Hebrew Pronouncing and Transliteration Guide

baah baa^h båught talk · mæde bæ^hke stræīght reīgn · ăbout əbout əbout  əbout  · bōat bōat bō^hat · đ^h=the · met de^hck · g^host · machīne  · hĭt · şin · ŧin · t^hin · flūte · spanish rojo · composer  Bacħ Bak^h · modern: g^h→g · t^h→t  · w→v · đ^h→d · ' and " are silent · normal values: b d f g h k l m n p q s t v w y z ee oo sh

æ Æ å ă ə ə  ə ī Ī ĭ Ĭ ō Ō ō Ō ū  ^{h  h}  – cħ CĦ đ Đ r R ş Ş ŧ Ŧ ·

æ Æ å ă ə ə  ə ī Ī ĭ Ĭ ō Ō ō Ō ū  ^{h h}  – cħ CĦ đ Đ r R ş Ş ŧ Ŧ ·

æ Æ å ă ə ə  ə ī Ī ĭ Ĭ ō Ō ō Ō ū  ^{h h}  – cħ CĦ đ Đ r R ş Ş ŧ Ŧ ·

The dagesh forte dot serves to divide the syllable in doubled letters, in both Hebrew and English transcription.

The hyphen represents the silent schwa and divides syllables.

The em dash unites separate words as one long word for purposes of accent.

Bold type with capital letters indicates the accented or stressed syllable.

QAAmets

Long vowel.  /a/ in f[a]ther.   It is doubled so you keep it long.  Occurs in closed accented syllable or open unaccented syllable, and with metheg accent in closed unaccented syllable.

TSÆræ

SHOOreq

CĦŌlem

CĦŌlem

TSÆræ yōđ^h

CĦEEreq

yōđ^h

səG^hŌL

yōđ^h

CĦEEreq

QAAmets

hæ'

TSÆræ hæ'

səG^hŌL hæ'

/e^h//E^h/

Long vowel.  Occurs at the end of a word. /e/ in m[e]t, d[e]ad, d[e]ck.

CĦŌlem hæ'

Short Vowels

CĦEEreq

QAAmets qaaTAAN

səG^hŌL

PAt^hacħ

qĭb·BOOTS

Reduced Vowels

cħəTAAF— PAt^hacħ

cħəTAAF— səG^hŌL

cħəTAAF— QAAmets

/ă/

/a/ in [a]bout, fin[a]l, [a]lone; /u/ in c[u]p, m[u]tt.  /ă/ = /ə/

The Schwa

shəWAA' nåcħ

A /-/ hypen is used for the silent schwa, to show that it merely divides the syllable.  The schwa is silent when:

     1. the previous vowel is short (which is to say the syllable is closed)

     2. it is first of two schwas side by side (which closes the syllable since the second starts a new syllable and must be vocal).

     3. it is at the end of a word

shəWAA' nå"

/a/ in [a]bout, fin[a]l, [a]lone; /u/ in c[u]p, m[u]tt.  Schwa symbol.  The schwa is vocalized when:

     1. It is under the first letter of a word.

     2. It is the second of two in a row.

     3. It is under a letter with dagesh forte.

     4. The preceeding vowel is not short.

The Consonants

'AAlef

/'/  /'/

silent, (or short glottal stop).

bæīt^h

/v/ /V/

[v]ase [v]et [V]irginia.  Without dagesh.

bæīt^h

/b/  /B/

[b]all  [B]risbane.  Dagesh lene hardens letter when preceding letter is consonant.

bæīt^h

/b·b/ /B·B/

sa[bb]ath. ta[bb]y. When preceeded by a vowel, dagesh is forte and doubles the letter.

GEEmel

/g^h/ /G^h/

[gh]ost a[gh]ast.   Without dagesh, more air is blown.  Aspirated; modern: g^h→g

GEEmel

/g/  /G/

[g]one  [g]ame.  Dagesh lene after consonant, and  removes the aspiration.  Less breath, softer.

GEEmel

/g·g/ /G·G/

fo[gg]y. mu[gg]y. When preceeded by a vowel, dagesh is forte  and doubles the letter.

DAAlet^h

/đ^h/ /Đ^h/

[th]e, [th]is, wri[th]e;  with fricative. modern: đ^h→d

DAAlet^h

DAAlet^h

hæ'

hæ'

hæ'

waaw

Properly, /w/ as in [w]ise, [w]on, but more like the German /w/.   w→v is an acceptable modern pronunciation.

ZAyĭn

ZAyĭn

cħæīt^h

/ch/ as in Ba[ch] in German.   This is a foregin sound to English.  It is made by putting the tongue in the /k/ position, and then rasping air past the top of the tongue and the back of the roof of the mouth.

tæīt^h

tæīt^h

yōđ^h

yōđ^h

yōđ^h

See yōđ^h above.  Combinations of doubled consonant quality and vowel quality,

kaf

kaf

kaf

LAAmeđ^h

LAAmeđ^h

mæīm

mæīm

noon

noon

SAAmek^h-

SAAmek^h

"Ayĭn

/"/ /"/

Silent letter.   If you know the Arabic, the hard glottal stop is acceptale too.

pæ'

pæ'

pæ'

TSAAđ^heī

qōf

qōf

ræīsh

şeen

şeen

sheen

sheen

ŧaav

ŧaav

ŧaav

     I have invented this system to replace the scholarly systems in use, after getting frustrated with them.  The first reason is that the existing systems use the English alphebet to represent sounds for English readers that are not English.   This used to be acceptable because fonts were not well enough developed in the age of the typewriter to express all the sounds.

     For instance /b/ is used to represent the /v/ sound.  While this may be good for Spanish speakers, it is no good for English speakers.  Or /t/ may be used to represent the /th/ in [th]in.  This is no good, because the underline is not sufficient to stop the habit of the /t/ where /th/ is meant.

     Also, the systems in use fail to make use of good English comibinations like /sh/ and /ts/ and they use a more difficult symbol like /š/ and //, and the latter is not present in the standard computer fonts.

     Things like /b/ /š/ // /t/ add up fast and create an unnecessary learning barrier.

      Also, the systems provide no easy way to transcribe the accents of words.  This system does.   Nor do they make the difference between a long vowel and a short one easy to remember or see.

      O.K., so I have criticized enough.  Here are the basic improved features:

        1. Look at the long vowel chart.  Notice that all the long vowels are dipthongs or spelled with two letters?   Notice that the long vowel symbol (an overline) is on the exceptions using a standard phonetic convention?

        2.  Look at the short vowel chart.  Notice they are all single letters?  And that the short symbol is used in the /i/ and /I/?

         3.  Look at the reduced vowel chart and the schwa chart.  Notice the consistent use of the schwa?

         4. Look at the consonants and see that foreign symbols or modifications are only used where necessary to disambiguate the transcription to Hebrew without having to learn any new sounds.