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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 nikkud (Hebrew: נִקּוּד, Modern: nikud, Tiberian: niqqûḏ, "dotting, pointing" or Hebrew: נְקֻדּוֹת, Modern: nekudot, Tiberian: nəquddôṯ, "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 consonants, so they can be added without retranscribing texts whose writers did not anticipate them.

In modern Israeli orthography niqqud is seldom used, except in specialised texts such as dictionaries, poetry, or texts for children or for new immigrants. For purposes of disambiguation, a system of spelling without niqqud, known in Hebrew as ktiv maleh (Template:Hebrew, literally "full spelling") has developed. This was formally standardised in the Rules for Spelling without Niqqud (Template:Hebrew) enacted by the Academy of the Hebrew Language in 1996.

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 also pataḥ makes the same sound as a 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.

Among those who do not speak Hebrew, niqqud are the sometimes unnamed focus of controversy regarding the interpretation of the name written with the Tetragrammaton—written as Template:Hebrew in Hebrew. The interpretation affects discussion of the authentic ancient pronunciation of the name whose other conventional English forms are "Jehovah" and "Yahweh".

Demonstration

This table uses the consonants Template:Hbrbet, Template:Hbrhet or Template:Hbrshin, where appropriate, to demonstrate where the niqqud is placed in relation to the consonant it is pronounced after. Any other consonants 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.

This demonstration is known to work in Internet Explorer and Mozilla browsers in at least some circumstances, but in most other Windows browsers the niqqud do not properly combine with the consonants. It works very well when "dir=rtl" is added in the HTML source. This is because, currently, the Windows text display engine does not combine the niqqud automatically. Except as noted, the vowel pointings should appear directly beneath the consonants and the accompanying "vowel letter" consonants for the mālê (long) forms appear after.

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 + the first Hebrew letter of the name of the value, when using the standard Hebrew keyboard layout. On earlier versions, the typist can enter niqqud by pressing CapsLock, placing the cursor after the consonant letter, and then pressing Shift and one of the keys in the chart 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 below. Or by pressing ctrl+shift+u followed by the appropriate 4 digit Unicode.

Macintosh

Using the Hebrew keyboard layout in Mac OS X, 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 (Mac OS X) Unicode Type Result ~ 0 05B0 Sh'va 1 File:1key.svg 3 05B1 Reduced Segol 2 File:2Key.svg 1 05B2 Reduced Patach 3 File:3Key.svg 2 05B3 Reduced Kamatz סֳ 4 File:4Key.svg 4 05B4 Hiriq 5 File:5Key.svg 5 05B5 Zeire 6 File:6Key.svg 9 05B6 Segol 7 File:7Key.svg 6 05B7 Patach

Niqqud input Input (Windows) Key (Windows) Input (Mac OS X) Unicode Type Result 8 File:8Key.svg 7 05B8 Kamatz סָ 9 File:9Key.svg A 05C2 Sin dot (left) 0 File:0Key.svg M 05C1 Shin dot (right)  – File:MinusKey.svg = 05B9 Holam = File:EqualKey.svg , 05BC Dagesh or Mappiq U 05BC Shuruk \ File:BackslashKey.svg 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
• Dagesh
• Hebrew spelling
• Tiberian Hebrew

Bibliography

• The Academy Grammar Committee; ed. Ronit Gadish; Einat Gonen; Barak Dan (2006). "Leshonenu La′am. Academy Decisions: Grammar" (in Hebrew). Jerusalem: The Academy of the Hebrew Language. ISSN 0024-1091. {{cite journal}}: |author2= has generic name (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
•  Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, especially §7, §8, §9
• Netzer, Nisan (1976). Haniqqud halakha lema′ase (in Hebrew). Israel: Massada.

External links

• Interactive Niqqud Lesson
• Hebrew Tattoo niqqud

References

1. Cantillation
2. Rules for Spelling without Niqqud
3. “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. And they subjected us, who grew up with Hebrew as out 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”. Ze’ev Galili’s Blog, December 31, 2004
4. Transliteration standards from November 2006
5. http://www.fileformat.info/tip/microsoft/enter_unicode.htm
6. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/bb964665.aspx
7. http://manuals.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Manuals/software/0307978AHEBRLKITUM.PDF
8. comprehensive guide
9. http://www.sbl-site.org/Fonts/BiblicalHebrewTiroManual.pdf

• Niqqud
• Hebrew diacritics