Diacritic of the Hebrew alphabet

In Hebrew, the Diacritique S are called נִיקוּד (transliteration: nīqūd or nikkoud ) or נְקֻדּוֹת (transliteration: nəquddōṭ or nekuddōth ), or more commonly nikkudot or “points Vowel S”.

There were many different versions, but the most used today was invented by the Massorètes ( ba' alei masorah ), to supplement the writing consonnantale of several abjads Semitic (of which the Hebrew abjad, the Arab abjad, several alternatives araméennes of which the Samaritan, of the writings used alternatively for the transcription of the language hébreue).

The nikkudot are small signs, compared with the consonants which they supplement, and thus have the advantage of being able to be directly added on a text while not comprising.

The Hebrew students, who do not speak it or not yet usually, pay attention to these diacritic particularly, in particular with regard to the controversy of the Tétragramme - writing נִיקוּדיְהוָה in Hebrew. - Interpretation would make it possible to find the old pronunciation (authentic some say) Jéhovah or Yahweh .

Signs of the nikkud

This table uses the consonant ב like basic letter to show the positioning and the form of the vocalic nikkudot , and their phonetic interpretation according to the possible semi-consonants ( א aleph , ה He , ו waw or י yodh ) which can follow them. Notice that there is sometimes, according to the dialect or of the tradition, of the differences in pronunciation. This table gives the most common transcription, that used in Israel, which is for example different from the pronunciation Ashkénaze.

In addition the beginning of this table points out the presence of the consonant nikkudot (the dageshim , which specify the reading of the consonants ש or ב that they supplement); their most common associations are treated more completely in the principal article on the Hebrew alphabet.

See too

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