Hebrew For Dummies. Jill Suzanne Jacobs

ḥeht ח Makes a strong guttural H”sound. In this book, this letter is represented as ḥ. Tet teht ה Makes a T sound as in teaspoon. Yod yohd י Makes a Y sound at the beginning of a word, as in young. This letter also behaves like a vowel at times. I discuss it in “Those dots and dashes they call vowels” later in this chapter. Kaf kahf כּ Makes a K sound as in kite. Khaf khahf כ Makes a strong guttural H sound. This letter is represented in this book as kh. Lamed lah-mehd ל Makes an L sound as in lemon. Mem mehm מ Makes an M sound as in mouse. Nun noon נ Makes an N sound as in no. (And you thought only Catholics had nuns.) Samekh sah-mehḥ ס Makes an S sound as in soda. Ayin ah-yeen ע Makes a barely audible guttural sound in the back of the throat. (For practical purposes, as most non-native speakers can’t make this sound, this letter is a silent letter. You pronounce the vowels that are placed below it, but the letter itself doesn’t make a sound.) Pey pay פּ Makes a P sound as in popsicle. Fey fay פ Makes an F sound as in fish. Tzadi tzah-dee צ Makes a hard Tz sound as in pizza. In this book, I represent it as tz. Kof kohf ק Makes a K sound as in Kansas. Reish raysh ר Makes an R sound as in round. This letter is actually a guttural letter. Roll it like a Spanish R and pronounce it from the back of the throat. Shin sheen שׁ (Not Charlie’s brother or Martin’s long-lost son.) When the dot is on the right side of the letter, it makes a Sh sound. as in show. In this book, I represent it as sh. Sin seen שׂ When the dot is on the left side of the letter, it makes an S sound as in Sam. Tav tahv ת Makes a T sound as in toe.

      Those dots and dashes they call vowels

      Originally, Hebrew had no vowels. Vowels, in the form of dots and lines below the consonants, were added to Hebrew writing in the seventh century CE. Before then, people read without vowels. Even today, most books, magazines, and newspapers in Modern Hebrew — not to mention the Torah scroll — are written without vowels.

      Modern Hebrew has both long and short vowels. As a general rule, a long vowel can make up one syllable, but a short vowel needs either another vowel or a שָׁוְא (shuh-vah; two vertical dots below a consonant) to form a syllable. For more on the שָׁוְא, see “Introducing the Shvah” later in this chapter.

As I mentioned earlier, vowels are divided into long and short vowels. This categorization doesn’t have to do with their pronunciation but with the fact that long vowels are usually in open syllables — syllables that end with a vowel — and short vowels are usually in closed syllables — syllables that end with a consonant. The long vowel חִירִיק מָלֵא (Chirik Maleh), however, holds its sound longer than the corresponding short vowel חָרִיק חַסֵּר (hirek haser). Table 1-6 shows the long vowels.

TABLE 1-6 The Long Vowels

Name of the Vowel	Pronunciation	In Hebrew	The Sound It Makes
Hirik Maleh	ḥee-reek mah-leh	iאִי	Makes an Ee sound as in see
Holam	ḥoh-lahm	אֹ	Makes an O sound as in more