Hebrew alphabet

This article is mainly about Hebrew letters. For Hebrew diacritical marks, see niqqud (for the vowel points) and cantillation.

The Hebrew alphabet is a set of 22 letters used for writing the Hebrew language. Five of these letters have a different form when appearing as the last letter in a word. The Hebrew letters are used in mildly adapted forms for writing several languages of the Jewish diaspora, most famously Yiddish, Ladino, and Judaeo-Arabic (for a full and detailed list, see Jewish languages). Hebrew is written from right to left.

The Hebrew word for "alphabet" is אלף-בית (alef-bet), named after the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The Hebrew alphabet was in origin an abjad; in other words it had letters for consonants only, but means were later devised to indicate vowels, first by using consonant letters as matres lectionis, later by separate vowel points or nikud.

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—not to be confused with the Eastern variant of the Syriac alphabet), 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 10th century BC from the Phoenician script; the Samaritans still write Hebrew in a variant of this script for religious works (see Samaritan alphabet).

Short table

The Hebrew alphabet consists of the following letters. Some letters have a different form used at the ends of words: these are shown in the table below the normal form.

Alef	Bet/Vet	Gimel	Dalet	He	Vav	Zayin	Het	Tet	Yod	Kaf/Chaf
א	ב	ג	ד	ה	ו	ז	ח	ט	י	כ
										ך
Lamed	Mem	Nun	Samekh	Ayin	Pe/Fe	Tsadi	Qof	Resh	Shin/Sin	Tav
ל	מ	נ	ס	ע	פ	צ	ק	ר	ש	ת
	ם	ן			ף	ץ

Description

Both the old Hebrew script and the modern Hebrew 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 the Arabic alphabet, although much simpler. The Hebrew alphabet is an abjad: vowels are normally not indicated. Where they are it is because a weak consonant such as א alef, ה he, ו vav, or י yod has combined with a previous vowel and become silent or by imitation of such cases in spelling of other forms. When used to write Yiddish, the Hebrew writing system is a true alphabet (see Yiddish orthography), except where Hebrew words are written in Yiddish.

To preserve the proper vowel sounds, scholars developed several different sets of diacritic symbols called nikud (ניקוד; literally: "applying points"). One of these, the Tiberian system, eventually prevailed. Aaron ben Moses ben Asher, and his family for several generations, are credited for refining and maintaining the system. These points are normally used only for special 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, used in synagogue recitations of scripture (although these marks do not appear in the 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.

Main table

The following table is a breakdown of each letter in the Hebrew alphabet, describing its written glyph or glyphs, its name or names, its Latin script transliteration values used in academic work, and its pronunciation in reconstructed historical forms and dialects using the International Phonetic Alphabet. If two glyphs are shown for a letter, then the left-most glyph is the Final form of the letter (or right-most glyph if your browser doesn't support right-to-left text layout).

Name and transliteration

Symbol	Name						Transliteration
	Academic			Uni- code Stan- dard	Israeli	Ash- kenazi	Academic			Israeli
	Unicode	Font-friendly	ISO-8859-1-friendly	Uni- code Stan- dard	Israeli	Ash- kenazi	Uni- code	Font-friendly	ISO-8859-1-friendly	Israeli
א		’āleph	'àleph	alef	alef	alef		’	'	' (1)
ב		bêth, bhêth	bêth, bhêth	bet	bet, vet	beis, veis		b, bh	b, bh	b, v
ג		gímel, ghímel	gímel, ghímel	gimel	gimel	gimmel		g, gh	g, gh	g
ד		dāleth, dhāleth	dàleth, dhàleth	dalet	dalet	doles		d, dh	d, dh	d
ה	?	hê	hê	he	he, hei	hei		?	?	h (2)
ו		wāw	wàw	vav	vav	vov, vof	?	w	w	v
ז	?	záyin	záyin	zayin	zayin	zayin	?	z	z	?
ח		ħêth, (3) xêth	h`êth, (3) xêth	het	chet	ches		ħ, (3) x	h`, (3) x	kh, ch (4)
ט		ţêth	t`êth	tet	tet	tes		ţ	t`	t
י		yôdh	yôdh	yod	yod, yud	yud	?	y	y	y, i (8)
ך כ		kāph, khāph	kàph, khàph	kaf	kaf, chaf	kof, chof		k, kh	k, kh	k, ch
ל		lāmedh	làmedh	lamed	lamed	lomed	?	l	l	l
ם מ	mēm	mēm	mèm	mem	mem	mem	?	m	m	m
ן נ	?	nûn	nûn	nun	nun	nun	?	n	n	n
ס		sāmekh	sàmekh	samekh	samech	somech	?	s	s	s
ע	(3)	‘áyin, (3) ġáyin	`áyin, (3) 3áyin	ayin	ayin	ayin, oyin	, (3)	‘, (3) ġ	`, (3) 3	' (9)
ף פ		pê, phê	pê, phê	pe	pe, pei, fe/fei	pei, fei		p, ph	p, ph	p, f
ץ צ		şādhê	s`àdhê	tsadi	tzadi, tzadik	tsodi, tsodik		ş	s`	tz, ts, z
ק		qôph	qôph	qof	kof, kuf	kuf	?	k	k	q
ר		rêš	rêsh	resh	resh, reish	reish	?	r	r	r
ש		šîn, śîn	shîn, lhîn	shin	shin, sin	shin, sin		š, ś	sh, lh	sh, s
ת		tāw, thāw	tàw, thàw	tav	tav, taf	tov, tof, sov, sof		t, th	t, th	t

Numerical value and pronunciation

Symbol	Numerical Value	Pronunciation (IPA)
		Modern Israeli	Ashkenazi	Sephardi	Yemenite	Tiberian	Reconstructed
		Modern Israeli	Ashkenazi	Sephardi	Yemenite	Tiberian	Mishnaic	Biblical
א	1	, -	[ -
ב	2
ג	3
ד	4
ה	5
ו	6
ז	7
ח	8
ט	9				(5)		(6)	(7)
י	10
ך כ	20
ל	30
ם מ	40
ן נ	50
ס	60
ע	70	, –	-	–
ף פ	80
ץ צ	90				(5)		(6)	(7)
ק	100							(7)
ר	200
ש	300
ת	400

Notes

unwritten in initial and final positions, though often not written at all
unwritten in final positions
archaic
h initial or after consonants, ch everywhere else
velarized or pharyngealized
pharyngealized
sometimes said to be ejective but more likely glottalized.
i in final positions or before consonants
often not written at all

Historically, the consonants ב bet, ג gimel, ד dalet, כ kaf, פ pe, and ת tav each had two sounds: one hard (plosive consonant), and one soft (fricative consonant), depending on the position of the letter and other factors. When vowel diacritics are used, the hard sounds are indicated by a central dot called dagesh (דגש), while the soft sounds lack a dagesh. In masoretic manuscripts, the soft fricative consonants are indicated by a small line on top of the letter; this diacritical mark is called raphe (רפה), but its use has been largely discontinued in printed texts.
א alef, ה he, ו vav and י yod are consonants that can sometimes fill the position of a vowel. vav and yod in particular are more often vowels than they are consonants.
ש shin and sin are two separate phonemes written with the same letter. They are not mutually allophonic. When vowel diacritics are used, the two phonemes are differentiated with a shin-dot or sin-dot; the shin-dot is above the upper-right side of the letter, and sin-dot is above the upper-left side of the letter.
In Israel's general population, many consonants have merged to the same pronunciation. They are:
- א alef with ayin and (varyingly) ה he
- ב bet (without dagesh) with ו vav
- ח het with כ kaf (without dagesh)
- ט tet with ת tav (both with and without dagesh)
- כ kaf (with dagesh) with ק qof
- ס samekh with שׂ sin (but not with שׁ shin)
- צ tsadi with the consonant cluster תס tav-samekh

Vowel formation

Some of the letters, as well as their consonantal function, also acted as matres lectionis to represent vowels, as follows:

Symbol	Name	Vowel formation
א	alef	ê, ệ, ậ, â, ô
ה	he	ê, ệ, ậ, â, ô
ו	vav	ô, û
י	yod	î, ê, ệ

Vowels and Consonants in 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. These letters were also called BeGeDKePHeT (pronounced ) letters. (The full details are very complex; this summary omits some points.) They were pronounced as stops t k b d g at the beginning of a syllable, or when doubled. They were pronounced as fricatives — IPA when preceded by a vowel. The stop and double pronunciations were indicated by the dagesh. In Modern Hebrew the sounds and have reverted to and ^*, so only the remaining three consonants /b k p/ show variation.

ו vav was a semivowel /w/ (as in English, not as in German).

ח het and ע ayin were pharyngeal fricatives, צ tsadi was an emphatic /s/, ט tet was an emphatic /t/, and ק qof was /q/. All these are common Semitic consonants.

שׂ sin (the /s/ variant of ש shin) was originally different from both שׁ shin and ס samekh, but had become /s/ the same as ס samekh by the time the vowel pointing was devised. Because of cognates with other Semitic languages, this phoneme is known to have originally been a lateral consonant, most likely IPA the fricative (as in Welsh ll) or the affricate (as in Náhuatl tl).

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 BCE. (Eventually, in Europe, this alphabet evolved into the Greek and Roman alphabets). Phoenician script was borrowed by the Hebrews during the 12th or 11th century BCE, and around the 10th century BCE10th century BCE script, 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 BCE, 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 Phoenician 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 (Karaim, Judæo-Arabic, Ladino, Yiddish, etc.). 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.

Possible Linguistic Origins

The Hebrew alphabet is thought to have developed in the same way as the Phoenician alphabet; each letter representing a picture. This is noted in the Mathers table, appearing in a Kabbalistic book, The Kabbalah Unveiled (an English translation of Christian Knorr von Rosenroth's Latin translation of The Kabbalah Denudata -- a version of the Zohar, a primary Kabbalistic text.). Over time, historical scholars believe, the letters evolved into the modern rectangular alphabet:

א aleph ^* - "ox" (also "bull" / "G-d" / "Master" / "champion" / "teaching")

*Meaning: strength, leader, first

ב bet beth, beith - "house" (also "tent" / "blessing")

*Meaning: G-d's House, household, in, into

ג gimel ^* - "camel" (also "bridge" / "weaning" / "benevolence")

*Meaning: pride, to lift up, derived from gemul meaning giving reward or punishment, also, "the rich man chasing after dalet which is the poor man"

ד dalet D'alet:hard d - "fish" or "door" (also "drawing up" / "a poor man")

*Meaning: pathway, to enter, the door of beit - the house, "the poor man"

ה heh hey - "jubilation" or "window" (also "breath" / "spirit" / "fence" / "to be broken" / "to take seed" / "behold")

*Meaning: "the", to reveal

ו vav ^* - "cane" (also "hook" / "nail" / "Messiah")

*Meaning: "and", add, secure, hook, the idea of a ray of straight light or the "or yashar" as if G-d is reaching down to man or the world

ז zayin - "manacle" or "weapon" (also "sword" / "scepter" / "crown" / "a species" / "to nourish")

*Meaning: cut, to cut off, the returning light or the "or chozer" which is the reflected light off the crown topping vav which is zayin

ח et hard gutteral 'h' - "enclosure" or "fence" (also "hedge" / "chamber" / "sin" / "fear" / "lifeforce")

*Meaning: private, to separate, letter of life (chaim, from the root chayah, whose most important letter is chet

ט et t - "snake" (also "staff" / "to twist" / "an inclination" / "below" / "a bed")

*Meaning: to surround, upside-down tov symbolizing hidden and inverted good as in the Zohar: "its good is hidden within it."

י yud yad - "arm" or "hand" (also "G-d" / "thrust" / "closed hand")

*Meaning: deed, work, to make, G-d's thought - the origin of the Jewish soul

כ kaph ^* - "hand" or "palm" (also "arm" / "wing" / "open hand" / "a cloud" / "to suppress")

*Meaning: to cover, allow, strength, subdue, coerce

ל lamed - "study" or "teach" (also "staff" / "cattle goad")

*Meaning: prod, go toward, tongue, lamed-mem-dalet (lev meiven da'at) meaning a heart that understands knowledge of Rabbi Akiva

מ mem m - "water" (also "kingdom" / "a blemish")

*Meaning: massive, overpower, chaos, water (mayim), fountain of the Divine Wisdom of Torah, open mem (things revealed), closed final mem (things concealed)

נ nun - "fish (also "kingdom" / "a royal heir" / "Messiah [Who is Heir to the Throne")

*Meaning: activity, life

ס samech 'h' - "prop" (also "ordain" as in ordination or support / "to rely on" / "construct form as in grammar")

*Meaning: support, turn, circular form symbolizes the fundamental truth reflected at all levels of Torah and reality

ע 'ayin - "eye" (also "eye of spring or well" / "color" / "fountain" / "in Aramaic: sheep")

*Meaning: see, know, experience, Divine Providence, The Oral Torah

פ pei phey - "mouth" in speech/silence (also "a mouth" / "here")

*Meaning: speak, open, word

צ tsadee tzadik - "righteous" (also "plant" / "fish-hook" / "to hunt" / "side" / "in Aramaic: chaos")

*Meaning: harvest, desire

ק qoph kuph - "monkey" or "back of the head" (also "to surround or touch" / "strength" / "in Aramaic: the eye of a needle")

*Meaning: behind, the last, least, Omnipresence, kedushah meaning holiness

ר reš reish - "head" (also "beginning")

*Meaning: person, head, highest, poor man, state of poverty of this world, the upper limit of poverty

ש šin 'seen', also shin as 'sheen' - "tooth" (also "Divine Power" / "year" / "change" / "scarlet" / "serenity" / "to sleep" / "to teach" / "two" / "sharp" / "old" / "viceroy")

*Meaning: consume, destroy, The Eternal Flame, the fire of Torah or sharpness in learning

ת tav tau, thav - "good" (also "signature" or "sign" or "impression" or "code" / "sign" / "cross" / "in Aramaic: more")

*Meaning: covenant, to seal, the sign on the forehead of Cain, Teshuvah or prayer or Torah, the last letter of the first word of Creation: the ultimate origin

Remember: There is technically no "f" or "j" in Hebrew. The "f" proximity is a soft "p" like "ph" and "j" is a derivative of the "y" or "Yuh" sound.

The following sources were used in creating the previous compilation additions:
Hebrew Word Pictures, Frank T. Seekins, Living Word Pictures Inc, Phoenix Arizona, 1994
The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters, Robert Haralock
The Wisdom of the Hebrew Alphabet, Rabbi Michael Munk
How the Hebrew Language Grew, Edward Horowitz
Honey from the Rock, Lawrence Kushner
The Secrets of Hebrew Words, Benjamin Bleck
and extended studies at Austin, TX Tzion MJC, and JewFaq.org

More details on Hidden Meanings of the Letters: http://www.inner.org/HEBLETER/HEBLETRS.HTM

Unicode Table

The Unicode Hebrew block extends from U+0590 to U+05FF and from U+FB1D to U+FB40. It includes letters, ligatures, combining diacritical marks (niqqud and cantillation marks) and punctuation.

Unicode table
	...0	...1	...2	...3	...4	...5	...6	...7	...8	...9	...A	...B	...C	...D	...E	...F
&#x059		֑	֒	֓	֔	֕	֖	֗	֘	֙	֚	֛	֜	֝	֞	֟
&#x05A	֠	֡	֢	֣	֤	֥	֦	֧	֨	֩	֪	֫	֬	֭	֮	֯
&#x05B	ְ	ֱ	ֲ	ֳ	ִ	ֵ	ֶ	ַ	ָ	ֹ	ֺ	ֻ	ּ	ֽ	־	ֿ
&#x05C	׀	ׁ	ׂ	׃	ׄ	ׅ	׆	ׇ
&#x05D	א	ב	ג	ד	ה	ו	ז	ח	ט	י	ך	כ	ל	ם	מ	ן
&#x05E	נ	ס	ע	ף	פ	ץ	צ	ק	ר	ש	ת
&#x05F	װ	ױ	ײ	׳	״	׵

&#xFB1														יִ	ﬞ	ײַ
&#xFB2	ﬠ	ﬡ	ﬢ	ﬣ	ﬤ	ﬥ	ﬦ	ﬧ	ﬨ	﬩	שׁ	שׂ	שּׁ	שּׂ	אַ	אָ
&#xFB3	אּ	בּ	גּ	דּ	הּ	וּ	זּ		טּ	יּ	ךּ	כּ	לּ		מּ
&#xFB4	נּ	סּ		ףּ	פּ		צּ	קּ	רּ	שּ	תּ	וֹ	בֿ	כֿ	פֿ	ﭏ

Note: The codes װ ױ ײ are intended for Yiddish. They are not used in Hebrew.

HTML Code Table

These are the Hebrew Numeric Character References. These can be used in many markup languages, and they are often used in Wiki to create the Hebrew glyphs compatible with the majority of web browsers.

Alef-Bet

ג	ב	בּ	א
ג	ב	בּ	א
ז	ו	ה	ד
ז	ו	ה	ד
כּ	י	ט	ח
כּ	י	ט	ח
מ	ל	ך	כ
מ	ל	ך	כ
ס	ן	נ	ם
ס	ן	נ	ם
ף	פ	פּ	ע
ף	פ	פּ	ע
ר	ק	ץ	צ
ר	ק	ץ	צ
ת	תּ	שׂ	שׁ
ת	תּ	שׂ	שׁ

Vowels and Unique Characters

Short/Hard	Long/Soft

ַ	ָ
( ַ )	( ָ )
( ֵ )	( ֶ )
ֵ	ֶ
וֹ	( ֹ )
וֹ	ֹ
וּ	( ֻ )
וּ	ֻ
( ִ )	Letter Yud ( י )
ִ	י

ְ	ְ
Shva Nach ( ְ )	Shva Nah ( ְ )
Dagesh ( ּ )
ּ

References

(using new citation method)

Roots of the Hebrew Alphabet

Hoffman, Joel M. 2004. In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language..
Saenz-Badillos, Angel. 1993. A History of the Hebrew Language. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.New York: NYU Press
Steinberg, David. History of the Hebrew Language.
Mathers table
Aleph-Beth Quick Study Chart. February 28, 2005. Qumran Bet Community. Retrieved January 5th, 2006.
The Ancient Hebrew Language and Alephbet. August 11, 2004. The Ancient Hebrew Research Center. Retrieved January 5th, 2006.

External links

Abjad writing systems | Canaanite languages | Hebrew alphabet

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