2.7 “Defective” and “plene” spelling
Figure 2.7: Defective and Plene spelling
In “defective” spelling, letter vowels can sometimes drop their letter and take on the corresponding non-letter vowel. The meaning of the word does not change.
This is the word for “laws” showing both “plene” spelling and “defective” spelling. Both spellings mean exactly the same thing: “laws” or “teachings”.
- Vowel letters commonly take “defective” forms33
- Holem-Vav can drop the Vav and contract to Holem, as in the example above
- Hireq-Yod can drop the Yod and contract to Hireq
- Shuruq can drop entirely and contract to Qibbuts - this sometimes catches students by surprise - see caution box below.
- The Qamets-Hei ה ָ sometimes drops the final ה, leaving just the Qamets under the now-final letter.
An unchangeable long vowel written defectively is still an unchangeable long vowel
- A Qibbuts that is not defective is a short vowel
- A Qibbuts that is a defective Shureq is an unchangeable long vowel
For now, do not be concerned about the difference. As we progress in the course, you will see this in action.
If any of this is confusing now, as we’ve said before, hang in there! As you progress in your knowledge of Hebrew, you’ll start to develop a mental checklist when you encounter something that does not seem to follow the regular rules. Asking yourself, “Could this be a defective spelling?” will be one of those checklist items.
“Defective”, in this sense, does not have a negative connotation.↩︎