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Hebrew/Aleph-Bet/11

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Aleph-Bet Lesson 11 — Hebrew-Large|סְקִירָה Review

Hebrew/Aleph-Bet

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We have finally completed the Hebrew alphabet course! Let's review what you learned in this level:

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Letters

Here, each consonant is shown in its own box. Each line contains the name of the letter in English, the actual letter, the transliteration used throughout the book and the IPA equivalent.

Name	Letter	Transliteration	IPA	Pronunciation
Aleph	`hebrew\|א`	’	\|`IPA\|ʔ`	The glottal stop as in "co’operate". When it appears at the beginning of a word it indicates that the word starts with a vowel. Also makes the "a" sound.
Bet	`hebrew\|בּ`	b	b	"B" as in "ball".
Vet	`hebrew\|ב`	v	v	"V" as in "violin".
Gimmel	`hebrew\|ג`	g	g	"G" as in "give".
Dalet	`hebrew\|ד`	d	d	"D" as in "dog".
He	`hebrew\|ה`	h	h	"H" as in "heart". When at the end of a word, makes the "a" sound.
Vav	`hebrew\|ו`	v	v	"V" as in "violin". Also makes the "o" and "u" sounds.
Zayin	`hebrew\|ז`	z	z	"Z" as in "zoo".
Ħet	`hebrew\|ח`	ħ	χ	"Ch" as in German "Bach", in Dutch "acht".
Tet	`hebrew\|ט`	t	t	"T" as in "tomato".
Yod	`hebrew\|י`	y	j	"Y" as in "yard". Also makes the "i" sound.
Kaf	`hebrew\|כּ`	k	k	"K" as in "kitten".
Kaf Sofit (final)	`hebrew\|ךּ`	k	k	Rarely used (almost no words end with Kaf).
Khaf	`hebrew\|כ`	kh	χ	"Ch" as in German "Bach", in Dutch "acht".
Khaf Sofit (final)	`hebrew\|ך`	kh	χ	When Khaf is used in the end of a word, it looks like this.
Lamed	`hebrew\|ל`	l	l	"L" as in "lamb".
Mem	`hebrew\|מ`	m	m	"M" as in "mother".
Mem Sofit (final)	`hebrew\|ם`	m	m	When Mem is used in the end of a word, it looks like this.
Nun	`hebrew\|נ`	n	n	"N" as in "name".
Nun Sofit (final)	`hebrew\|ן`	n	n	When Nun is used in the end of a word, it looks like this.
Samekh	`hebrew\|ס`	s	s	"S" as in "safe".
‘Ayin	`hebrew\|ע`	‘	`IPA\|ʔ`	The glottal stop as in "co’operate". When it appears at the beginning of a word it indicates that the word starts with a vowel.
Pe	`hebrew\|פּ`	p	p	"P" as in "port".
Fe	`hebrew\|פ`	f	f	"F" as in "fame".
Fe Sofit (final)	`hebrew\|ף`	f	f	When Fe is used in the end of a word, it looks like this.
Tsadi	`hebrew\|צ`	ts	`IPA\|ʦ`	"Zz" as in "pizza".
Tsadi Sofit (final)	`hebrew\|ץ`	ts	`IPA\|ʦ`	When Tsadi is used in the end of a word, it looks like this.
Qof	`hebrew\|ק`	q	k	"K" as in "kitten".
Resh	`hebrew\|ר`	r	`IPA\|ʁ`	"R" as in German "Frau", in French "français".
Shin	`hebrew\|שׁ`	sh	`IPA\|ʃ`	"Sh" as in "ship".
Sin	`hebrew\|שׂ`	s	s	"S" as in "safe".
Tav	`hebrew\|ת`	t	t	"T" as in "tomato".

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Niqqud

The symbols are arranged by pronounciation.

Name	Diacritic	Transliteration	IPA	Pronounciation
Qamats	`hebrew\|בָּ`	a	a	"A" as in "spa".
Qamats malei (qamats + Aleph/He)	`hebrew\|בָּה`/`Hebrew\|בָּא`	a	a	"-"
Pataħ	`hebrew\|בַּ`	a	a	"-"
Pataħ malei (pataħ + Aleph/He)	`hebrew\|בַּה`/`Hebrew\|בַּא`	a	a	"-"
Ħataf-pataħ	`hebrew\|חֲ`	a	a	"-"
Tsere	`hebrew\|בֵּ`	e	e	"E" as in "bet".
Tsere malei (tsere + Yod)	`hebrew\|בֵּי`	e	e	"-"
Segol	`hebrew\|בֶּ`	e	e	"-"
Segol malei (segol + Yod)	`hebrew\|בֶּי`	e	e	"-"
Ħataf-segol	`hebrew\|חֱ`	e	e	"-"
Ħolam ħasser	`hebrew\|בּׂ`	o	o	"O" as in "gore".
Ħolam malei	`hebrew\|בּוֹ`	o	o	"-"
Qamats qatan	`hebrew\|בָּ`	o	o	"-"
Ħataf-qamats	`hebrew\|חֳ`	o	o	"-"
Ħiriq	`hebrew\|בִּ`	i	i	"I" as in "ski".
Ħiriq malei (ħiriq + Yod)	`hebrew\|בִּי`	i	i	"-"
Qubbuts	`hebrew\|בֻּ`	u	u	"U" as in "flu".
Shuruq	`hebrew\|בּוּ`	u	u	"-"
Shva	`hebrew\|בְּ`	. or e	. or `IPA\|ə`	"A" as in "about" when at the beginning of syllable, or indicates the end of a syllable when it's there

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Numbers

Numeric value	Letter
1	א
2	ב
3	ג
4	ד
5	ה
6	ו
7	ז
8	ח
9	ט
10	י
11	י"א
12	י"ב
13	י"ג
14	י"ד
15	ט"ו
16	ט"ז
17	י"ז
18	י"ח
19	י"ט
20	כ
21	כ"א
25	כ"ה
30	ל
35	ל"ו
40	מ
50	נ
60	ס
70	ע
80	פ
90	צ
100	ק
105	ק"ה
150	ק"נ
155	קנ"ה
200	ר
300	ש
400	ת
Rarely used:
500	ך
600	ם
700	ן
800	ף
900	ץ

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Letters that sound the same

Traditional Hebrew had many phonemes that don't exist today. Most of these sounds are called by linguists "pharyngealised", that is, to produce them you need to "voice" (use your vocal cords) while sticking the root of your tongue to the pharynx. Many European Jews found it impossible to make such sounds, so they replaced them with regular consonants, all of which were already existent in Hebrew. For instance:

Kaf used to be a regular "k" sound (k).
Qof used to be a pharyngealised "k" sound (q).
Eventually Qof was pronounced the same as the regular "k".

As a result of this merging, many sounds have two letters to represent them. To prevent confusion, here are all the common sounds:

Aleph Hebrew|א and ‘Ayn Hebrew|ע both make the glottal stop (’).
Vet Hebrew|ב and Vav Hebrew|ו both make the "v" sound (v).
At the end of a word, Aleph Hebrew|א and He Hebrew|ה both make the "a" sound (a).
Ħet Hebrew|ח and Khaf Hebrew|כך both make the "kh" sound (χ).
Tet Hebrew|ט and Tav Hebrew|ת both make the "t" sound (t).
Kaf Hebrew|כּ and Qof Hebrew|ק both make the "k" sound (k).
Samekh Hebrew|ס and Sin Hebrew|שׂ both make the "s" sound (s).

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Letters that look the same

Many letters in Hebrew are based on other letters. One could almost call them diacritics. For example:

Resh Hebrew|ר
Yod Hebrew|י
Vav Hebrew|ו

Resh and Yod make together He Hebrew|ה.
Resh and Vav make together Ħet Hebrew|ח.

Many unexperienced readers tend to confuse these letters.

Hebrew|ז Zayin
Hebrew|ו Vav
Hebrew|ן Nun Sofit

Hebrew|ם Mem Sofit
Hebrew|ס Samekh

Hebrew|ה He
Hebrew|ח Ħet
Hebrew|ת Tav

Hebrew|כ Kaf
Hebrew|ב Bet

Hebrew|ג Gimmel
Hebrew|נ Nun

Hebrew|ד Dalet
Hebrew|ר Resh

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Foreign transliteration

The fact that there are multiple letters for the same sounds, creates a problem. What letters would you use for foreign words, using the Hebrew alphabet? Can you use any of them?

The answer is no. While Tet and Tav, for instance, sounds the same, and supposedly we could use both of them, only Tet can be used for the "t" sound. This is because in foreign transliterations Tav might represent the "th" sound (Hebrew|פְּלִימוּת plimuth Plymouth).

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European Languages

A — Aleph Hebrew|א
V — Vav in the beginning of syllables; Vet anywhere else
Ch, kh, h — Khaf Hebrew|כך in German and Greek; Ħet Hebrew|ח anywhere else
T — Tet Hebrew|ט
Th — Tav Hebrew|ת, Thav Hebrew|ת'
S — Samekh Hebrew|ס
Sh — Shin Hebrew|שׁ
Ts, tz, z — Tsadi Hebrew|צ
K — Qof Hebrew|ק
Any form of R — Resh Hebrew|ר
Tch (as in "chair") — Tchadi Hebrew|צ'ץ'
Zh, j, s (as in "pleasure") — Zhayin Hebrew|ז'
J, dzh (as in "jam") — Jimmel Hebrew|ג'

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Arabic

These transliterations apply only to words of Arabic origin:

T — Tav Hebrew|ת
Th — Thav Hebrew|ת'
Dj — Jimmel Hebrew|ג'
Ħ — Ħet Hebrew|ח
Kh — Khet Hebrew|ח'
Dh — Dhal Hebrew|ד'
S' — Tsadi Hebrew|צ
D' — Dadi Hebrew|צ'
T' — Tet Hebrew|ט
Dh' — Dhet Hebrew|ט'
Gh — Ghayin Hebrew|ע'
Q — Qof Hebrew|ק
K — Kaf Hebrew|כּ

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Niqqud

When writing foreign words, always use the vowel letters Aleph Hebrew|א, Vav Hebrew|ו and Hebrew|י.

There are many exceptions regarding Aleph, but don't take the risk.

For example: based on the former table, Tokaj (a town in Hungary famous for its wine) would never be written with Kaf and Tav (then it would be Thokhaj), but rather with Qof and Tet, respectively. But what niqqud would be used?

There are some rules:

Never use ħataf forms.
"O" is always written with ħolam malei (Hebrew|וֹ).
"U" is always shuruq (Hebrew|וּ), never qubbuts (Hebrew|בֻּ).
As stated before, always use vowel letters, or in other words, malei forms (Hebrew|בָּה/בָּא בַּה/בַּא בִּי בּוֹ בּוּ). It doesn't matter whether the word is written with niqqud or without.
Write the "e" without using any vowel letter (this might cause confusion between "e" and "ְ" but this is something you'd have to guess).
You can use either Qamats or Pataħ for "a", Segol or Tsere for "e".

Then the word Tokaj would be written Hebrew|טוֹקָאי.

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