1 : Hebrew alphabet
2 : Description
2.1 : Notes on pronunciation
2.2 : Ancient Hebrew
3 : History
4 : Hebrew in Unicode
5 : See also
The Hebrew alphabet is a set of 22 letters used for writing Hebrew.
It is also used in mildly adapted forms for writing several languages of the Jewish diaspora:
Hebrew speakers call their alphabet the "aleph-bet" (aleph and bet are the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet). 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 BC.
The modern script used for writing Hebrew (usually called the Jewish script by scholars, and also traditionally known as the "square script", or the "Assyrian script"), evolved during the 3rd century BC from the Aramaic script, which was used by Jews for writing Hebrew since the 6th century BC. Prior to that, Hebrew was written using the old Hebrew script, which evolved during the 9th century BC from the Phoenician script; the Samaritans still write Hebrew in a variant of this script for religious works (see Samaritan alphabet.)
Description
Both the old Hebrew script and the modern Jewish script have only one case, but in the modern script some letters have special final forms used only at the end of a word. This is similar to Arabic, although much simpler. The Hebrew alphabet is an abjad: vowels are normally not indicated. Where they are it is because a weak vowel such as alef, he, vav, or yod has combined with a previous vowel and become silent or by imitation of such cases in spelling of other forms.
To preserve the proper vowel sounds, scholars developed several different sets of diacritic symbols (points or nikkudim). One of these, the Tiberian system eventually prevailed. Aaron ben Moses ben Asher, and his family for several generations, are credited for creating and maintaining the system. These points are normally used only for speical 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, and decorative "crowns" used only for Torah scrolls.
Hebrew letters may also be used as numbers; see the entry on Hebrew numerals. This use of letters as numbers is used in Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) in a practice known as gematria.
Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, with Initial/Medial and Final forms, the most standard Latin-letter transliteration values used in academic work, pronunciation using IPA symbols for modern standard Israeli pronunciation, reconstructed Tiberian pronuncation, reconstructed older pronunciation, and a SAMPA column for modern transliteration for those lacking fonts or browsers to properly handled the IPA characters.
{| border=1
!rowspan=2|Name !!colspan=2|Char.!!rowspan=2|Trns.!!colspan=5|Pronunciation
|-
!I/M!!F!!Mod.!!Tib.!!Old!!SAMPA!!Vowel
|-
| alef || align=center|א ||||align=center|ʾ||align=center|ʔ||align=center|ʔ||align=center|ʔ||align=center|?||align=center|a / e / o
|-
| bet ||align=center|ב ||||align=center|b, ḇ||align=center|b, v||align=center|b, v||align=center|b||align=center|b, v
|-
| gimel || align=center|ג ||||align=center|g, ḡ||align=center|ɡ||align=center|ɡ, ɣ||align=center|ɡ|| align=center|g
|-
| dalet || align=center|ד ||||align=center|d, ḏ||align=center|d||align=center|d, ð||align=center|d||align=center|d
|-
| he || align=center|ה ||||align=center|h||align=center|h||align=center|h||align=center|h||align=center| h||align=center|a / e / o
|-
| vav || align=center|ו||||align=center|w||align=center|v||align=center|w||align=center|w|| align=center|v||align=center|o / u
|-
| zayin || align=center|ז ||||align=center|z||align=center|z||align=center|z||align=center|z||align=center|z
|-
| chet || align=center|ח ||||align=center|ḥ||align=center|x||align=center|ħ||align=center|ħ / x||align=center|x (X\)
|-
| tet || align=center|ט||||align=center|ṭ||align=center|t||align=center|t̴||align=center|t̴||align=center|t
|-
| yod || align=center|י ||||align=center|y||align=center|j||align=center|j||align=center|j||align=center|j ||align=center|i / e
|-
| kaf || align=center|כ || align=center|ך||align=center|k, ḵ||align=center|k, x||align=center|k, x|| align=center|k||align=center|x
|-
| lamed || align=center|ל ||||align=center|l||align=center|l||align=center|l||align=center|ɮ||align=center|l
|-
| mem || align=center|מ || align=center|ם||align=center|m||align=center|m||align=center|m||align=center|m|| align=center|m
|-
| nun || align=center|נ || align=center|ן||align=center|n||align=center|n||align=center|n||align=center|n|| align=center|n
|-
| samech || align=center|ס ||||align=center|s||align=center|s||align=center|s||align=center|s||align=center|s
|-
| ayin || align=center|ע ||||align=center|ʿ||align=center|ʔ||align=center|ʕ||align=center|ʕ / ɣ||align=center| ?\ (?)
|-
| pe || align=center|פ || align=center|ף||align=center|p, p̄||align=center|p, f||align=center|p, f||align=center|p||align=center|p, f
|-
| tsadi || align=center|צ || align=center|ץ||align=center|ṣ||align=center|ts||align=center|s̴||align=center|s̴|| align=center|ts
|-
| qof || align=center|ק ||||align=center|k||align=center|q||align=center|q||align=center|q||align=center|k
|-
| resh || align=center|ר ||||align=center|r||align=center|ʁ||align=center|ɾ||align=center|ɾ||align=center|G\
|-
| shin || align=center|ש ||||align=center|š / ś ||align=center|ʃ / s||align=center|ʃ / s||align=center|ʃ / ɬ ||align=center|S / s
|-
| tav || align=center|ת ||||align=center|t||align=center|t||align=center|t, θ||align=center|t||align=center|t
|}
The letter shin stands for two different phonemes in ancient Hebrew and so has two different values (separated by a slash in the chart). Other letters have a double pronunciation when the sound was softened after a vowel in Tiberian pronuncation. In bar below or above a letter shown here in the transliteration column to indicating softening is in fact mostly not used.
Notes on pronunciation
- Chet is pronounced the same as "soft" kaf (/x/) by many speakers.
- Ayin is pronounced the same as aleph (glottal stop) by many speakers.
- Two sounds are given for the letters bet, kaf, and pe, and these depend on the position of the letter, and other factors. When vowel signs are used, the hard sounds /b/ /k/ /p/ are indicated by the dot called dagesh inside them, and the soft sounds /v/ /x/ /f/ lack ''dagesh.
- Vav and yod serve both as consonants and (more frequently) as vowels.
- Resh'' is pronounced as /G\/, a voiced uvular fricative. It is pronounced like /x/, but farther back in the uvula and is voiced.
- The two sounds given for shin are not equally common - The /S/ value is much more common. They are distinguished in vowelled texts by the position of a dot above them. The /s/ sound is the same as that of the letter ''samech.
- The letter tet and tav are both pronounced /t/.
- Qof is usually pronounced /k/, except by some speakers in closer contact with Arabic, who keep the older /q/ sound.
Ancient Hebrew
Some of the variations in sound mentioned above are due to a systematic feature of Ancient Hebrew. The six consonants /p t k b d g/ were pronounced differently depending on their position. (The full details are very complex; this summary omits some points.) They were pronounced as stops [p t k b d g] at the beginning of a syllable, or when doubled. They were pronounced as fricatives [f T x v D G] when preceded by a vowel. The stop and double pronunciations were indicated by the dot dagesh''. In Modern Hebrew the sounds [D] and [G] have reverted to [d] and [g], and [T] has become either [t] or [s], so only the remaining three letters 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 kof was /q/. All these are common Semitic sounds.
Sin (the /s/ variant of shin) was originally different from both shin and samech, but had become /s/ the same as samech by the time the vowel pointing was devised.
History
Archeological evidence indicates that the original Hebrew script is related to the Phoenician script that was in wide use in the Middle East region at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. Recent findings point to the direction that the Phoenician alphabet was derived from the ancient Cretans or Minoans (Crete is a Mediterranean island in Greece) who reached the shores of the Middle-East as early as 2,500 - 3,000 BC. Eventually this alphabet evolved in Europe into the Greek and Roman alphabets. This script was borrowed by the Hebrews during the 12th or 11th century BC, and around the 9th century BC, a distinct Hebrew variant, the original "Hebrew script", emerged. This script was widely used in the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah until they fell in the 8th and 6th centuries BC, respectively.
Following the Babylonian exile, Jews gradually stopped using the Hebrew script, and instead adopted the Babylonian Aramaic script (which was also originally derived from the Phoenecian script). This script, used for writing Hebrew, later evolved into the Jewish, or "square" script, that is still used today. "Square"-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. According to traditional Jewish thought, the Hebrew writing system contained all the current letters at the time of Moses, although Ezra is known for his contribution to the square form.
Following the decline of Hebrew and Aramaic as the spoken languages of the Jews, the Hebrew alphabet was adopted in order to write down the languages of the Jewish diaspora (Yiddish and Judaeo-Spanish). The Hebrew alphabet was retained as the alphabet used for writing down the Hebrew language during its rebirth in the end of the 19th century, despite several unsuccessful attempts to replace it with the Latin alphabet.
Hebrew in Unicode
The Unicode Hebrew block extends from U+0590 to U+05FF. It includes letters, ligatures, combining diacritical marks (nikkud and cantillation marks) and punctuation.
{|
|- align="center"
| || ||0||1||2||3||4||5||6||7||8||9||A||B||C||D||E||F
|- align="center"
|590|| ||||֑||֒||֓||֔||֕||֖||֗||֘||֙||֚||֛||֜||֝||֞||֟
|- align="center"
|5A0|| ||֠||֡||֢||֣||֤||֥||֦||֧||֨||֩||֪||֫||֬||֭||֮||֯
|- align="center"
|5B0|| ||ְ||ֱ||ֲ||ֳ||ִ||ֵ||ֶ||ַ||ָ||ֹ||ֺ||ֻ||ּ||ֽ||־||ֿ
|- align="center"
|5C0|| ||׀||ׁ||ׂ||׃||ׄ||ׅ||׆||ׇ||||||||||||||||
|- align="center"
|5D0|| ||א||ב||ג||ד||ה||ו||ז||ח||ט||י||ך||כ||ל||ם||מ||ן
|- align="center"
|5E0|| ||נ||ס||ע||ף||פ||ץ||צ||ק||ר||ש||ת||||||||||ׯ
|- align="center"
|5F0|| ||װ||ױ||ײ||׳||״||||||||||||||||||||||
|}
See also
hebalpha
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