Tiberian vocalization

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Closeup of Aleppo Codex, Joshua 1:1

The Tiberian vocalization, Tiberian pointing, or Tiberian niqqud (Hebrew : הַנִּקּוּד הַטְבֶרְיָנִי, romanized: hanniqquḏ haṭṭəḇeryāni) is a system of diacritics ( niqqud ) devised by the Masoretes of Tiberias to add to the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible to produce the Masoretic Text. [1] The system soon became used to vocalize other Hebrew texts as well.

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Tiberian vocalization marks vowels and stress, distinguishes consonant quality and length, and serves as punctuation. While the Tiberian system was devised for Tiberian Hebrew, it has become the dominant system for vocalizing all forms of Hebrew. It has long since eclipsed the comparatively rudimentary Babylonian and Palestinian vocalization systems for writing Biblical Hebrew.

Consonant diacritics

The sin dot distinguishes between the two values of ש. A dagesh indicates a consonant is geminate or unspirantized, and a raphe indicates spirantization. The mappiq indicates that ה is consonantal, not silent, in syllable-coda position.

Vowel diacritics

The seven vowel qualities of Tiberian Hebrew are indicated straightforwardly by distinct diacritics:

niqqud with אאַאֶאֵאִאָ אׇאֹאֻאוּ
name patah segol tzere hiriq qamatz holam qubutz shuruq
value/a//ɛ//e//i//ɔ//o//u/

The diacritics qubutz and shuruq both represent /u/, but shuruq is used when the text uses full spelling (with waw as a mater lectionis). Each of the vowel phonemes could be allophonically lengthened; occasionally, the length is marked with metheg. Metheg also indirectly indicates when a following shva is vocal.

The ultrashort vowels are slightly more complicated. There were two graphemes corresponding to the vowel /ă/, attested by alternations in manuscripts like ארֲריך~ארְריך, ואשמֳעָה~ואשמְעָה.. [2] In addition, one of the graphemes could also be silent:

niqqud with אאְאֲאֱאֳ
name shva hataf patah hataf segol hataf qamatz
value/ă/,/ă//ɛ̆//ɔ̆/
Figurines holding Tiberian vowel diacritics. Limestone and basalt artwork at the shore in Tiberias. Tiberian-vocalisation-david-fine.jpg
Figurines holding Tiberian vowel diacritics. Limestone and basalt artwork at the shore in Tiberias.

Shva was used both to indicate lack of a vowel (quiescent šwa, shva naḥ) and as another symbol to represent the phoneme /ă/ (mobile šwa, shva naʻ), the latter also represented by hataf patah. [2] [3] The phoneme /ă/ had a number of allophones; /ă/ had to be written with shva rather than hataf patah when it was not pronounced as [ă]. [4] Before a laryngeal-pharyngeal, mobile šwa was pronounced as an ultrashort copy of the following vowel (וּבָקְעָה[uvɔqɔ̆ʕɔ]) and as [ĭ] preceding /j/, (תְדַמְּיוּ֫נִי/θăðammĭjuni/). [2] Using ḥataf vowels was mandatory under gutturals but optional under other letters, and there was considerable variation among manuscripts. [5]

That is referenced specifically by medieval grammarians:

If one argues that the dalet of 'Mordecai' (and other letters in other words) has hatef qames, tell him, 'but this sign is only a device used by some scribes to warn that the consonants should be pronounced fully, and not slurred over'.

Abu al-Faraj Harun, Hidāyat al-Qāri (Horayat Ha-Qore), quoted in Yeivin (1980:283–284)

The names of the vowel diacritics are iconic and show some variation:

The names of the vowels are mostly taken from the form and action of the mouth in producing the various sounds, as פַּ֫תַחopening; צֵ֫רֵיa wide parting (of the mouth), also שֶׁ֫בֶר (=ĭ) breaking, parting (cf. the Arab. kasr); חִ֫ירֶק (also חִרֶק) narrow opening; ח֫וֹלֶםclosing, according to others fullness, i.e. of the mouth (also מְלֹא פוּםfullness of the mouth). קָ֫מֶץ also denotes a slighter, as שׁוּרֶק and קִבּוּץ (also קבוץ פּוּם) a firmer, compression or contraction of the mouth. Sĕgôl (סְגוֹלbunch of grapes) takes its name from its form. So שָׁלשׁ נְקֻדּוֹת (three points) is another name for Qibbûṣ.
Moreover the names were mostly so formed (but only later), that the sound of each vowel is heard in the first syllable (קָמֶץ for קֹמֶץ,פַּתַח for פֶּתַח,צֵרִי for צְרִי); in order to carry this out consistently some even write Sägôl, Qomeṣ-ḥatûf, Qübbûṣ.

Cantillation

Cantillation signs mark stress and punctuation. Metheg may mark secondary stress, and maqqaf conjoins words into one stress unit, which normally takes only one cantillation mark on the final word in the unit.

See also

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A mater lectionis is any consonant that is used to indicate a vowel, primarily in the writing of Semitic languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac. The letters that do this in Hebrew are aleph א, he ה, waw ו and yod י, with the latter two in particular being more often vowels than they are consonants. In Arabic, the matres lectionis are ʾalif ا, wāw و and yāʾ ي.

Vocalization or vocalisation may refer to:

In Hebrew orthography, niqqud or nikud is a system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Several such diacritical systems were developed in the Early Middle Ages. The most widespread system, and the only one still used to a significant degree today, was created by the Masoretes of Tiberias in the second half of the first millennium AD in the Land of Israel. Text written with niqqud is called ktiv menuqad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biblical Hebrew</span> Archaic form of the Hebrew language

Biblical Hebrew, also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language, a language in the Canaanitic branch of the Semitic languages spoken by the Israelites in the area known as the Land of Israel, roughly west of the Jordan River and east of the Mediterranean Sea. The term ʿiḇrîṯ "Hebrew" was not used for the language in the Hebrew Bible, which was referred to as שְֹפַת כְּנַעַן śəp̄aṯ kənaʿan "language of Canaan" or יְהוּדִית Yəhûḏîṯ, "Judean", but it was used in Koine Greek and Mishnaic Hebrew texts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiberian Hebrew</span> Canonical pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible

Tiberian Hebrew is the canonical pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) committed to writing by Masoretic scholars living in the Jewish community of Tiberias in ancient Galilee c. 750–950 CE under the Abbasid Caliphate. They wrote in the form of Tiberian vocalization, which employed diacritics added to the Hebrew letters: vowel signs and consonant diacritics (nequdot) and the so-called accents. These together with the marginal notes masora magna and masora parva make up the Tiberian apparatus.

Waw is the sixth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician wāw 𐤅, Aramaic waw 𐡅, Hebrew vavו‎, Syriac waw ܘ and Arabic wāwو‎.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romanization of Hebrew</span> Transcription of Hebrew into the Latin alphabet

The Hebrew language uses the Hebrew alphabet with optional vowel diacritics. The romanization of Hebrew is the use of the Latin alphabet to transliterate Hebrew words.

Segol is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign that is represented by three dots forming an upside down equilateral triangle "ֶ ". As such, it resembles an upside down therefore sign underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, it indicates the phoneme which is similar to "e" in the English word sound in sell and is transliterated as an e.

Shva or, in Biblical Hebrew, shĕwa is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign written as two vertical dots beneath a letter. It indicates either the phoneme or the complete absence of a vowel (/Ø/).

Pataḥ is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign represented by a horizontal line ⟨ אַ‎ ⟩ underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, it indicates the phoneme which is close to the "[a]" sound in the English word far and is transliterated as an a.

Kamatz or qamatz is a Hebrew niqqud (vowel) sign represented by two perpendicular lines  ָ ‎ ⟩ underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, it usually indicates the phoneme which is the "a" sound in the word spa and is transliterated as a. In these cases, its sound is identical to the sound of pataḥ in modern Hebrew. In a minority of cases it indicates the phoneme, equal to the sound of ḥolam. In traditional Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation, qamatz is pronounced as the phoneme, which becomes in some contexts in southern Ashkenazi dialects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafe</span> Diacritical mark used in Hebrew

In Hebrew orthography the rafe or raphe is a diacritic, a subtle horizontal overbar placed above certain letters to indicate that they are to be pronounced as fricatives.

Tzere is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign represented by two horizontally-aligned dots "◌ֵ" underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, tzere is pronounced the same as segol and indicates the phoneme /e/, which is the same as the "e" sound in the vowel segol and is transliterated as an "e". There was a distinction in Tiberian Hebrew between segol and Tzere.

Kubutz or qubbutz and shuruk are two Hebrew niqqud vowel signs that represent the sound. In an alternative, Ashkenazi naming, the kubutz is called "shuruk" and shuruk is called "melopum".

Hebrew orthography includes three types of diacritics:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meteg</span> Hebrew punctuation mark

Meteg is a punctuation mark used in Biblical Hebrew for stress marking. It is a vertical bar placed under the affected syllable.

Biblical Hebrew orthography refers to the various systems which have been used to write the Biblical Hebrew language. Biblical Hebrew has been written in a number of different writing systems over time, and in those systems its spelling and punctuation have also undergone changes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palestinian vocalization</span> Extinct system of diacritics for Hebrew

The Palestinian vocalization, Palestinian pointing, Palestinian niqqud or Vocalization of the Land of Israel is an extinct system of niqqud (diacritics) devised by scholars to add to the Hebrew Bible to indicate vowel quality. The Palestinian system is no longer used, long supplanted by the Tiberian vocalization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Babylonian vocalization</span> Historical system of diacritics for Hebrew

The Babylonian vocalization, also known as Babylonian supralinear punctuation, or Babylonian pointing or Babylonian niqqud Hebrew: נִקּוּד בָּבְלִי‎) is a system of diacritics (niqqud) and vowel symbols assigned above the text and devised by the Masoretes of Babylon to add to the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible to indicate the proper pronunciation of words, reflecting the Hebrew of Babylon. The Babylonian notation is no longer in use in any Jewish community, having been supplanted by the sublinear Tiberian vocalization. However, the Babylonian pronunciation as reflected in that notation appears to be the ancestor of that used by Yemenite Jews.

References

  1. The portions of the Hebrew Bible in Biblical Aramaic use the same system of vocalization.
  2. 1 2 3 Blau (2010 :105–106)
  3. Blau (2010 :117–118)
  4. Blau (2010 :118)
  5. Yeivin (1980 :283)

Sources