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Niqqud
ְ   ֱ   ֲ   ֳ   ִ   ֵ   ֶ   ַ   ָ   ֹ   ֻ   ּ   ֿ   ׁ   ׂ
Other diacritics	cantillation, geresh, gershayim
Example
Gen. 1:9, "And God said, Let the waters be collected". Letters in black, niqqud in red, cantillation in blue
Niqqud articles
Shva · Hiriq · Zeire · Segol · Patach · Kamatz · Holam · Dagesh · Mappiq · Shuruk · Kubutz · Rafe · Sin/Shin dot

In Hebrew orthography, niqqud or nikud (Hebrew: נִקּוּד, Modern: nikúd, Tiberian: niqqūḏ, "dotting, pointing" or Hebrew: נְקֻדּוֹת, Modern: nekudót, Tiberian: nəquddōṯ, "dots") 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 (see Masoretic Text, Tiberian Hebrew). Text written with niqqud is called ktiv menuqad.

Niqqud marks are small compared to the letters, so they can be added without retranscribing texts whose writers did not anticipate them.

In modern Israeli orthography, niqqud is mainly used in specialised texts such as dictionaries, poetry, or texts for children or new immigrants to Israel. For purposes of disambiguation, a system of spelling without niqqud, known in Hebrew as ktiv maleh (כְּתִיב מָלֵא, literally "full spelling") had developed before the introduction of niqqud. This was formally standardised in the Rules for Spelling without Niqqud (כְּלָלֵי הַכְּתִיב חֲסַר הַנִּקּוּד) enacted by the Academy of the Hebrew Language in 1996, and updated in 2017. Nevertheless, niqqud is still used occasionally in texts to prevent ambiguity and mispronunciation of specific words.

One reason for the lesser use of niqqud is that it no longer reflects the current pronunciation. In modern Hebrew, tzere is pronounced the same as segol, although they were distinct in Tiberian Hebrew, and pataḥ the same as qamatz. To the younger generation of native Hebrew speakers, these distinctions seem arbitrary and meaningless; on the other hand, Hebrew language purists have rejected out of hand the idea of changing the basics of niqqud and fitting them to the current pronunciation – with the result that in practice niqqud is increasingly going out of use.

According to Ghil'ad Zuckermann, the lack of niqqud in what he calls "Israeli" (Modern Hebrew) often results in "mispronunciations". For example, the Israeli lexical item מתאבנים is often pronounced as mitabním (literally "becoming fossilized (masculine plural)") instead of metaavním "appetizers", the latter deriving from תאבון teavón "appetite", the former deriving from אבן éven "stone". Another example is the toponym מעלה אדומים, which is often pronounced as maalé edomím instead of maalé adumím, the latter appearing in the Hebrew Bible (Joshua 15:7 and 18:17). The hypercorrect yotvetá is used instead of yotváta for the toponym יטבתה, mentioned in Deuteronomy 10:7. The surname of American actress Farrah Fawcett (פארה פוסט) is often pronounced fost instead of fóset by many Israelis.

Chart

This table uses the consonant letters ב‎, ח‎ or ש‎, where appropriate, to demonstrate where the niqqud is placed in relation to the consonant it is pronounced after. Any other letters shown are actually part of the vowel. Note that there is some variation among different traditions in exactly how some vowel points are pronounced. The table below shows how most Israelis would pronounce them, but the classic Ashkenazi pronunciation, for example, differs in several respects.

Note concerning IPA: the transcription symbols are linked to the articles about the sounds they represent. The diacritic ˘ (breve) indicates a short vowel; the triangular colon symbol ː indicates that the vowel is long.

Keyboard

Both consonants and niqqud can be typed from virtual graphical keyboards available on the World Wide Web, or by methods integrated into particular operating systems.

Microsoft Windows

• In Windows 8 or later, niqqud can be entered using the right alt (or left alt + ctrl) + the first Hebrew letter of the name of the value, when using the default (Hebrew Standard) keyboard layout:

• In Windows 7 or earlier, niqqud can be entered by enabling Caps Lock and then, with the cursor positioned after a letter, pressing Shift and one of the keys in the Windows column below.
• The user can configure the registry to allow use of the Alt key with the numeric plus key to type the hexadecimal Unicode value.
• The user can use the Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator to produce a custom keyboard layout, or can download a layout produced by another party.

Linux

In GTK+ Linux systems, niqqud can be entered by holding down AltGR and pressing the same keys as for Windows, above, or by pressing ctrl+shift+u followed by the appropriate 4 digit Unicode.

macOS

Using the Hebrew keyboard layout in macOS, the typist can enter niqqud by pressing the Option key together with a number on the top row of the keyboard. Other combinations such as sofit and hataf can also be entered by pressing either the Shift key and a number, or by pressing the Shift key, Option key, and a number at the same time.

Niqqud input Input (Windows) Key (Windows) Input (macOS) Unicode Type Result ~ 0 05B0 Sh'va 1 3 05B1 Reduced Segol 2 1 05B2 Reduced Patach 3 2 05B3 Reduced Kamatz 4 4 05B4 Hiriq 5 5 05B5 Zeire 6 9 05B6 Segol 7 6 05B7 Patach 8 7 05B8 Kamatz 9 A 05C2 Sin dot (left) 0 M 05C1 Shin dot (right)  – = 05B9 Holam = , 05BC Dagesh or Mappiq U 05BC Shuruk \ 8 05BB Kubutz

Notes:

• The letter "ס‎" represents any Hebrew consonant.
• For sin-dot and shin-dot, the letter "ש‎" (sin/shin) is used.
• The dagesh, mappiq, and shuruk have different uses, but the same graphical representation, and hence are input in the same manner.
• For shuruk, the letter "ו‎" (vav) is used since it can only be used with that letter.
• A rafe can be input by inserting the corresponding Unicode character, either explicitly or via a customized keyboard layout.

SIL International have developed another standard, which is based on Tiro, but adds the Niqqud along the home keys. Linux comes with "Israel — Biblical Hebrew (Tiro)" as a standard layout. With this layout, niqqud can be typed without pressing the Caps Lock key.

See also

• The Arabic equivalent, harakat.
• Hebrew diacritics
• Q're perpetuum
• Hebrew spelling
• Tiberian Hebrew
• Hebrew keyboard

Notes

Bibliography

• Gonen, Einat; Dan, Barak (2006). Gadish, Ronit (ed.). "Leshonenu La′am. Academy Decisions: Grammar". Ha-ʻIvrit (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: The Academy of the Hebrew Language. ISSN 0024-1091.
•  Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, especially §7, §8, §9
• Netzer, Nisan (1976). Haniqqud halakha lema′ase (in Hebrew). Israel: Massada.

References

1. Cantillation
2. Amir Aharoni (2013). Khan, Geoffrey (ed.). Encyclopedia of Hebrew language and linguistics. Vol. 3. Leiden: Brill. p. 947. ISBN 978-90-04-17642-3. The notable exception is the newspaper שער למתחיל Sha'ar LaMatchil 'Gate for the Beginner', intended for children and students of Hebrew, which is printed in 'easy Hebrew' with a limited vocabulary and partial vocalization applied to scriptio plena.
3. "כללי הכתיב חסר הניקוד" [Missing spelling rules] (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on 27 February 2009. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
4. "כללי הכתיב החדשים" [New spelling] (in Hebrew). Retrieved 12 October 2019.
5. Galili, Ze'ev (31 December 2004). "בני פלד כ" כנעני"" [Benny Peled as "Canaanite"]. Retrieved 12 October 2019. Supposedly, the teachers who taught my generation knew Hebrew perfectly. They had a thorough knowledge of all the Hebrew classics as well as of modern Hebrew literature. But Hebrew was not their natural language. They had gained their knowledge of Hebrew from books, by tremendous effort. But they did not dream nor curse and did not read in Hebrew. And they subjected us, who grew up with Hebrew as our mother tongue, to a terrible torture. They demanded that we master perfectly all the niceties and nuances of a language purism which meant nothing to us. I remember when I was asked to write words with nikkud on the blackboard and made a hash of it, the teacher said "You are a total ignoramus".
6. ^ Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2020). Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-981279-0.
7. "תעתיק פשוט לעורכי שילוט ומיפוי" [Simple transcription for signage and mapping editors] (PDF) (in Hebrew). The Hebrew Language Academy. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 July 2014. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
8. "כיצד לנקד בחלונות 10". (Hebrew)
9. Likewise in Windows 8 or later if, in the Hebrew options of the language settings, the keyboard is changed from "Hebrew (Standard)" to "Hebrew"–the latter being the legacy keyboard layout.
10. "כיצד לנקד במקלדת". (Hebrew); "Typing Hebrew Niqqud (Voweling Points) in Windows 8". 24 July 2013. Archived from the original on 2020-08-06.
11. "How to enter Unicode characters in Microsoft Windows". Retrieved 12 October 2019.
12. "Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4". Microsoft. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
13. "Macintosh Hebrew Language Kit" (PDF). Retrieved 12 October 2019.
14. "Biblical Hebrew (Tiro) keyboard manual" (PDF). Retrieved 12 October 2019.

External links

• Diacritical Vowel Markers

• Niqqud