2.6 Vowels that are letters: discussion

Vowel letters use a consonant plus a nikkud to form a vowel

  • Shureq is pronounced like Qibbuts (ruler)
  • Hireq Yod is pronounced like the i in machine (compared to Hireq (Short I), which is pronounced like "bitter)
  • The other vowel letters are pronounced like the corresponding vowel - Qamets Hei is pronounced like Qamets, and so forth
  • All vowel letters, except Seghol Hei, are LONG
  • Yod and Vav vowels - י,ו
    • Not only are these Long vowels, they have a unique feature is that they are “immune” from “propretonic reduction”
    • Therefore they are called “Unchangeable long vowels” or sometimes “Irreducible long vowels”
    • We’ll explain what this means in the next lesson
  • Hei Vowels - ה
    • Hei vowels can ONLY occur at the END of a word
    • Hei vowels are extremely common in Hebrew
    • The Hei vowels are Long (except for Seghol Hei) but they are not labeled as irreducible/unchangeable32
  • Do not confuse “vowel reducing” with “defective spelling”
  • Although unchangable long vowels CANNOT reduce, they CAN be written defectively
    • For example, what was originally בּוֹ becomes בֹּ
  • We will discuss defective spelling next

  1. Strictly speaking, this point is irrelevant as a vowel at the end of a word would never reduce anyway. But, if you are ever asked “are the Hei vowels irreducible/unchangeable?”, the answer is “no.”↩︎