Hebrew for Bible Readers

010

The ten Hebrew vowel signs we learned in the last lesson (“Adding Vowels,” BR 07:04) took us far along the way to correct pronunciation of words. Here we will learn about some additional pronunciation aids, the dagesh and the shewa, bringing us closer still to reading some Hebrew sentences in the Bible.

Some Hebrew consonants may represent two distinct sounds: The distinction is marked by the presence of a dagesh, a dot in the letter. Bet with a dagesh in it (B) has the sound of an English b, but without dagesh (b) it sounds like v. Similarly kaf (k) and peh (p) have a hard pronunciation with the dagesh, k and p, and a soft pronunciation without it, ch and f. Three additional letters may be marked with this dagesh: gimel (GÖg), dalet (DÖd) and tav (TÖt), but in these the pronunciation of the consonant is not changed; they are pronounced hard, g, d and t. (In the past, without a dagesh a g was pronounced “gr,” a d as “dh” and a t as “th”; these sounds, however, have been lost.) The six consonants that take this dagesh are called the BeGaD KeFaT letters, after their acronym.

A dagesh can also indicate the doubling or lengthening of a consonant. hT;a’ (masculine “you”), for example, would be transliterated as atta because of the dagesh in the tav.

The shewa ( ] ) when placed under a letter at the beginning of a syllable has a bit of vowel sound, like a fragment of the seghol sound (,, “eh”); thus ynIB] (“my son”) is pronounced beni, with the e said very quickly. This is known as a vocal shewa. Elsewhere the shewa indicates the absence of a vowel (for example, bTok]yI yich-tov, “he shall write”). A shewa is pronounced when it occurs at the beginning of a word (as with beni above); when it is the second of two shewas (as in WbT]k]yI yich-tevu, “they shall write”); or following a long vowel (as in Wbt]K; ka-tevu, “they wrote”). The shewa is usually omitted at the end of words.

Further, a compound shewa—a shewa in combination with another vowel sign—is used in place of a vocal shewa with the consonants [, j, h and a. The compound shewa appears in three forms: Õ (“oh”), } (“ah”) and Ô (“eh”). Try pronouncing these words with compound shewas:

µr;a} (aram, meaning “Syria”)

µyhil¿aÔ (elo-him, meaning “God”)

ylijÕ (choly, meaning “sickness”)

The consonants [, j, h and a have another peculiarity. Because they are pronounced with guttural sounds made far back in the throat, the short “ah” vowel (patah) combines well with them. When one of these consonants occurs at the end of a word, a “furtive patah” is written and pronounced before the consonant. Thus, j’yriB] (a bolt for a door) is pronounced be-ri-ach (not be-ri-cha).

Syllables and stress, or accent, also play a part in pronunciation in Hebrew. An “open” syllable ends in a vowel, as with D’ da, Di di, Du du. It consists of a consonant plus a vowel, or sometimes two consonants plus a vowel: yliB] beli (without).

A “closed” syllable ends in a consonant, as with gD; dag (fish). In the word rBeDi dib-ber (he spoke) the dagesh in the second consonant (B) turns the first syllable into a closed syllable and provides the consonant sound to open the second syllable. (The dagesh in the dalet at the beginning of the word marks the consonant as having a hard d sound.)

In pronouncing dib-ber, the last syllable (ber) is emphasized, dib-BER. In most Hebrew words, the last syllable is stressed, though sometimes the next to the last syllable is emphasized. As a help to you, we will use the sign (<) above the stressed syllable. We will not use any sign for words stressed on the last syllable.

In the table below, practice pronouncing some Hebrew expressions that exhibit the features discussed in this lesson. Remember to read the Hebrew from right to left!

Now that we have identified the basic sounds of Hebrew and learned some of the peculiarities of pronunciation, we can go on in our next lesson to read some simple sentences. In preparation, thoroughly review the first three.

If you have difficulty understanding what I have presented, write to me at “Hebrew for Bible Readers,” Bible Review, 3000 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20008.