Hebrew Vowels
The original Hebrew alphabet consisted only of consonants and vowel letters. The vowel signs and pronunciation (known as vowel pointings) currently accepted for Biblical Hebrew were created by scholars known as Masoretes after the 5th century AD and are known as Tiberian vocalization. The Masoretes are thought also to have standardized various dialectal differences.
However, it is questioned that Classical Hebrew’s vowel inventory was not identical to that notated by the Masoretes. For instance, /e/ and /ē/ were both indicated with a tzeire in the Masoretic text, but in Greek transcription (Septuagint, Origen, etc.) are written with epsilon and eta respectively.
Hebrew Consonants
| Name | Letter | Phoneme and Allophone (IPA) |
|---|---|---|
| ’ālep (‘ox’) | א | [ʔ] |
| bēṯ (‘house’) | ב | [b] ~ [v] allophonically1 |
| gîmel (‘camel’) | ג | [ɡ] ~ [ɣ] allophonically1 |
| dāleṯ (‘door’) | ד | [d] ~ [ð] allophonically1 |
| hē (‘open window’) | ה | [h], null at the end of words.2 |
| wāw (‘nail’) | ו | [w], null after /o/ or /u/ 2 |
| zayin (‘weapon’) | ז | [z] |
| ḥēṯ (‘fence’) | ח | [ħ], ([χ]3) |
| ṭēṯ (‘snake’) | ט | [tˤ] |
| yōḏ (‘hand’) | י | [j], null after /ɛ/, /e/, or /i/2 |
| kap‘ (‘palm of hand’) | כ, ך | [k] ~ [x] allophonically1 |
| lāmeḏ (‘cattle goad’) | ל | [l] |
| mēm (‘water’) | מ, ם | [m] |
| nûn (‘fish’) | נ, ן | [n] |
| sāmeḵ (‘prop’) | ס | [s] |
| ʿayin (‘eye’) | ע | [ʕ], ([ɣ]3) |
| pē (‘mouth’) | פ, ף | [p] ~ [f] allophonically1 |
| ṣāḏē (‘fish hook’) | צ, ץ | [sˤ] |
| qōp (‘back of head’) | ק | [kˤ] (or [q]) |
| rēš (‘head’) | ר | [r] (trilled like in Arabic) |
| śîn/šîn (‘teeth’) | ש | [ɬ], [ʃ] |
| tāw (‘cross’) | ת | [t] ~ [θ] allophonically1 |
