Learning Biblical Hebrew: Vowels

[LamorakDesGalis]

Basic Hebrew vowels (or vowel points) are small signs that appear below or above a consonant.


Hebrew Vowel points:

ָ Qames – looks like a small "t" under the consonant.ָ Its pronunciation is a as in “father” (most of the time). Sometimes the pronunciation is “o” as in “hop.” Then its referred to as a qames hatuph. Later we will go over the rules for when it has the "o" sound. A word with a qames is דָּוִד
David. The Dalet has a qames underneath it - and its an "a" father pronunciation.
ַ Patach – looks like a small underline under the consonant.ַ Its pronunciation is a as in “father.” A word with a patach is אַבְרָהָם
Abraham. Underneath the Aleph there is a patach.
ִ Hireq (hear-eq) – looks like a small dot under the consonant.ִ Its pronunciation is “i” as in “pin.” A word with a hireq is דָּוִד David - under the second letter, a vav, is a hireq.


ֵSere (say-ray) – looks like two small dots under the consonant. ֵ Its pronunciation is a long “e” as in “they.” A word with a sere is לֵוִי

Levi. Under the lamed is a sere - pronounced as a long e as in "they."

ֶSegol – looks like three small dots under the consonant. ֶ Its pronunciation is short “e” as in “pet.” A word with a segol is מֶלֶךְ king. The mem has a segol under it, and so does the lamed.

ֻ Qibbus – looks like three small descending dots under the consonant. ֻ Its pronunciation is “u” as in “rule.” A word with a qibbus is יְהוֹשֻׁעַ
Joshua. The shin has a qibbus under it.
ֺֹֺֹ Holem – looks like one small dot at the top left of the consonant.ֺֹֺֹIts pronunciation is “o” as in “role.” An example of a word with a holem is בֹּעַז


This is the name Boaz. The bet has a dot at the top left - that is a holem.


Most of the time Hebrew vowel points are distinguished from the consonants. At times, however a vowel point is combined with a consonant - either yod י or waw ו - and together they constitute a single long vowel. In those cases the consonant is not sounded. These vowels will be covered in the next lesson. There are also "half" vowels called shewas, for example the two "stacked" dots under the yod יְ . Shewas are a bit more complicated than simple vowels at this point. At times they are silent and other times they are pronounced. Shewas will also be covered later.

 

[Tishri1]

thanks this is good!

 

[Tishri1]

http://www.christianforums.com/t7422269-2/#post53994752

 

[Tishri1]

http://www.christianforums.com/t7422269-2/#post53994854

 

[LamorakDesGalis]

As noted above, Hebrew vowels are small signs that appear below or above its consonant. Hebrew vowels are also called vowel points. At times, a vowel point is combined with a consonant, either yod י or waw ו. Together the vowel point and letter make a single long vowel - and the consonant is not sounded. These are the Hebrew vowels with yod י that combine with a vowel point:


י ִ - called a hireq-yod – sounds the same as hireq - “i” as in “pin”

י ֵ - called a sere-yod – sounds the same as sere - long “e” as in “they”
י ֶ - called a segol-yod – sounds the same as segol - short “e” as in “pet”


The vowel point for the above combinations is under the preceeding consonant. For example: לֵוִי –Levi (as in the tribe of Levi) – consists of a lamed with a sere underneath it, then a waw with a hireq underneath it, and then a yod without any vowels. The yod and hireq together make a hireq-yod. The yod is not sounded out. The waw in this case is a consonant with its v (or w) sound.
The following are the Hebrew vowels with waw ו that combine with a vowel point:
וֹ - called a holem-waw – same as holem - “o” as in “role”
(picture here) called a s hureq - “u” as in “rule”


With the waw, the vowel point appears with the waw rather than preceeding it as do the yod combinations. Unlike the other long vowels, the shureq has its own name and the vowel point is in the middle.

So sometimes the waw ו is a consonant and sometimes it is a vowel. Sometimes the yod י is a consonant and sometimes it is a vowel. We will go through examples later to help distinguish between yod or waw consonants and vowels.


The last Hebrew letter that is combined with vowel points to form long vowels is the He ה . This combination only occurs at the end of a word.The Hebrew vowels that combine with He הare the qamesָ, the segol ֶ , the sere ֵ and the holem.


That is about it for the combination of vowel signs/letters. The Shureqs aren't showing up, but there is a picture of one that is provided. While shewas are on the horizon, we will next be going through a number of Hebrew words that will reinforce the previous lessons, plus introduce you to shewas a bit.

 

[Tishri1]

thank you again and again

 

[bluemarkus]

hmm this is confusing, i guess it will take me 5 yrs or so til i got that down. i can read a little bit though already. its very intriguing and interesting. i do believe god has encoded some stuff in the hebrew so only the jews can understand it its hidden from the goyim.

one example: i listened to a radio station on itunes, from a small los angeles underground station, and the DJ kept saying "rraaa" in between the announcements of his songs, just as a filler, without any obvious reason. but in hebrew "raa" means evil or wicked, like the egyptian god RA. of course this is just one little example there are many more i guess.

 

[yonah_mishael]

The kamats chatuf is pronounced like the o in "hope," not in "hop" --- especially not for Americans, where the o in "hop" is basically identical to the a in "father."

כָּל־ (construct) is the same as כֹּל (absolute).

קֹדֶשׁ (kodesh - "holiness") becomes קָדְשׁוֹ (kodsho - "his holiness"). The quality of the o vowel isn't different. In fact, in Israel the kamats chatuf is represented in unpointed writing with the vav! קודשו (kodsho - "his holiness")

חֹדֶשׁ (chodesh - "month, new moon") becomes חָדְשַׁיִם (chodshayim - "two months"). The o in each is the same sound. In Israel we write חודשיים.

It's a mistake to say that kamats chatuf is like the o in "hop." This will lead to bad pronunciation.