Hebrew alphabet
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עמנואל
The Hebrew alphabet (Hebrew: אָלֶף - בֵּית עִבְרִי alef -bet ivri ) is the alphabet of the ancient and modern Hebrew, and of the biblical and Talmudic Aramaic. In addition, were and other Jewish languages or language forms are partially written so that, for example, Yiddish and Ladino.
Letters
History
The Hebrew language was originally written with of the derived from the Phoenician script ancient Hebrew font. The letters forms emerged from image symbols, with which later the beginning According to of the respective symbol was associated (Example: ב, a rotated by 90 ° house Symbol:, hebrew בית Bajit "house" ). The Samaritan Pentateuch is written until today in a further development of these ancient script. Finds Also in the scrolls from the Dead Sea itself occasionally this Scripture, va, to designate of God's name. This Scripture form was declared unusable by the rabbis in the 2nd century of the Christian time invoice than for holy texts. In their place the rabbis laid the until today usual, developed after the Babylonian exile from the Judeo -Aramaic Duktus Hebrew book font or square script as the only canonically contends firmly. In addition, yet exist a semi italic clerical script and a modern italics.
Form
The Hebrew script is written and read from right to left. There is no distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters, but get five of the letters at the end of a word a special final form, which appears in the table to the right of the standard form.
All letters are consonants, however, are four of them in addition to their consonantal importance also used to represent a so-called Matres lectionis ( Mothers of reading) vowels, especially long vowels. For example, the two vowels in the word תּוֹרָה " Torah " ( transfer) are written as consonants Waw and He: ת Tav - ו Waw - ר Resh - ה He. There are not written all the vowels so, especially short vowels usually remain unmarked. Only in the case of Yiddish, the Hebrew Scripture is no more consonantal script, in this case, all vowels are written as a letter: e as ע Ayin, a and o as א Aleph, and i, u, ei and oi using of י iodine and ו Waw.
In the 2nd century BC ancient numerals were replaced by the letters assigned numerical values , which one ( called Gereschajim ) with two forward slashes marked as numbers from the last two digits. In sacred texts numbers are usually written out in words, in order to prevent reading errors and transcription errors. In everyday life, today's numbers are usually written with the usual in Germany Arabic numerals, the letters spelling is but for example, for dates in the Jewish calendar still common.
Masoretic vocalization
To fix the reading of the consonant text of Scripture for liturgical lecture, different systems of vocalization (Hebrew Nikud, literally " puncture " ) have been developed. The tiberiensische system is fully formed since the 8th century and has prevailed against the Palestinian and Babylonian system. The name derives from the town of Tiberias, on which this system was formed. Existing vowel signs are made of dots and small strokes placed under the consonants according to which they are pronounced. Cholam but left above the preceding consonant or set to the next letter on the top right, and Schuruq is a point left of the Vav. A vowel which is written in unvokalisierten text by a mater lectionis appears in vocalized text as a vowel sign, which the mater lectionis follows - this is therefore retained.
The vocalization is now used in some children's books in the study provided scriptures and in most prayer books, but not in everyday texts. The vocalization is also in the Masoretic text to distinguish Ketib ( as it is written is = ) and Qere ( = read ) used to indicate that a word must be read differently than the text represents, or that there are alternative forms of text. Handwritten Torah scrolls, as used in worship, as well as certain religious texts contain no vowels, because they reduce the ambiguity of some words to a certain sense, thereby limiting the text and interpret it as comparable to the classification of the text in Chapter and verses happens.
As Matres lectionis may occur: י iodine by Sere Chiräq or, very rarely, even after Qamäz or Seggol; ו Waw after Choläm or ( necessarily ) as part of Schuruq and Choläm magnum; א Aleph by almost all Vokalisationszeichen; ה He only word-finally. Vowels with mater lectionis are always long; Chiräq and Seggol are accurate then long if they have a mater lectionis. The matres lectionis almost never appear in Latin transcription.
The terms " long" and "short" and the distinction between the two schwa are important for the syllable structure; with regard to the debate today, however, they are meaningless. The long vowels are in most open (not closed by a consonant ) syllables and in stressed concluded with only one consonant syllables; Schwa is not counted as a vowel. Today, only the written vowels as iodine and in open, stressed syllables are spoken in length; example is "Shalom " ( שָׁלוֹם ham Qamäz - Lamed - Choläm magnum -Mem ), despite the two "long" vowels more like " Schallomm " (short, unstressed, and a short, stressed o) rather than " Schahlohm " (both vowels long) pronounced. Also schwa mobile is - except in some prefixes - omitted if the rest is pronounceable.
Unvokalisierte letters
In biblical times, even before the development of tiberiensischen vocalization, it has become customary, the letters Vav and iodine more often than Matres lectionis to use as the biblical model, partly for short vowels. If these two letters as consonants before is that featured in many positions by doubling, to distinguish them from Matres lectionis. Overall, this readability is increased. Modern Hebrew texts are written consistently so.
The rules for the application of the additional letters are relatively complicated. You can find a complete demolition of the textbook by Simon; in the following, only the most important differences between vocalized letters are put together.
In some places Matres are written lectionis where the vocalized text is only a vowel sign:
- Waw for Cholam and Qubbuz in all positions,
- Qatan Waw for Qamaz and Chataph - Qamaz when other forms of the same word have Cholam there,
- Iodine for Chiriq when a consonant follows with strong Dagesch, however, not for the Chiriq in the prefix מִ
- Iodine for Zere in the root of polysyllabic words before the stressed syllable and
- Iodine for Patach or Qamaz before a consonantal iodine or Waw end of the word.
In addition consonantal iodine and Vav are in the word inside, ie, written twice after the first consonant of a word stem and before the last letter of the whole word - Waw always, iodine lectionis not before or after Matres.
These rules are not applied or not, if that would result in a concentration of iodine and Vav. Also, there are additional rules that ensure that different forms of the same word - and vice versa analog formed of various words - written similar than would be the case with mechanical application of the above rules.
A few examples: meschuga ( crazy) מְשֻׁגָּע is משוגע, Tiqqun (repair) תִּקּוּן is תיקון, Tiqwa (Hope) תִּקְוָה; is תקווה, achschaw (now) עַכְשָׁו is עכשיו, chodschajim (2 months) חָדְשַׁיִם is חודשיים.
Some small change common words their word image against the vocalized letters - and therefore the biblical model - not. Even biblical names, such as
Chava (Eve) חוה, Moshe (Moses ) משה, Yehoshua ( Joshua) יהושע, Shlomo ( Solomon ) שלמה,
... Are usually written with the traditional consonant inventory, even if they are names of today's people. Get foreign words and foreign names in the tendency even more Matres lectionis than in accordance with the above rules, eg historja היסטוריה, Bali באלי.