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:
“The young ... look into visages dull-eyed, long-toothed, wattle-necked, and chop-fallen, something they have never been and which they cannot imagine ever being.... If it occurs to a young person, looking at us, that this is the direction in which he himself travels, how can he forgive, let alone bear the sight of, us, who constantly bring him the bad news of our own faces, bitter signposts pointing to his own destination?”
—Jessamyn West (1902–1984)