Consonants
- There are 5 characters with final forms.
- Final forms are used when the character appears at the end of a word.
Letter Patterns
Silent Letters → aleph, he, waw, yod, ayin
- These letters can be silent
Gutteral Letters → aleph, he, heth, ayin, resh
- “Throaty”
- Refuse doubling (dagesh)
- Prefer a-class vowels
- Prefer compound shwa
Begadkepat → beth, gimel, dalet, kaf, pay, taw
- These letters take the doubling dagesh
- Begadkepat is a mnemonic
Labial → beth, mem, pe
- Pronounced with the lips
Vowel → he, waw, yod
- Can be used as vowel components
Vowels
Sound | Long | Short | Reduced |
---|---|---|---|
AH | אָ Qamats קָמָץ | אַ Patah פַּתַח | אֲ Hataf Patah חֲטַף פַּתַח |
EH | אֶ Segol סֶגוֹל | בְּ Shwa שְׁוָא | אֱ Hataf Segol חֲטַף סֶגוֹל |
EE | אִ Hirik חִירִיק | ||
OH | אֹ וֹ Holam חוֹלָם | אֳ Hataf Qamats חֲטַף קָמָץ | |
OO | וּ Shuruk שׁוּרוּק | ||
UH | אֻ Qubuts קֻבּוּץ | ||
AY | אֵ Tsere צֵרֵי |
- The בְּ Shwa שְׁוָא is also known as the STOP vowel.