1.6 We classify א, ה, ח, ע as “Gutturals”, and ר as a sometimes-guttural

The Guttural Letters, and Resh, the sometimes-Guttural

Figure 1.7: The Guttural Letters, and Resh, the sometimes-Guttural

Learning how the gutturals behave and the spelling changes they can cause is one of the most critical facets of learning Hebrew grammar.

  • There are four proper gutturals17: Aleph, Hei, Chet, and Ayin (in red above)
  • The letter Resh ר (in orange above) is not formally a Guttural; but since it can’t decide whether to behave or not, sometimes we include Resh with the other Gutturals
  • We like to say that the gutturals (and sometimes Resh) will be our trouble-makers because they tend not to play nice with the other Hebrew rules!
    • The good news is the behavior of the Gutturals and Resh is usually predictable
    • We will learn this over the next few lessons (and indeed, the rest of the course)
  • For now, memorize the group of four guttural consonants in red and Resh, the sometimes-guttural-like letter in orange.

  1. In modern linguistics, these are called glottals↩︎