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Niqqud
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In Hebrew 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. Several systems for representing Hebrew vowels 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).
Niqqud marks are small compared to consonants, so they can be added without retranscribing texts whose writers did not anticipate them.
Among those who do not speak Hebrew, niqqud are the sometimes unnamed focus of controversy regarding the interpretation of those written with the Tetragrammaton—written as ??????? in Hebrew.
Discussion
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Encyclopedia
In Hebrew 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. Several systems for representing Hebrew vowels 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).
Niqqud marks are small compared to consonants, so they can be added without retranscribing texts whose writers did not anticipate them.
Among those who do not speak Hebrew, niqqud are the sometimes unnamed focus of controversy regarding the interpretation of those written with the Tetragrammaton—written as ??????? in Hebrew. The interpretation affects discussion of the authentic ancient pronunciation of the name whose other conventional English forms are "Jehovah" and "Yahweh".
Table
This table uses the consonants , or , where appropriate, to demonstrate where the niqqud is placed in relation to the consonant it is pronounced after. Any other consonants shown are actually part of the vowel. Note that there is some variation among different traditions in exactly how some vowel points are pronounced. The table below shows how most Israelis would pronounce them, but the classic Ashkenazi pronunciation, for example, differs in several respects.
- This demonstration is known to work in Internet Explorer and Mozilla browsers in at least some circumstances, but in most other Windows browsers the niqqud do not properly combine with the consonants. This is because, currently, the Windows text display engine does not combine the niqqud automatically. Except as noted, the vowel pointings should appear directly beneath the consonants and the accompanying "vowel letter" consonants for the malê (long) forms appear after.
| Symbol | Type | Common name | Alternate names | Scientific name | Hebrew | IPA | Transliteration | Comments |
|---|
| | Israeli | Sh'va | sheva
| | | Ø
| ?, e, ', or nothing |
In modern Hebrew, shva is pronounced either /e/ or Ø, regardless of its traditional classification as shva na? (???? ??) or shva na (???? ??), see following table for examples:
| Pronunciation of shva in modern Hebrew |
|---|
| | Occurrences of shva denoting the vowel [e?]) | Occurrences of shva denoting Ø (absence of a vowel) | | shva na?* | ?????????? [ki'mate?t]
?????????????? [hitmo?'tate?t] | ?????????? [ki'palt]
?????????????? [hitka'palt] |
|---|
| shva na | ???????? [?ade?'du]
????? [le?'at] | ???????? [sar'du]
????? [zman] |
|---|
*All shvas in the words "??????????" and "??????????????" are shva na?,
nonetheless those marked under the letter tet ("?") are pronounced /e/ |
|
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | |
|---|
| | Israeli | Reduced segol | hataf segol
| | | | e | — |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | e
| ? |
|---|
| | Israeli | Reduced patach | hataf patah
| | |
| a
| — |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | a
| — |
|---|
| | Israeli | Reduced kamatz | hataf kamats
| | | | o
| — |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | o
| — |
|---|
| | Israeli | Hiriq | hiriq
| | | | i
| Usually promoted to Hiriq Malei in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation. |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | i or í
| — |
|---|
| | Israeli | Hiriq malei | hiriq yod
| | | | i
| — |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | î
| — |
|---|
| | Israeli | Zeire | tsere, tzeirei
| | | | e
| — |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | e
| — |
|---|
| | Israeli | Zeire malei | tsere yod, tzeirei yod
| | | | e
| ei (IPA ). |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | ê
| — |
|---|
| | Israeli | Segol | segol
| | | | e
| — |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | e or é
| — |
|---|
| | Israeli | Segol malei | segol yod
| | | | e
| ei (IPA ) |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | ?
| — |
|---|
| | Israeli | Patach | patah
| | | | a
| A patach on a letter ? at the end of a word is sounded before the letter, and not behind. Thus, ???? (Noah) is pronounced /no-ax/. This only occurs at the ends of words and only with patach and ?, ?, and ?? (that is, ? with a dot (mappiq) in it). This is sometimes called a patach g'nuvah, or "stolen" patach (more formally, "furtive patach"), since the sound "steals" an imaginary epenthetic consonant to make the extra syllable. |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | a or á
| — |
|---|
| | Israeli | Patach malei | patah yod
| | | | a
| — |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | ?
| — |
|---|
| | Israeli | Kamatz gadol | kamats
| | | | a
| — |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | a
| — |
|---|
| | Israeli | Kamatz malei | kamats he
| | | | a
| comm |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | â
| — |
|---|
| | Israeli | Kamatz katan | kamats hatuf
| | | | o
| Usually promoted to Holam Malei in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation. Also, not to be confused with Hataf Kamatz. |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | — |
|---|
| | Israeli | Holam | holam
| | | | o
| Usually promoted to Holam Malei in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation. The holam is written above the consonant on the left corner, or slightly to the left of (i.e., after) it at the top. |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | o
| comm |
|---|
| | Israeli | Holam malei | holam male
| | | | o
| The holam is written in the normal position relative to the main consonant (above and slightly to the left), which places it directly over the vav. |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | ô
| — |
|---|
| | Israeli | Kubutz | kubuts
| | | | u
| Usually promoted to Shuruk in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation. |
|---|
| Tiberian
|
|
| | u or ú
| |
|---|
| | Israeli | Shuruk | shuruk
| | | | u
| The shuruk is written after the main consonant, because it is essentially a vav with a piercing; the piercing is written identically to a dagesh (see below). |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | | | û
| — |
|---|
| | Israeli | Dagesh | dagesh
| | | varied
| varied
| Though Standard Hebrew indicates doubled consonants in transliteration, such doubling (gemination)—but not consonant plosiveness—is almost universally ignored in Israeli Hebrew. For most consonants the dagesh is written within the consonant, near the middle if possible, but the exact position varies from letter to letter; some letters do not have an open area in the middle, and in these cases it is written usually beside the letter, as with yod. A dagesh used to signify a plosive variant (of letters ?), but not gemination is known as a dagesh qal, whereas that which geminates a letter is known as a dagesh hazaq. The guttural consonants and resh do not take a dagesh, although the letter he may appear with a mappiq (which is written the same way as dagesh) at the end of a word to indicate that the letter is not only being used to signify a vowel, but is consonantal. |
|---|
| Tiberian
| | |
|
| Not actually a vowel. It hardens or doubles the consonant it modifies. The resulting form can still take a niqqud vowel. |
|---|
| | Israeli | Rafe | rafe | Not used in Hebrew. Still occasionally seen in Yiddish (actually more often as the spelling becomes more standardized, embracing YIVO rules) to distinguish ?? /p/ from ?? /f/ (note that this letter is always pronounced when in the final position, with the exception of loanwords—??????—, foreign names—????????— and some slang—??????). Some ancient manuscripts have a dagesh or a rafe on nearly every letter. It is also used to indicate that a letter like ? or ? is silent. In the particularly strange case of the Ten Commandments, which have two different traditions for their Cantillations which many texts write together, there are cases of a single letter with both a dagesh and a rafe, if it is hard in one reading and soft in the other. |
|---|
| Tiberian | Niqqud, but not a vowel. Used as an "anti-dagesh", to show that a ?????? letter is soft and not hard, or (sometimes) that a consonant is single and not double, or that a letter like ? or ? is completely silent |
|---|
| | Israeli | Shin dot | shin dot | | | | š/sh | Niqqud, but not a vowel (unless the letter before the shin has a holam, in which case the holam merges with the shin dot). The dot for shin is written over the right (first) branch of the letter. It is usually written as sh. |
|---|
| Tiberian |
|---|
| | Israeli | Sin dot | sin dot | | | | s/s
| Niqqud, but not a vowel (unless the sin has a holam, in which case the sin dot and holam merge). The dot for sin is written over the left (third) branch of the letter |
|---|
| Tiberian
| |
|---|
Niqqud and the keyboard
For the Hebrew letters there is a standardized Hebrew keyboard. But when it comes to niqqud, different computer systems and programs provide for adding the signs in different ways.
Using the Hebrew keyboard layout in Microsoft Windows the typist can enter niqqud by pressing CapsLock, putting the cursor after the consonant letter and then pressing Shift and one of the following keys. In GTK+ Linux systems niqqud can be entered by pressing ctrl+shift+u followed by the appropriate 4 digit Unicode.
Using the Hebrew keyboard layout in Mac OS X, the typist can enter niqqud by pressing the Option key together with a number on the top row of the keyboard. Other combinations like sofit and hataf can also be entered by pressing either the Shift key and a number, or by pressing the Shift key, Option key, and a number at the same time.
A comprehensive guide can be download in PDF format from here .
| Niqqud input |
|---|
| Input (Windows) | Key (Windows) | Unicode | Type | Result |
|---|
| ~
| | 05B0
| Sh'va
| [1] | | 1
| | 05B1
| Reduced Segol
| [1] | | 2
| | 05B2
| Reduced Patach
| [1] | | 3
| | 05B3
| Reduced Kamatz
| [1] | | 4
| | 05B4
| Hiriq
| [1] | | 5
| | 05B5
| Zeire
| [1] | | 6
| | 05B6
| Segol
| [1] | | 7
| | 05B7
| Patach
| [1] |
| | Niqqud input |
|---|
| Input (Windows) | Key (Windows) | Unicode | Type | Result |
|---|
| 8
| | 05B8
| Kamatz
| [1] | | 9
| | 05B9
| Sin dot (left)
| [2] | | 0
| | ?
| Shin dot (right)
| [2] | | -
| | ?
| Holam
| [1] | | = [3] | | 05BC
| Dagesh or Mappiq
| [1] | | ?
| Shuruk
| [4] | | \
| | 05BB
| Kubutz
| [1] |
|
Notes:
- [1] The letter "O" represents whatever Hebrew letter is used.
- [2] For sin-dot and shin-dot, the letter "?" (sin/shin) is used since they can only be used with that letter.
- [3] The dagesh, mappiq, and shuruk are different; however, they look the same and (hence) are input the same way (all 3 of them.)
- [4] For shuruk, the letter "?" (vav) is used since it can only be used with that letter.
Rules for writing without niqqud
In modern Israeli orthography niqqud is seldom used, except in specialised texts such as dictionaries, poetry, or texts for children or for new immigrants. For purposes of disambiguation, a system of spelling-without-niqqud, known in Hebrew as ktiv male , literally "full spelling" has developed. This was formally standardised in the Rules for Spelling without Niqqud (???? ????? ??? ??????) enacted by the
Academy of the Hebrew Language in 1996.
See also
External links
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