Pointing (niqqud)
In modern Israeli orthography, vowel and consonant pointing is seldom used, except in specialised texts such as dictionaries, poetry, or texts for children or for new immigrants. Israeli Hebrew has five vowel phonemes—/i/, /e/, /a/, /o/ and /u/—but many more written symbols for them. Niqqud distinguish the following vowels and consonants; for more detail, see the main article.
| Name | Symbol | Unicode | Israeli Hebrew | Keyboard input | Hebrew | Alternate Names |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | Transliteration | English Example |
Letter | Key | |||||
| Hiriq | U+05B4 | i | seek | 4 | חִירִיק | ‒ | |||
| Tzeire | U+05B5 | and | e and ei | men | 5 | צֵירֵי or צֵירֶה | |||
| Segol | U+05B6 | , | e, | men | 6 | סֶגוֹל | |||
| Patakh | U+05B7 | a | far | 7 | פַּתָּח | ||||
| Kamatz | סָ | U+05B8 | , | a, | far | 8 | קָמָץ | ||
| Sin dot (left) | U+05C2 | s | sour | 9 | שִׂי״ן | ||||
| Shin dot (right) | U+05C1 | sh | shop | 0 | שִׁי״ן | ||||
| Holam Haser |
|
U+05B9 | o | bore | - | חוֹלָם חָסֵר | |||
| Holam Male | וֹ | U+05B9 | חוֹלָם מָלֵא | ||||||
| Dagesh or Mappiq;
Shuruk or Vav Shruqa |
U+05BC | N/A | N/A | N/A | = | דָּגֵשׁ or מַפִּיק | |||
| U+05BC | u | cool | שׁוּרוּק | ||||||
| Kubutz | U+05BB | \ | קֻבּוּץ | ||||||
| Below: Two vertical dots underneath the letter (called sh'va) make the vowel very short. | |||||||||
| Sh'va | U+05B0 | or | apostrophe, e, or nothing |
silent | ~ | שְׁוָא | ‒ | ||
| Reduced Segol | U+05B1 | e | men | 1 | חֲטַף סֶגוֹל | Hataf Segol | |||
| Reduced Patakh | U+05B2 | a | far | 2 | חֲטַף פַּתָּח | Hataf Patakh | |||
| Reduced Kamatz |
|
U+05B3 | o | bore | 3 | חֲטַף קָמָץ | Hataf Kamatz | ||
Read more about this topic: Hebrew Diacritics
Famous quotes containing the word pointing:
“Do you know what Agelisas said, when he was asked why the great city of Lacedomonie was not girded with walls? Because, pointing out the inhabitants and citizens of the city, so expert in military discipline and so strong and well armed: “Here,” he said, “are the walls of the city,” meaning that there is no wall but of bones, and that towns and cities can have no more secure nor stronger wall than the virtue of their citizens and inhabitants.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)