional niqqud. The romanization of Hebrew is the use of the Latin alphabet to transliterate Hebrew words....
 Numerical
Value
Hebrew numerals

The system of Hebrew numerals is a quasi-decimal alphabetic numeral system using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.In this system, there is no notation for 0 , and the numeric values for individual letters are added together....
 		Scripts
Israeli Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Hebrew

Ashkenazi Hebrew is the pronunciation system for Biblical Hebrew language and Mishnaic Hebrew language favored for Liturgy use by Ashkenazi Judaism practice....
 Unicode
Unicode

Unicode is a computing industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate Character expressed in most of the world's writing systems....
 		Hebrew Ancestral
Cursive Rashi
Rashi script

Rashi script is a semi-Hebrew cursive typeface for the Hebrew alphabet, in which Rashi#Works are printed both in the Talmud and Tanakh . This does not mean that Rashi himself used such a script: the typeface is based on a 15th century Sephardi Jews semi-cursive hand and was called by the Ashkenazic Rishonim - the Hachmei Provence script....
 Phoenician
Phoenician alphabet

The Phoenician alphabet is a continuation of the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, by convention taken to originate around 1050 BC. It was used for the writing of Phoenician language, a Northern Semitic languages language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia....
 Paleo-Hebrew
Paleo-Hebrew alphabet

The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, also known as Ktav Ivri, is an offshoot of the ancient Semitic alphabet . At the very least it dates to the 10th century BCE....
 Aramaic
Aramaic alphabet

The Aramaic alphabet has been called an abjad--that is, a consonantal alphabet -- used for writing Aramaic language. It is adapted from the Phoenician alphabet, and became distinctive from it by the eighth century BCE....
? alef alef alef - (1) 1
? bet, vet beis, veis bet b, v 2
? gimel gimmel gimel g 3
? dalet daled dalet d 4
? he hei he h (2) 5
? vav vov/vof vav v 6
? zayin zayin zayin z 7
? khet ches het kh (or ch/h) (3) 8
? tet tes tet t 9
? yod yud yod j (4) 10
?? kaf, khaf kof, chof kaf k, kh (or ch) 20
? lamed lomed lamed l 30
?? mem mem mem m 40
?? nun nun nun n 50
? samekh somech samekh s 60
? ayin ayin/oyin ayin - (5) 70
?? pe, fe pei, fei pe p, f 80
?? tsadi tsodi/tsodik tsadi ts (or tz/z) 90 ,
? kuf kuf qof k (or q) 100
? resh reish resh r 200
? shin, sin shin, sin shin sh, s 300
? taf tov/tof, sov/sof tav t 400


Yiddish symbols


Symbol Explanation
These are intended for Yiddish. They are not used in Hebrew. See: Yiddish orthography
Yiddish orthography

The Yiddish language is written using Hebrew alphabet as the basis of a full vocalic alphabet. This adaptation uses letters that are silent or glottal stops in Hebrew, as vowels in Yiddish....
.
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.


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.

Letters ? ?? ? ? ?? ?? ? ?? ?? ? ? ?? ?? ??) , ??) ? ?? ? ? ?
IPA (non-standard)
Letters?? ?? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ?? ?? ? ????? ?? ? ??
IPA , - ]


Shin and sin


Shin and sin are represented by the same letter, , but are two separate phoneme
Phoneme

In human language, a phoneme is the smallest posited linguistically distinctive unit of sound. Phonemes carry no semantic content themselves. In theoretical terms, phonemes are not the physical segment s themselves, but cognitive abstractions or categorizations of them....
s. They are not mutually allophonic
Allophone

In phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar speech sounds that belong to the same phoneme. A phoneme is an abstract unit of speech sound that can distinguish words: That is, changing a phoneme in a word can produce another word....
. 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.

Symbol Name Transliteration
Transliteration

Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice....
 		IPA Example
(left dot) sin s sour
(right dot) shin sh shop


Dagesh

Historically, the consonants bet,beis, gimel, dalet, kaf,kof, pe,pey, and tav each had two sounds: one hard (plosive), and one soft (fricative
Fricative consonant

Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two Place of articulation close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German language , the final consonant of Bach; or the side of the tongue ag...
), 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 , while the soft sounds lack a dagesh. In modern Hebrew, however, the dagesh only changes the pronunciation of bet, kaf, pe, and tav (tav only changes in Ashkenazi (sof) and Yemenite pronunciations).

With dagesh Without dagesh
Symbol Name Transliteration IPA Example Symbol Name Transliteration IPA Example
bet b /b/ bun vet v /v/ van
kaph k /k/ kangaroo khaph kh/ch/k /?/ loch
pe p /p/ pass phe ph/f /f/ find
tav t /t/ talent sav* s /s/ sorry
* Only in Ashkenazi pronunciations. In Israeli Hebrew, it is always a tav, with a sound.
** The letters gimmel and dalet 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 with or without a dagesh.

Identical pronunciation

In Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
's general population, many consonants have the same pronunciation. They are:

Letters Transliteration Pronunciation (IPA)

aleph*
ayin*		 -

vet (without dagesh)
vav		 v

chet
khaph (without dagesh)		 kh/ch/h

tet
tav		 t

kaph (with dagesh)
qoph		 k

samekh
sin (with left dot)		 s

tsadi*
tav-samech*		 and
tav-sin*		ts/tz
* Varyingly

Ancient Hebrew pronunciation


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
Stop consonant

A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. The terms plosive and stop are usually used interchangeably, but they are not perfect synonyms....
 [b g d k p t] at the beginning of a syllable, or when doubled. They were pronounced as fricatives when preceded by a vowel (commonly indicated with a macron, ). The stop and double pronunciations were indicated by the dagesh. In Modern Hebrew the sounds and have reverted to [d] and [g] respectively, and has become [t], so only the remaining three consonants /b k p/ show variation. "reish" may have also been a "doubled" letter, making the list BeGeD KePoReS" and also rendering hebrew one of the only languages to possess two 'r' sounds. (Sefer Yetzirah
Sefer Yetzirah

Sefer Yetzirah is the title of the earliest extant book on Jewish esotericism.The Sefer Yetzirah is devoted to speculations concerning God's creation of the world....
, 4:1, this depends on the antiquity of this book.)

  • vav was a semivowel /w/ (as in English, not as in German).
  • chet and ayin were pharyngeal
    Pharyngeal consonant

    A pharyngeal consonant is a type of consonant which is articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx.Pharyngeal consonants in the International Phonetic Alphabet :...
     fricatives
    Fricative consonant

    Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two Place of articulation close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German language , the final consonant of Bach; or the side of the tongue ag...
    ,     tsadi was an emphatic
    Emphatic consonant

    Emphatic consonant is a term widely used in Semitic languages linguistics to describe one of a series of obstruent consonants which originally contrasted with series of both voiced and voiceless obstruents....
     /s/,     tet was an emphatic /t/, and qoph was . All these are common Semitic
    Semitic languages

    File:Amarna Akkadian letter.pngThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa....
     consonant
    Consonant

    In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx....
    s.
  • 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 cognate
    Cognate

    Cognates in linguistics are words that have a common etymology origin.An example of cognates within the same language would be English shirt vs....
    s with other Semitic languages, this phoneme is known to have originally been a lateral consonant
    Lateral consonant

    Laterals are "L"-like consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue, while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both sides of the tongue....
    , most likely the voiceless alveolar lateral fricative
    Voiceless alveolar lateral fricative

    The voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents voiceless dental consonant, alveolar consonant, and postalveolar consonant fricative consonant is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is K....
      (the sound of modern Welsh
    Welsh language

    Welsh ]], is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh Marches and in the Welsh settlement in Argentina in the Chubut Valley in Argentina Patagonia....
         ll) or the voiceless alveolar lateral affricate
    Voiceless alveolar lateral affricate

    The voiceless alveolar lateral affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabetis , and in Americanist phonetic notation it is ....
      (like Náhuatl     tl).


Vowels


Matres lectionis


aleph, he, vav and 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.

SymbolNameVowel value
? aleph ê, ?, ?, â, ô
? he ê, ?, ?, â, ô
? vav ô, û
? yud î, ê, ?


Vowel points


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. Israeli Hebrew has five vowel phonemes, , but many more written symbols for them:

Name Symbol Israeli Hebrew
IPA Transliteration
Transliteration

Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice....
 		English
example
Hiriq i see
Zeire and e and ei men,
main
Segol , ( with
succeeding yod
Yodh

Yodh is the tenth letter of many Semitic History of the alphabet, including Phoenician language, Aramaic language, Hebrew language Yud , Syriac alphabet and Arabic alphabet ....
)		 e, (ei with
succeeding yod)		 men
Patach a car
Kamatz , (or ) a, (or o) car
Holam o cone
Shuruk u tube
Kubutz u tube
Note ?: The symbol "O" represents whatever Hebrew letter is used.
Note ?: The zeire is pronounced correctly as ei in modern Hebrew.
Note ?: The dagesh, mappiq
Mappiq

The mappiq is a diacritic used in the Hebrew alphabet. It is part of the Masoretes' system of niqqud , and was added to Hebrew language orthography at the same time....
, and shuruk have different functions, even though they look the same.
Note ?: The letter ? (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
IPA Transliteration
Transliteration

Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice....
 		English
example
Sh'va
Schwa

In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean the following:*An stress and tone neutral vowel sound in any language, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel....
 or
Zero (linguistics)

A zero, in linguistics, is a constituent needed in an analysis but not realized in speech. This implies that there is a lack of an element where a theory would expect one....
 apostrophe, e,
or nothing		 silent
Reduced Segol e men
Reduced Patach a cup
Reduced Kamatz o cone


Comparison table
Vowel comparison table
Vowel Length
Vowel length

In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one such as in Australian English....

(phonetically not manifested in Israeli Hebrew) 		IPA Transliteration
Transliteration

Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice....
 		English
example
Long Short Very Short
[a] a spa
[?] e temp
[?] o cone
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 usually promoted to a long o
in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation
Note IV: The short u is usually promoted to a long u
in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation


Gershayim

The symbol is called a gershayim
Gershayim

Gershayim is a punctuation mark used in the Hebrew language. It has two distinct meanings.# The original meaning of "Gershayim" is to denote a note of cantillation in the reading of the Torah, taking the form of a doubled curved stroke printed above the accented letter....
 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
Cantillation

Cantillation is the ritual chanting of readings from the Bible in synagogue Jewish services.The chants are rendered in accordance with the special signs or marks printed in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible to complement the letters and vowel points....
 in the reading of the Torah
Torah

The term "Torah" , or Five Books of Moses or Pentateuch, refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding Halakha and ethical religious texts....
, printed above the accented letter.

Symbols for non-native sounds


The sounds , , , written "", "", "" and , standardly transliterated as "" (while "" normally is a [v]), non-standardly sometimes transliterated or ?, are found in many loanwords that are part of the everyday Hebrew colloquial vocabulary, even among people who don't know the source languages. The apostrophe-looking symbol after the Hebrew letter modifies the pronunciation of the letter and is called a geresh
Geresh

Geresh is a sign in Hebrew writing. It has two meanings.1. An apostrophe-like sign placed after a letter. It is used:Usage...
.

English loanwords
Name Symbol IPA Transliteration
Transliteration

Transliteration is the practice of transcribing a word or text written in one writing system into another writing system or system of rules for such practice....
 		Example
Gimel with a geresh j George '?????
Zayin with a geresh varies Jabotinsky
Jacques		 ??????????
????
Tsadi with a geresh ch Chernobyl ????????
Vav with a geresh
or double Vav		 or (non standard) w William | align="right"| ??????
Tav with a geresh th Thurston | align="right"| ???????


Arabic loanwords
Name Symbol IPA Arabic letter
Arabic alphabet

The Arabic alphabet is the writing system used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa, such as Arabic language, Persian language, and Urdu language....
 		Example Comment
Khet with a geresh ?a'
?a'

is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet . It represents the voiceless dental fricative ....
 Sheikh‎ | align="right"| ????? 
Ayin with a geresh Gayn
Gayn

The Arabic letter is one of the six letters in the Arabic alphabet not in the twenty-two akin to the Phoenician alphabet . It is the twenty second alphabet in new Persian alphabet....
 Ghaja'r | align="right"| ????? 
Dalet with a geresh ?al
?al

is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet . It represents the voiced dental fricative ....
th		 Dhu al-Hijjah (?? ?????)‎ | align="right"| ??? ??-???'? * Also used for English voiced th
* Often a simple ? is written.
Tet with a geresh ?a'
?a'

is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet . It represents the voiceless dental fricative ....
 Tanzim‎ | align="right"| ?????? * In scientific and professional writing
* Transliterated as a regular ? in colloquial writing
Tsadi with a geresh ?ad
?ad

is one of the six letters the Arabic alphabet added to the twenty-two inherited from the Phoenician alphabet . It represents an emphatic consonant voiced alveolar plosive ....
 Rama?an | align="right"| ?????? * In scientific and professional writing
* Transliterated as a regular ? in colloquial writing
Using ?? to represent is, however, non-standard, while still done; standard spelling rules determine that in ktiv male
Ktiv male

Ktiv Hasar Niqqud , are the rules for writing Hebrew without vowel pointers , often replacing them with mater lectionis . To avoid confusion, consonantal vav and yod are doubled in the middle of words....
—i.e. text without niqqud
Niqqud

In Hebrew language orthography, niqqud or nikkud is the system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of consonants of the Hebrew alphabet....
—a "double vav
Waw (letter)

Waw is the sixth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician alphabet, Aramaic alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, Syriac alphabet, and Arabic alphabet ....
" is used to indicate a vav
Waw (letter)

Waw is the sixth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician alphabet, Aramaic alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, Syriac alphabet, and Arabic alphabet ....
 in a non-initial and non-final position denoting the consonant , as opposed to a vav
Waw (letter)

Waw is the sixth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician alphabet, Aramaic alphabet, Hebrew alphabet, Syriac alphabet, and Arabic alphabet ....
 denoting the vowels or , which is indicated by a single ?.

A geresh is also used to denote initialisms
Acronym and initialism

Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name. These components may be individual letters or parts of words ....
 and to denote a Hebrew numeral. Geresh also is the name of one of the notes of cantillation in the reading of the Torah
Torah

The term "Torah" , or Five Books of Moses or Pentateuch, refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding Halakha and ethical religious texts....
, but its appearance and function is different.

Unicode and HTML


The Unicode
Unicode

Unicode is a computing industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate Character expressed in most of the world's writing systems....
 Hebrew block extends from U+0590 to U+05FF and from U+FB1D to U+FB40. It includes letter
Letter (alphabet)

A letter is an element in an alphabetic system of writing, such as the Greek alphabet and its descendants. Each letter in the written language is usually associated with one phoneme in the spoken form of the language....
s, ligature
Ligature (typography)

In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes are joined as a single glyph. Ligatures usually replace consecutive characters sharing common components, and are part of a more general class of glyphs called "contextual forms" where the specific shape of a letter depends on context such as surrounding letters or prox...
s, combining diacritical marks (niqqud
Niqqud

In Hebrew language orthography, niqqud or nikkud is the system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of consonants of the Hebrew alphabet....
 and cantillation
Cantillation

Cantillation is the ritual chanting of readings from the Bible in synagogue Jewish services.The chants are rendered in accordance with the special signs or marks printed in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible to complement the letters and vowel points....
 marks) and punctuation
Punctuation

Punctuation is everything in written language other than the actual letters or numbers, including punctuation marks , Interword separation and indentation....
. The Numeric Character References
Numeric character reference

A numeric character reference is a common markup construct used in SGML and other SGML-based markup languages such as HTML and XML. It consists of a short sequence of character s that, in turn, represent a single character from the Universal Character Set of Unicode....
 is included for HTML. These can be used in many markup languages, and they are often used in Wiki to create the Hebrew glyphs compatible with the majority of web browsers.

See also

  • Hebrew punctuation
    Hebrew punctuation

    Hebrew punctuation is similar to that of English language and other Western world languages.Biblical Hebrew has fewer grammatical punctuation marks, which can sometimes make Biblical Hebrew ambiguous....
  • Mater lectionis
    Mater lectionis

    In the spelling of Hebrew language and some other Semitic languages, matres lectionis , refers to the use of certain consonants to indicate a vowel....
  • History of the Hebrew language
  • Syriac alphabet
    Syriac alphabet

    The Syriac alphabet is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language from around the 2nd century BC. It is one of the Semitic languages abjads directly descending from the Proto-Canaanite alphabet and shares similarities with the Phoenician alphabet, Aramaic alphabet, and Hebrew alphabet alphabets....
  • Niqqud
    Niqqud

    In Hebrew language orthography, niqqud or nikkud is the system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of consonants of the Hebrew alphabet....
  • Dagesh
    Dagesh

    The dagesh is a diacritic used in the Hebrew alphabet. It was added to the Hebrew language orthography at the same time as the Masoretic system of niqqud ....
  • Gershayim
    Gershayim

    Gershayim is a punctuation mark used in the Hebrew language. It has two distinct meanings.# The original meaning of "Gershayim" is to denote a note of cantillation in the reading of the Torah, taking the form of a doubled curved stroke printed above the accented letter....
  • Hebrew braille
    Hebrew braille

    Hebrew Braille is the system of braille used by Hebrew speakers and specifically, in the State of Israel. In many ways it is similar to the standard braille system used with the Roman alphabet....
  • Cursive Hebrew
  • Rashi script
    Rashi script

    Rashi script is a semi-Hebrew cursive typeface for the Hebrew alphabet, in which Rashi#Works are printed both in the Talmud and Tanakh . This does not mean that Rashi himself used such a script: the typeface is based on a 15th century Sephardi Jews semi-cursive hand and was called by the Ashkenazic Rishonim - the Hachmei Provence script....
  • Ashuri alphabet
    Ashuri alphabet

    The Ashuri alphabet is a formal script used in certain Jewish ceremonial items, including Sefer Torah, Mezuzah, Tefillin also abbreviated as STA"M ...
  • Hebrew keyboard
    Hebrew keyboard

    A Hebrew keyboard comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards contain both Hebrew script and English, as English letters are necessary for Uniform Resource Locators and Email addresses....
  • Romanization of Hebrew
    Romanization of Hebrew

    Hebrew language uses the Hebrew alphabet with optional niqqud. The romanization of Hebrew is the use of the Latin alphabet to transliterate Hebrew words....
  • International Phonetic Alphabet for Hebrew
  • Hebrew phonology
    Hebrew phonology

    This article is about the phonology of the Hebrew language based on the Israeli Hebrew. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof, including geographical variants....
  • Inverted nun
    Inverted nun

    Inverted nun is a rare character - the letter Nun in mirror image - which appears in the Masoretic text of the Tanakh in nine different places:...
  • Koren Type
    Koren Type

    Koren Type refers to two Hebrew fonts, Koren Bible Type and Hebrew Book Type created by Israeli typographer and graphic designer Elyahu Koren. Koren created Koren Bible Type for the specific purpose of printing The Koren Bible, published by Koren Publishers Jerusalem in 1962....
  • Help:Hebrew


Bibliography

Roots of the Hebrew Alphabet
  • Mathers table
    Mathers table

    The Mathers table of Hebrew alphabet and Aramaic language letters is a tabular display of the pronunciation, appearance, numerical values, transliteration, names, and symbolism of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet appearing in Kabbalah Unveiled, Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers' late Nineteenth century English language trans...
  • February 28 2005. Qumran Bet Community. Retrieved January 5 2006.


External links

Keyboards
  • - Virtual Hebrew Keyboard
  • - for typing Hebrew with an English keyboard (transliteration with niqqud
    Niqqud

    In Hebrew language orthography, niqqud or nikkud is the system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of consonants of the Hebrew alphabet....
    )
  • - for typing Hebrew with an English keyboard (Hebrew layout
    Hebrew keyboard

    A Hebrew keyboard comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards contain both Hebrew script and English, as English letters are necessary for Uniform Resource Locators and Email addresses....
     and phonetic layout)