Hebrew Alphabet
From UniLang Wiki
| Letter | Hebrew Name | Transliteration | IPA Value |
| א | אלף | ¹ | _ |
| ב | בית | b/v | b/v |
| ג | גימל | g | g |
| ד | דלת | d | d |
| ה | הא | h³ | h |
| ו | וו | v/_ | ² |
| ז | זין | z | z |
| ח | חית | ch | χ |
| ט | טית | t | t |
| י | יוד | y/² | j |
| כ,*ך | כף | k,ch | k,χ |
| ל | למד | l | l |
| מ,*ם | מם | m | m |
| נ,*ן | נון | n | n |
| ס | סמך | s | s |
| ע | עין | ¹ | _ |
| פ,*ף | פה | p,f | p,f |
| צ,*ץ | צדי | tz | ts |
| ק | קוף | k | k |
| ר | ריש | r | �? |
| ש | שין | sh,s | ʃ,s |
| ת | תו | t | t |
Note: the second variants of letters (marked with a *) are the different forms used at the ends of words.
¹א and ע generally have no sound of their own, and simply act as "dummy letters" indicating a following vowel, of which there are five:
אבא aba "father"
ארץ eretz "land"
אמא ima "mother"
אוזן ozen "ear"
שיעור shi'ur "lesson"
Traditionally א and ע were pronounced like Arabic ء (hamza) and ع ('ayn) respectively. They, like the other peculiar Semitic sounds, have been lost in the standard language, though they are still pronounced this way by immigrants from Arabic countries, and Israeli Arabs.
²ו and י are considered consonants, like all Hebrew letters, but they can also be used to indicate vowel sounds o/u and ei/i respectively:
אור or "light"
אוניברסיטה universita "university"
עיר ir "city"
אין ein "not"
³ה when appearing at the end of a word is not pronounced. Though it technically has an h sound in other positions in practice it is practically never pronounced (except by newsreaders) and, like �? and ע, simply gets elided in speech.
Hebrew has an array of vowel signs (נקודות or תנועות), as well as דגש to show "tense" pronunciations of consonants. However these are practically never used in everyday printed material and one must learn to get by without them.
The ' is used to make some letters "softer". It is mainly used with foreign words and names.
ch - 'צ (check - צ'ק)
j - 'ג (jess - ג'ס)
zh/french j - 'ז (jack - ז'אק)
th - 'ת (thor - ת'ור)
Block letters and Script letters
There are two sets of letters in modern hebrew: block letters (otiyot dfoos - אותיות דפוס) and script letters (otiyot chtav - אותיות כתב). Block letters (which are explained above) are used for print - books, signs, subtitles, newspapers and the Internet. The script letters are used for handwriting.
One last thing to remember before you begin to read in Hebrew - it is written from right to left (just like Arabic).
