Vowel Transliteration/Shorthand

We will begin to use the vowel transliteration introduced in Lesson 2

  • Short Vowels (no marking): \(A\) for Patach, \(E\) for Seghol, \(I\), Hireq, \(O\) for Qamets Hatuf, and \(U\), Qibbuts
  • Long Vowels that are not letters (bar): \(\bar A\) for Qamets, \(\bar E\) for Tsere, and \(\bar O\) for Holem
  • Unchangeable Long Vowels (hat): \(\hat E\) = Tsere+Yod, \(\hat I\) = Hireq+Yod; \(\hat O\) = Holem+Vav, and \(\hat U\) = Shureq
  • Additionally, we have Vocal Sheva = \(ə\), and \(:\) for Silent Sheva88

  1. Vocal Sheva (as well as the Hateph vowels) has a “hurried” pronunciation, like the a in amuse. ə is the international character for this sound. Silent Sheva has no pronunciation or transliteration value.↩︎