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Hebrew Alphabet

The Hebrew and Yiddish languages use a different alphabet than English.  The picture below illustrates the Hebrew alphabet, in Hebrew alphabetical order.  Note that Hebrew is written from right to left, rather than left to right as in English, so Alef is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and Tav is the last. The Hebrew alphabet is often called the "alef-bet," because of its first two letters.

If you are familiar with Greek, you will no doubt notice substantial similarities in letter names and in the order of the alphabet.

The "Kh" and the "Ch" are pronounced as in German or Scottish, a throat clearing noise, not as the "ch" in "chair."

Note that there are two versions of some letters.  Kaf, Mem, Nun, Peh and Tzadeh all are written differently when they appear at the end of a word than when they appear in the beginning or middle of the word.  The version used at the end of a word is referred to as Final Kaf, Final Mem, etc.  The version of the letter on the left is the final version.  In all cases except Final Mem, the final version has a long tail.

Like most early Semitic alphabetic writing systems, the alef-bet has no vowels.  People who are fluent in the language do not need vowels to read Hebrew, and most things written in Hebrew in Israel are written without vowels.  However, the Rabbis realized the need for aids to pronunciation, so they developed a system of dots and dashes known as points.  These dots and dashes are written above or below the letter, in ways that do not alter the spacing of the line.  Text containing these markings is referred to as "pointed" text.  Below is an example of pointed text:

The above line of text would be pronounced (in Sephardic pronunciation): vay'hee erev vay'hee vokair yom ha-sheeshee.  Vayikhooloo ha-shamayeem v'ha-aretz v'khol tz'va-am.  (And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.  And the heaven and the earth were finished, the whole host of them. Gen. Ch. 1-2).

Note that some Hebrew letters have two pronunciations.  Bet, Kaf, and Peh have a "hard" sound (the first sound) and a "soft" sound (the second sound).  In pointed texts, these letters have dots in the center (as above) when they are to be pronounced with the hard sound.  In Ashkenazic pronunciation, Tav also has a soft sound, and is pronounced as an "s" when it does not have a dot.  Vav, usually a consonant pronounced as a "v," is sometimes a vowel pronounced "oo" or "oh." When it is pronounced "oo", pointed texts have a dot in the middle.  When it is pronounced "oh", pointed texts have a dot on top.  Shin is pronounced "sh" when it has a dot over the right branch and "s" when it has a dot over the left branch.  Other letters do not change pronunciation.

Transliteration

The process of writing Hebrew words in the Roman (English) alphabet is known as transliteration.  Transliteration is more an art than a science, and opinions on the correct way to transliterate words vary widely.  This is why the Jewish festival of lights (in Hebrew, Chet-Nun-Kaf-Heh) is spelled Chanukah, Channukkah, Hanuka, and many other interesting ways.  Each spelling has a legitimate phonetic and orthographic basis; none is right or wrong.

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