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5.2 Consonants

The Hebrew word for consonants is i'curim.

Notes:

1. The pairs (/b/, /v/), (/k/, /kh/), (/p/, /f/), written respectively by the letters bet (ב), kaf (כ) and pe (פ) have historically been allophonic. All three are still mutually exclusive (in words derived from Hebrew roots), however due to /w/ merging with /v/, /x/ merging with /kh/, and the introduction of initial /f/ through foreign borrowings, none remained strictly allophonic (that is, incapable of creating a minimal pair).
2. The phoneme /v/ is represented by two letters: vet (ב, unemphasized bet) and vav (ו). Although Modern Hebrew pronunciation does not differentiate between the two, the latter is historically weaker due to its being a semi-vowel (/w/).
3. The phoneme /k/ is represented by two letters: kaf (כ) and quf (ק). Although Modern Hebrew pronunciation does not differentiate between the two, the latter was once pronounced more deeply, like the Arabic /q/.
4. The phoneme /t/ is represented by two letters: tet (ט) and tau (ת, compare to the Greek theta θ and tau τ). As mentioned earlier, the former was once pronounced with emphasis. However, it seems that the letter tau (without dagesh) once represented a fricative phoneme /th/. For example, what in Modern Hebrew sounds as "Beit Lexem" was transcribed (through Greek) into English from Old Hebrew as "Bethleem", also demonstrating note nr. 5. The traditional Ashkenazi pronunciation of tau without dagesh as "s" is believed to be a result of this.
5. Similarly to Modern Arabic, Old Hebrew had the phonemes /ts/ and /t/ (written by the letter tet) emphasized. Currently, there is no community of Hebrew-speakers which expresses this in speech; however the emphasis led to several types of phonetic change that still exist. The exact nature of the emphatic feature is a matter of debate; the most commonly suggested possibilities are pharyngealization (as in Arabic) and glottalization (as in Ethiopic).
6. The phoneme /x/ is represented by two letters: xet (ח) and khaf (כ, unemphasized kaf). Although Modern Hebrew speakers seldom differentiate between the two, apart from a few Sephardic speakers, the former was historically a voiceless pharyngeal fricative (like Arabic ح).
7. Like /x/, /a'/ was once pronounced as a voiceless pharyngeal fricative, resembling "ar" in "heart" but deeper. Modern Ashkenazi (European, except Dutch) reading tradition ignores this; however Sephardic (North-African) Jews and Israeli Arabs accent these phonemes, in a fashion which resembles Arabic `ain ع. Georgian Jews pronounce it as a glottalized g. Western European Sephardim and Dutch Ashkenazim traditionally pronounce it as "ng" in "sing" — a pronunciation which can also be found in the Italki tradition and, historically, in south-west Germany.

5.3 Historical sound changes

Greek transcriptions provide evidence that Biblical Hebrew maintained the proto-Semitic consonants gh, kh for longer than the writing system might suggest. Thus `Amorah is transcribed as Gomorrha in Greek, whereas `Eber is transcribed as Eber with no intrusive g; since comparative Semitic evidence shows that proto-Semitic *gh and *` both became `ayin in later Hebrew, this suggests that the distinction was still maintained in Classical times.

6 Grammar

Hebrew grammar is mostly analytical, lacking inflectional mechanisms for dative constructs, and having no systematic ablative, accusative or dative constructs. However inflection does play an important role in the formation of the verbs, nouns and the genitive construct, which is called "smikhut". Words in smikhut are often combined with hyphens.

Hebrew has only a definite article, "ha-". It is a contraction of an earlier form, probably *hal, the assimilation of the /l/ being evident in the emphasis that normally follows the article. In smikhut, only the main noun (that is the noun to which the other nouns connect) can receive the article.

The two main parts of the Hebrew sentence ("mishpat") are the subject ("nose") and the predicate ("nasu"). They are adjusted to each other in gender and person. Thus, in a sentence "ani okhel", "I eat"/"I am eating", "ani", "I", is the subject, and "okhel", "eating" (singular masculine present of the root A-K-L in Pa`al) is the verb (Hebrew does not have a system of auxiliary verbs). The subject always receives the definite article, unless it is a pronoun or a name.

Other parts of the Hebrew sentence are the direct object ("musa"), and complements to any noun ("levai"). Unlike English, complements follow the noun, rather than precede it, and also like the verb they follow the subject's gender, person and article. Thus, "Ha-chatul ha-qatan akhal et ha-gvinah", "The small cat ate the cheese", the subject is "ha-chatul", "the cat", the complement is "ha-qatan", "the small", the predicate is "akhal", "ate" (3rd person masculine past of the root A-K-L in Pa`al), and "ha-gvinah", "the cheese" is the object. Note that both the words for "cat" and for "small" received the definite article.

The Hebrew grammar distinguishes between various kinds of indirect objects, according to what they specify. Thus, there is a division between objects for time ("tiur zman"), objects for place ("tiur makom"), objects for reason ("tiur sibah") and many others. Additionally, Hebrew distinguishes between various kinds of verbless fragments, also according to their use, such as "tmurah" for elaboration, "qriah" for exclamation, "pniyah" for approach and "hesger" for disclosing the opinion of a certain party using direct speech (e.g. "le-da'at ha-rofe, ha-i'shun mazik la-briut", "[according to] the opinion of the doctor, smoking is harmful to health").

A sentence may lack a subject. In this case it is called "stami", or "causual". If several parts of the sentence have the same function and are attached to the same word, they are called "kolel", "collective". Two or more sentences who do not share common parts and are separated by comma are called "mishpat mehubar", or "added". In many cases, the second sentence uses a pronoun that stands for the other's subject; they are generally interconnected.

A sentence in which one or more of the parts are replaced by a clause ("psukit") is called a compound sentence, or "mishpat murkav". Compound sentences use the preposition "she-", "that". For example, in the sentence "Yosi omer she-hu okhel", "Yosi says that he is eating", "Yosi omer" ("Yosi says") is the main sentence, followed by a direct subject clause "hu okhel" ("He is eating").

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Hebrew alphabetThis 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. It is has also been used in mildly adapted form Hebrew languageThe Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. What makes it unique is that the original Bible, the Torah, by Orthodox Jews held to be recorded in the time of Moses 3,300 years ago, was written in Biblical Classical HebrewThe word Hebrew can variously mean: The Hebrew language or Hebrew languages The Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew calendar Pertaining to Jews or Judaism The ancient Hebrew people An Israelite, Jew, Pashtun, Bnai Israel The term Hebrew is sometimes used by certai Hebrew numeralsThe system of Hebrew numerals is a quasi-decimal alphabetic numeral system using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In this system, there was no notation for zero, and the numeric values for individual letters are added together. Each unit (1, 2,. 9) is Hebrew calendarpalm branches ( Lulav) and the citron ( Etrog) to be brought to the synagogue at the end of the sukkot closing the solemn convocations of the calendar in autumn. The Hebrew calendar is the annual calendar used in Judaism. Like the Chinese calendar, it is Hebrew weightsWeights Reduced to English troy-weight, the Hebrew weights were: # Gerah (Lev. 27:25; Num. 3:47), a Hebrew word, meaning a grain or kernel, and hence a small weight. It was the twentieth part of a shekel, and equal to 12 grains (778 mg). Bekah (Ex. 38:26) Hebrews Hebrew transliteration Hebrew Bible Hebrew University of Jerusalem Hebrew tribe Hebrew and Jewish epic poetry Hebrew name Hebrew languages Hebrew poetry