When I began my study of Biblical Hebrew, I found certain aspects of the vowels confusing. Sometimes a vowel was indicated by a mark above or below the letters and sometimes vowel was indicated by a combination of a lettter and a mark above, below, or inside. The problem was that the book that I was using didn't provide sufficient historical background in order for me to understand was was happening.
Originally the 22 symbols comprising the Hebrew alef bet represented only consonants. Then beginning about the 9th century BCE certain letters (he, vav, and yod) began to be used for word final vowels. Later vav and yod were also used to indicate medial long vowels. These functions as vowels were in addition to their use as consonants. Thus, he, a letter that you have studied so far could represent an h sound but in the final position it could also represent a vowel. Usually the vowel was a long a, but sometimes it was an e as in "Moshe(h)" or an o as in "Shlomo(h)". When letters of the alef bet are used to represent vowels they are called vowel letters or matres lectionis (singular mater lectionis). This system of using matres was not complete or used consistently, but it was a system that was independent of the system latter developed by the masoretes.
In the period 7th-9th century CE the Masoretes developed a more complete system for indicating vowels. Since the text they received was considered sacred and not to be altered, they added their vowel points above, below, or within the existing letters. Thus in some cases we have redundant vowel markers. For example, when a final he indicates a long a, the Masoretes marked the preceeding letter with a qamets (a vowel point you learned in lesson one). This combination of qamets plus he is sometime referred to as the vowel qamets-he. Since the he is only used to mark word final long a's there are also qamets that apprear medially that have no associated he.
As a side note, although a final he is usually a vowel marker, there are examples where the final he retains its consonantal value and should be pronounced. This is an unnatural sound for English where word final h's are silent. A common example of the word final he retaining its consonantal value is the 3rd person feminine singular pronominal suffix. It is, for example, the difference between "susa(h)" meaning "mare" and "susah" meaning "her horse".
Originally the 22 symbols comprising the Hebrew alef bet represented only consonants. Then beginning about the 9th century BCE certain letters (he, vav, and yod) began to be used for word final vowels. Later vav and yod were also used to indicate medial long vowels. These functions as vowels were in addition to their use as consonants. Thus, he, a letter that you have studied so far could represent an h sound but in the final position it could also represent a vowel. Usually the vowel was a long a, but sometimes it was an e as in "Moshe(h)" or an o as in "Shlomo(h)". When letters of the alef bet are used to represent vowels they are called vowel letters or matres lectionis (singular mater lectionis). This system of using matres was not complete or used consistently, but it was a system that was independent of the system latter developed by the masoretes.
In the period 7th-9th century CE the Masoretes developed a more complete system for indicating vowels. Since the text they received was considered sacred and not to be altered, they added their vowel points above, below, or within the existing letters. Thus in some cases we have redundant vowel markers. For example, when a final he indicates a long a, the Masoretes marked the preceeding letter with a qamets (a vowel point you learned in lesson one). This combination of qamets plus he is sometime referred to as the vowel qamets-he. Since the he is only used to mark word final long a's there are also qamets that apprear medially that have no associated he.
As a side note, although a final he is usually a vowel marker, there are examples where the final he retains its consonantal value and should be pronounced. This is an unnatural sound for English where word final h's are silent. A common example of the word final he retaining its consonantal value is the 3rd person feminine singular pronominal suffix. It is, for example, the difference between "susa(h)" meaning "mare" and "susah" meaning "her horse".
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