A Student's Introduction To Biblical Hebrew: What Are The Essential Features That You Need To Memorize in Chapter 1?

A Students Introduction to Biblical Hebrew
DRAFT COPYNOT FOR DISTRIBUTION

By Andrew G. Vaughn
This chapter introduces the essential features required to begin reading Hebrew. This
textbook focuses on the development of reading skills, so the explanations center around
the features necessary for reading Hebrew and not on historical or grammatical
explanations. The student is encouraged to supplement the material found in this textbook
with a more comprehensive grammar in order to understand better the historical
development of the language. By the end of this chapter, the student should be able to
recognize and pronounce all the Hebrew letters and vowel pointing. Once the goals of
this chapter are met, the student will move quickly into reading Hebrew.
What are the essential features that you need to memorize in Chapter 1?
1. The alphabet: It is essential to learn how to say, to recognize, and to write the
Hebrew alphabet.
2. Vowel points: It is essential to learn the vowel points that have been added to the
consonants.
3. Syllabification and stress: It is essential to learn the basic rules for syllable
division and stress so that the student may begin to read and pronounce Hebrew.
4. Some orthographic (writing) and phonological (pronunciation) features: It is
essential to memorize the names and characteristics of a few rules for the writing
and pronunciation of Hebrew. These features include the dage, gutturals, andd
the begadkephat letters.
2
Section One: alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet is similar to the English alphabet in terms of the sounds of
the consonants. In fact, the name for the Hebrew alphabet (the aleph bet) is very
similar to the term alphabet. The student will thus recognize most but not all of the
sounds. There are some notable differencesthe orthography (or writing) of the
Hebrew alphabet is quite different from the English alphabet, and Hebrew is also
written and read from right to left.
Some textbooks use transliteration of Hebrew in the initial chapters in order to
ease the transition for students that find these features difficult. This textbook uses a
different approach. While these features may take many students a little while to get
used to, they will soon become very familiar and not pose a problem. It is essential
that beginning students of Hebrew learn to recognize and replicate the Hebrew letters
from the very beginning because everything else builds on this knowledge base. The
use of the transliteration crutch only serves to create another step that will ultimately
slow down the learning process. Thus, the following table should be memorized and
mastered right away. Students should know how to recite, write, and read all of the
Hebrew consonants (see CD for audio file of alphabet as well as drill sheets).
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Table 1.01
Name
lep
Bt
Gmel
Dlet
He (pronounced hay)
Waw (pronounced vav)
Zayin
Het (pronounced chet)
Tet
Yod
Kaph
Lamed
Mem
Nun
Samek
`ayin
Peh
Sade
Qoph
Resh
Sin
Shin
Taw (pronounced tav)
Hebrew Letter
a
b
g
d
h
w
z
j
f
y
k
l
m
n
s
o
p
x
q
r
c
v
t
(See CD for audio file and drill sheets)
Modern Phonetic value

None
b as in boy
g as in good
d as in day
h as in help
v as in victory
z as in zebra
t as in top
y as in young
k as in kid
l as in lamp
m as in mom
nun as in nun
s as in sick
None
p as in part
ts as in hits
k as in kill
r as in rip
s as in sick
sh as in sheet
t as in top
4
Final forms of a few letters: A few letters have two formsone form for consonants in
the initial or medial position of a word, and one final form when these letters are found
at the end of a word. These letters (kaph [k], mem [m], nun [n], pe [p], and sade [x], )
must be memorized. The writing of these letters is similar to the initial/medial form, but
in the final position they have an elongated form that extends below an imaginary line of
the other letters in the word. The following is a table with these letters and their final
forms (the student will notice that the table is oriented from right to left so as to begin
reinforcing the way that Hebrew is written):
Table 1.02
Final Form
Initial and Medial Form
Letter Name
kaph
mem
nun
pe
Sade
Section Two: vowel points

Ancient Hebrew manuscripts were not written with vowels, and correct
pronunciation was pass down from generation to generation by oral tradition. Obviously,
this feature allowed for a number of inconsistencies. Therefore, in the 9th and 10th
centuries CE, a group of Jewish scholars in Tiberias undertook the task to add vowel
points to the received consonantal text. These scholars are called the Masoretes (or
traditionalists). Most printed texts of the Hebrew Bible today are a collection of the
5
Masoretic Text (MT), and the vowel system employed is called the Tiberian Masoretic
vocalization. This textbook also employs this system.
The Masoretes maintained the consonantal text and inserted points above and
below the consonants to indicate which vowels should be used. The following table
presents a summary of the Tiberian Masoretic vocalization. These points are not found
apart from consonants, so the table lists the points together with the consonant bet (b).
Table 1.03
Vowel class
/a/
Long or short
Pronunciation
Name of vowel point
Short
;Ab
a (short ah )
Patah
Long
;Db
(long ah)
qames
Long or short
;Ib
i or (short/long ee
hreq
Long
;Eb
(long ee)
ser
Short
R;b
e (short eh)
segol
Reduced
;Vb
(reduced eh)
Long
;b
(long o)
holem
Short
;Ub
u (short ew)
qibbus
short
;b
o (short o)
(pronounced ah)
i
(pronounced ee)
w (see below)
(pronounced uu)
qamas-hatup
The w:
One vowel point, the w, deserves special mention because it can either be a
vocal or a silent. A vocal w is a reduced vowel sound while a silent w marks the
end of a syllable and is not a vowel at all. The following rules help simplify this
situation:
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1. A w is silent if it ends a syllable.
2. A w is vocal if it starts a syllable. A w can start a syllabile in the
following cases:
a. A w starts a word (Table 1.04)
tyIvarb
V;
XrDaDhw
tRpRjrm
V
wnyImVl
b. A w follows a closed syllable and does not occur at the end of a word
(Table 1.05):
wlVvVmy
Kb
V; rIqV;b
wrVmVvIt
Kv
V VpnV;k
c. A w follows an open syllable with a long vowel (either accented or

unaccented):
d. A w follows an accented, open syllable with short vowel
Three: Syllabification and Stress

Hebrew words, like English words, can be divided into groups of nouns, verbs,
particles, prepositions, adjectives, etc. The subsequent chapters will introduce all these
types of words, but for now it is sufficient to note that all of these words or particles
contain syllablessome words have only one syllable and some have multiple syllables.
As the student will need to read and memorize Hebrew from the first day, it is important
to begin to learn the basics of syllable division in the first chapter of this textbook. The
approach presented here is to outline a number of general rules that are helpful for an
understanding of the basics syllable division in Hebrew. The emphasis is on the common
features rather than the exceptions. These rules should be taken as general guidelines
rather than hard-and-fast rules that can never be broken. In most cases they are 95%
rules that explain Hebrew in more than 95% of all possible instances. The exceptions to
these rules should be taken just as thatexceptions rather than the norm.
The following is a list of rules that should be learned:

1. Hebrew syllables are either stressed (accented) or unstressed (unaccented).
a. The stressed (accented) syllable normally is found on the last syllable (the
ultima). It is common not to mark the accent on the ultima since this is the
common placement of the accent.
b. In certain words and in certain situations caused by the adding of suffixes,
the stressed (accented) can be found on the second-to-last syllable (the
penultima). It is common to mark the accent on the penultima.
2. Hebrew syllables start with a consonant.1
3. Hebrew syllables can be either open syllables (end in a voiced vowel), or they can
be closed syllables (end in a consonant).
4. Unstressed or unaccented syllables.
a. If the vowel is short, then the syllable is a closed syllable (CvC)
b. If the vowel is long, then the syllable is an open syllable (C)
c. If the vowel is reduced, then the syllable is an open syllable (C)
5. Stressed or unaccented syllables: can be either open or closed syllable with either
a long or short vowel
The following chart summarizes the above rules and should be memorized:
Open Syllables
Closed Syllables
Accented or stressed
CV, Cv
CC, CvC
Unaccented or unstressed
CV, C
CvC
The conjunction w is an exception to this rule.
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Four: special orthographic (writing) features
By this point in the chapter, the student has learned most of the essential features
necessary to read and pronounce Hebrew. However, there are a few additional features
that must be introduced before we can move further. The present section includes these
additional features.
The begad kepat letters:

The term begad kepat is a pneumonic device that is used to identify a group of six
consonants that can be either stops or spirants: bet (b), gimel (g), dalet (d), kaph (k), pe
(p), and taw (t). In classical Hebrew pronunciation, the spirants were probably
pronounced with as hard sounds and spirants. For example, the letter taw was probably
pronounced as a /t/ for the stop and as a /th/ for the spirant. This type of distinction has
dropped out of usage in Modern, Israeli Hebrew for all of these letters except bet, kaph,
and pe. However, these letters must be memorized because the existence of stops and
spirants is important for understanding the usage of the dagesh to signify doubling (see
below). For now, the student should simply memorize which letters are the begad kephat
letters and know that these letters can be either stops or spirants.
The dage:
The dage is a point in a consonant. This point can indicate one of two things:
1. The consonant is doubled
2. The consonant is a stop (it is pronounced with a hard sound and not a spirant)
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The following rules are helpful in determining whether the dage signifies doubling or
a stop:
1. If a dage is found in any letter other than a begad kephat letter, the dage
signifies doubling.
2. If the dage is found in a begad kephat letter, the letter is pronounced as a hard
sound, but it remains an open question as to whether the letter is doubled or
simply a stop.
a. If the dage is in a begad kephat letter and follows a voiced vowel, then
the dage signifies doubling.
b. If the dage is in a begad kephat letter but does not follow a voiced vowel,
then the dage signifies a stop that is not doubled. This happens in the
following cases:
i. It follows a closed syllable
ii. It starts a word and the preceding word does not end in a vowel
iii. It starts a word and follows a major punctuation mark (if there is a
major punctuation mark, then it does not matter if the previous
word ends in a vowel or not.

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A Students Introduction to Biblical Hebrew

DRAFT COPYNOT FOR DISTRIBUTION

(See CD for audio file and drill sheets)

Modern Phonetic value

Initial and Medial Form

Section Two: vowel points

Name of vowel point

c. A w follows an open syllable with a long vowel (either accented or

Three: Syllabification and Stress

The following is a list of rules that should be learned:

The conjunction w is an exception to this rule.

The begad kepat letters:

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