Holam Explained

Holam		-
IPA	pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/
Transliteration	o
English example	shore
Similar sound	Qamatz qaṭan, ḥataf qamatz
Example		-style="line-height:2.5em;"			-	The word (youth) in Hebrew. The first vowel (over Nun, the dot above) is the .
Example		-style="line-height:2.5em;"			-	The word in Hebrew. The letter vav with the dot above it is the itself.
Other Niqqud

Holam or cholam (modern Hebrew: {{Script/Hebrew|חוֹלָם, pronounced as /he/, formerly, ) is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign represented by a dot above the upper left corner of the consonant letter. For example, here the holam appears after the letter mem ‎: . In modern Hebrew, it indicates the mid back rounded vowel, pronounced as /link/, and is transliterated as an o.

The mater lectionis letter which is usually employed with holam is vav, although in a few words, the letters or are used instead of . When it is used with a mater lectionis, the holam is called holam male (pronounced as /he/, "full holam"), and without it the holam is called holam haser (pronounced as /he/, "deficient holam").

Appearance

If a holam is used without a following mater lectionis (vav, alef or he), as in (pronounced as //po//, "here"), it is written as a dot above at the upper-left corner of the letter after which it is pronounced. Letter-spacing is not supposed to be affected by it, although some buggy computer fonts may add an unneeded space before the next letter.

If vav is used as a mater lectionis, the holam appears above the vav. If the mater lectionis is alef, as in (pronounced as //lo//, "no"), it is supposed to appear above the 's right hand, although this is not implemented in all computer fonts, and does not always appear even in professionally typeset modern books. This means a holam with may, in fact, appear in the same place as a regular holam haser. If the alef itself is not a mater lectionis, but a consonant, the holam appears in its regular place above the upper-left corner of the previous letter, as in (pronounced as //ˈto.aʁ//, "epithet").

If a holam haser is written after , as in (pronounced as //liɡˈvo.a//, "to agonize"), it may appear above the , or slightly farther to the left; this varies between different fonts. In some fonts, a holam merges with the shin dot (which appears on the upper-right corner of its letter seat), in words such as (ḥṓšeḵ, pronounced as /[ˈχoʃeχ]/, 'darkness') or with the sin dot, as in (pronounced as //ˈsova//, 'satiation'). (These dots may or may not appear merged on your screen, as that depends on your device's Hebrew font.)

Usage

Holam male is, in general, the most common way to write the pronounced as //o// sound in modern spelling with niqqud. If a word has Holam male in spelling with niqqud, the mater lectionis letter is without any exception retained in spelling without niqqud, both according to the spelling rules of the Academy of the Hebrew Language and in common practice.

The use of holam haser is restricted to certain word patterns, although many common words appear in them. In most cases the Academy's spelling rules mandate that the will be written even when the spelling with niqqud does not have it. The normative exceptions from this rule are listed below. The Academy's standard is not followed perfectly by all speakers, and common deviations from it are also noted below.

In Biblical Hebrew the above rules are not followed consistently, and sometimes the is omitted or added.^[1]

For further complications involving Kamatz katan and Hataf kamatz, see the article Kamatz.

Holam haser which is written as in text without niqqud

• In words, in which the penultimate syllable has the vowel pronounced as //o// and is stressed (sometimes called segolate):
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|קֹטֶר ('diameter') pronounced as //ˈkoteʁ//
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|זֹהַר ('radiance', Zohar), pronounced as //ˈzohaʁ//
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|נֹגַהּ ('brightness', Nogah), pronounced as //noˈɡa//
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|דֹּאַר ('mail'), pronounced as //ˈdo.aʁ// or pronounced as //ˈdoʔaʁ//.

Some people tend to spell some of these words without the , e.g. Hebrew: rtl=yes|דאר instead of Hebrew: rtl=yes|דואר, although the Academy mandates Hebrew: rtl=yes|דואר. The tendency is especially strong when the words can be used as personal names.

• When Kubutz is changed to holam before guttural letters in the passive binyan Pual due to tashlum dagesh (a vowel-change due to the inability of guttural letters to carry a dagesh):
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|מְפֹאָר ('fancy'), pronounced as //məfoˈʔaʁ//. Without niqqud: Hebrew: rtl=yes|מפואר.
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|פֹּרַשׁ ('was explained'), pronounced as //poˈʁaʃ//. Without niqqud: Hebrew: rtl=yes|פורש.
• In words which have the pattern /CaCoC/ in the singular and become /CəCuCCim/ with Kubutz in the plural, especially names of colors:
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|כָּתֹם ('orange'), pronounced as //kaˈtom//, pl. Hebrew: rtl=yes|כְּתֻמִּים pronounced as //kətumˈmim//
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|עָגֹל ('round'), pronounced as //ʕaˈɡol//, pl. Hebrew: rtl=yes|עֲגֻלִּים pronounced as //ʕaɡulˈlim//.
• When the last letter of the root is guttural, holam haser is preserved due to tashlum dagesh:
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|שָׁחֹר ('black'), pronounced as //ʃaˈχoʁ//, pl. Hebrew: rtl=yes|שְׁחֹרִים pronounced as //ʃəχoˈʁim//.

Without niqqud: Hebrew: rtl=yes|כתום, Hebrew: rtl=yes|כתומים, Hebrew: rtl=yes|עגול, Hebrew: rtl=yes|עגולים, Hebrew: rtl=yes|שחור, Hebrew: rtl=yes|שחורים.

• A similar pattern, in which the last letter of the root is not doubled in declension, has holam male in the base form, which is preserved in declension:
  • sg. Hebrew: rtl=yes|גָּדוֹל ('big'), pronounced as //ɡaˈdol//, pl. Hebrew: rtl=yes|גְּדוֹלִים pronounced as //ɡədoˈlim//.
• In three words, a holam male is changed to a shuruk in declension:
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|מָגוֹר ('place of living'), pronounced as //maˈɡoʁ//, pl. Hebrew: rtl=yes|מְגוּרִים pronounced as //məɡuˈʁim//^[2]
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|מָנוֹס ('escape'), pronounced as //maˈnos//, pl. Hebrew: rtl=yes|מְנוּסִים pronounced as //mənuˈsim//;^[3]
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|מָתוֹק ('sweet'), pronounced as //maˈtok//, pl. Hebrew: rtl=yes|מְתוּקִים pronounced as //mətuˈkim//.^[4]
• Similar to the above is the pattern /CəCaCCoC/, with reduplication of the second and third letters of the root:
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|פְּתַלְתֹּל ('crooked'), pronounced as //pətalˈtol//, pl. Hebrew: rtl=yes|פְּתַלְתֻּלִּים pronounced as //pətaltulˈlim//. Without niqqud: Hebrew: rtl=yes|פתלתול, Hebrew: rtl=yes|פתלתולים.
• In the future, infinitive and imperative forms of most verbs in binyan Qal:
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|אֶסְגֹּר ('I shall close'), pronounced as //ʔesˈɡoʁ//, Hebrew: rtl=yes|לִסְגֹּר ('to close'), pronounced as //lisˈɡoʁ//, Hebrew: rtl=yes|סְגֹר ('close!'), pronounced as //səɡoʁ//. Without niqqud: Hebrew: rtl=yes|אסגור, Hebrew: rtl=yes|לסגור, Hebrew: rtl=yes|סגור.
• In words, whose roots' second and third letter are the same, in which case in declension the holam changes to Kubutz after which there will be a dagesh:
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|כֹּל all, pronounced as //kol//, decl. Hebrew: rtl=yes|כֻּלּהּ pronounced as //kulˈlah// ('all of her'), root Hebrew: rtl=yes|כ־ל־ל^[5]
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|רֹב ('most'), pronounced as //rov//, decl. Hebrew: rtl=yes|רֻבּוֹ pronounced as //rubˈbo// ('most of him'), root Hebrew: rtl=yes|ר־ב־ב
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|תֹּף ('drum'), pronounced as //tof//, pl. Hebrew: rtl=yes|תֻּפִּים pronounced as //tupˈpim//, root Hebrew: rtl=yes|ת־פ־פ
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|מָעֹז ('stronghold'), pronounced as //maˈʕoz//, pl. Hebrew: rtl=yes|מָעֻזִּים pronounced as //maʕuzˈzim//, root Hebrew: rtl=yes|ע־ז־ז

The standard spelling without niqqud for all of them except Hebrew: rtl=yes|כָּל־ in construct state is with : Hebrew: rtl=yes|כול, Hebrew: rtl=yes|כולה, Hebrew: rtl=yes|רוב, Hebrew: rtl=yes|רובו, Hebrew: rtl=yes|תוף, Hebrew: rtl=yes|תופים, Hebrew: rtl=yes|מעוז, Hebrew: rtl=yes|מעוזים. Despite this, some people occasionally omit the in some of those words and spell Hebrew: rtl=yes|רב, Hebrew: rtl=yes|תף etc.

• Several common words are spelled with a holam haser in the Bible, but the Academy mandates that they be spelled with holam male in modern Hebrew, among them:
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|כֹּחַ/כּוֹחַ ('force'), pronounced as //ˈkoaχ//
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|מֹחַ/מוֹחַ ('brain'), pronounced as //ˈmoaχ//
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|יַהֲלֹם/יַהֲלוֹם ('a precious stone', in modern Hebrew 'diamond'), pronounced as //jahaˈlom//
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|מְאֹד/מְאוֹד ('very'), pronounced as //məʔod//
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|פִּתְאֹם/פִּתְאוֹם ('suddenly'), pronounced as //pitˈʔom//

Some people still spell them without , but the standard spelling is with .^[6]

• The participle of most verbs in binyan Qal is often written with holam haser in the Bible, but always with holam male in modern Hebrew.
  • For example, in the Bible appear both Hebrew: rtl=yes|חֹזֶה and Hebrew: rtl=yes|חוֹזֶה ('seer'), pronounced as //χoˈze//, but in modern Hebrew only Hebrew: rtl=yes|חוֹזֶה.

Holam with other matres lectionis

• The most common occasion for not writing the pronounced as //o// sound as a in text without niqqud is when in text with niqqud the mater lectionis is Alef (א) or He (ה) instead of . In the Bible some words are irregularly and inconsistently spelled with ה as a mater lectionis:
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|זֹה alongside Hebrew: rtl=yes|זוֹ, e.g. Hebrew: rtl=yes|בֵּיתֹה alongside Hebrew: rtl=yes|בֵּיתוֹ, etc.

but the number of these irregularities was brought to minimum in modern Hebrew.

• In the future forms of several verbs whose roots' first letter is Alef:
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|תֹּאכַל ('you shall eat'), pronounced as //toˈχal//, root Hebrew: rtl=yes|א־כ־ל, without niqqud Hebrew: rtl=yes|תאכל.
  • The prefix of the first person singular is itself Alef and in spelling with niqqud only one Alef is written: Hebrew: rtl=yes|אֹמַר ('I shall say'), pronounced as //ʔoˈmaʁ//, root Hebrew: rtl=yes|א־מ־ר, and in spelling without niqqud a is added: Hebrew: rtl=yes|אומר. This always happens in the roots Hebrew: rtl=yes|א־ב־ד ('perish'), Hebrew: rtl=yes|א־ב־י ('wish'),^[7] Hebrew: rtl=yes|א־כ־ל ('eat'), Hebrew: rtl=yes|א־מ־ר ('say'), Hebrew: rtl=yes|א־פ־י ('bake') and less consistently in the roots Hebrew: rtl=yes|א־ה־ב ('love'), Hebrew: rtl=yes|א־ח־ז ('hold'), Hebrew: rtl=yes|א־ס־ף ('collect'), Hebrew: rtl=yes|א־ת־י ('come'). In the root Hebrew: rtl=yes|א־מ־ר a holam male with is used in the infinitive in Mishnaic and modern Hebrew:
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|לוֹמַר pronounced as //loˈmaʁ//.^[8]
• In the infinitive form of a small number of verbs whose roots' last letter is Alef: Hebrew: rtl=yes|בִּמְלֹאת ('upon becoming full'), pronounced as //bimˈlot//, root Hebrew: rtl=yes|מ־ל־א.^[9]
• In the following words the mater lectionis is always Alef (Hebrew: א):
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|זֹאת ('this' fem.), pronounced as //zot//
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|לֹא ('no'), pronounced as //lo//^[10]
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|מֹאזְנַיִם ('scales'), pronounced as //mozˈnajim//, without niqqud Hebrew: rtl=yes|מאזניים
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|נֹאד ('wineskin'), pronounced as //nod//^[11]
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|צֹאן ('sheep' or 'goats'), pronounced as //t͡son//
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|רֹאשׁ ('head'), pronounced as //ʁoʃ//
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|שְׂמֹאל ('left'), pronounced as //səmol//^[12]
• In the following words the mater lectionis is always He (Hebrew: ה):
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|כֹּה ('such'), pronounced as //ko//
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|פֹּה ('here'), pronounced as //po//
  • Hebrew: rtl=yes|אֵיפֹה ('where?'), pronounced as //eˈfo//^[13]
• In the absolute infinitive form of verbs which end in He: Hebrew: rtl=yes|הָיֹה (pronounced as //haˈjo// 'to be'). This form is common in the Bible, but in modern Hebrew it is not productive and it is preserved only in fossilized sayings. For example, a common opening for fairy tales, Hebrew: rtl=yes|הָיֹה הָיָה ('there once was'), pronounced as //haˈjo haˈja// is written Hebrew: rtl=yes|היה היה without niqqud.

Holam without vav in personal names

Some examples of usage of holam without in personal names:

• The names Pharaoh (Hebrew: rtl=yes|פַּרְעֹה, pronounced as //paʁˈʕo//), Moshe (Hebrew: rtl=yes|מֹשֶׁה)^[14] and Shlomo (Hebrew: rtl=yes|שְׁלֹמֹה)^[15] are never written with . Shilo (Hebrew: rtl=yes|שִׁילֹה) is sometimes written with in the Bible, but always with He in modern Hebrew. The adjectives Hebrew: rtl=yes|פַּרְעוֹנִי, Hebrew: rtl=yes|שִׁילוֹנִי are written with and with a nun in the suffix.
• The name Aharon (Hebrew: rtl=yes|אַהֲרֹן) is spelled with holam haser in the Bible. In modern Hebrew both Hebrew: rtl=yes|אהרן and Hebrew: rtl=yes|אהרון are used.
• The name Noah (Hebrew: rtl=yes|נֹחַ) is spelled with holam haser in the Bible, but it is sometimes written with the in the Mishna^[16] and in modern Hebrew.
• Several other names of places and people are spelled with holam and Alef in the Bible include Yoshiyahu (Hebrew: rtl=yes|יֹאשִׁיָּהוּ, Josiah), Dor (Hebrew: rtl=yes|דֹּאר, in modern Hebrew Hebrew: rtl=yes|דּוֹר) and No Amon (Hebrew: rtl=yes|נֹא אָמוֹן, the Hebrew name of Thebes).
• The word Hebrew: rtl=yes|כֹּהֵן ('priest'), pronounced as //koˈhen// is spelled with holam haser in the Bible. It is a common Jewish last name, Cohen. The Academy mandates holam male for the noun Hebrew: rtl=yes|כּוֹהֵן, but allows the omission of for spelling the personal name.^[17]
• Some personal names, such as Ohad (Hebrew: rtl=yes|אֹהַד), Zohar (Hebrew: rtl=yes|זֹהַר) and Nogah (Hebrew: rtl=yes|נֹגַהּ), are sometimes spelled without in modern writing without niqqud, although this varies from person to person.
• God's name Adonai (Hebrew: rtl=yes|אֲדֹנָי) is written with holam haser to distinguish it from the word "Lord" (Hebrew: rtl=yes|אָדוֹן) used for humans.^[18] When the Tetragrammaton is written with niqqud, it follows that of Adonai, so it is written with holam haser, too. For religious reasons writing Adonai and the Tetragrammaton is avoided in modern religious texts except in direct quotes from the Bible. They rarely appear in secular modern Hebrew texts and their spelling there is inconsistent.
• The name Elohim (Hebrew: rtl=yes|אֱלֹהִים) is written with holam haser in the Bible, although its singular form Eloah (Hebrew: rtl=yes|אֱלוֹהַּ) is usually written with holam male. In modern Hebrew Elohim is a common word for "God" and it is usually spelled with the , which is also the Academy's recommendation.

Pronunciation

The following table contains the pronunciation and transliteration of the different holams in reconstructed historical forms and dialects using the International Phonetic Alphabet.

The letters Pe and Tsade are used in this table only for demonstration. Any letter can be used.

Symbol	Name	Pronunciation
		Israeli	Ashkenazi	Sephardi	Yemenite	Tiberian	Reconstructed
								Biblical
	Holam	pronounced as /[o̞]/	pronounced as /[oɪ ~ øɪ ~ eɪ ~ əʊ ~ ɐʊ ~ ɑʊ ~ oʊ]/	pronounced as /[o̞]/	pronounced as /[ɶ ~ ɤ ~ œ]/	pronounced as /[o]/	pronounced as /[o]/	[aw] > [o'''ː''']
	Holam male	pronounced as /[o̞]/	pronounced as /[oɪ ~ øɪ ~ eɪ ~ əʊ ~ ɐʊ ~ ɑʊ ~ oʊ]/	pronounced as /[o̞]/	pronounced as /[ɶ ~ ɤ ~ œ]/	pronounced as /[o]/	pronounced as /[o]/	pronounced as /[oː]/

Vowel length comparison

These vowel lengths are not manifested in modern Hebrew. In addition, the short o is usually promoted to a long o in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation. As well, the short o and long a have the same niqqud. As a result, a is usually promoted to Holam male in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation.

Computer encoding

Glyph	Unicode	Name
	U+05B9	HEBREW POINT HOLAM
	U+05BA	HEBREW POINT HOLAM HASER FOR VAV
	U+FB4B	HEBREW LETTER VAV WITH HOLAM

In computers there are three ways to distinguish the vowel and the consonant-vowel combination + . For example, in the pair (pronounced as //maˈt͡sot//, the plural of, ) and (pronounced as //miˈt͡svot//, the plural of ):^[19]

1. By using the zero-width non-joiner after the and before the holam:
2. By using the Unicode character U+05BA HEBREW POINT HOLAM HASER FOR VAV: .
3. By the precomposed character,^[20] U+FB4B (HTML Entity (decimal) וֹ):

See also

• Niqqud
• Zero-width non-joiner
• Combining Grapheme Joiner

Notes and References

1. Academy Decisions: Grammar, 2nd edition, §1.3; 1.
2. Rarely used in the singular in Modern Hebrew.
3. Rarely used in the plural in Modern Hebrew.
4. Academy Decisions: Grammar, 2nd edition, §1.3.
5. This word becomes Hebrew: rtl=yes|כָּל־ in construct state, which is very common, so as another exception it is written without in spelling without niqqud: Hebrew: rtl=yes|כל־האנשים ('all the people'), but Hebrew: rtl=yes|היא יודעת הכול ('she knows all').
6. The full list appears at Academy Decisions: Grammar, 2nd edition, §1.3.
7. Rare in modern Hebrew.
8. 1.

   the Even-Shoshan Dictionary for the modern forms.

9. Academy Decisions: Grammar, 2nd edition, §3.5.
10. This word is written Hebrew: rtl=yes|לוֹא several times in the Bible, but such spelling never occurs in modern Hebrew. With the particle Hebrew: rtl=yes|הֲ־ and only when it is used as a synonym of Hebrew: rtl=yes|הִנֵּה ('here') it may be written both as Hebrew: rtl=yes|הלוא and as Hebrew: rtl=yes|הלא (Academy Decisions: Grammar, 2nd edition, §2.4.4), but this usage is rare in modern Hebrew.
11. The word Hebrew: rtl=yes|נוֹד is pronounced identically and means "wandering". It appears in the Bible and is rare in modern Hebrew. The Even-Shoshan dictionary also notes that it is an incorrect spelling for Hebrew: rtl=yes|נֹאד.
12. This word is actually spelled as Hebrew: rtl=yes|שמאול several times in the Bible, but never in modern Hebrew. However, the intentionally wrong spelling Hebrew: rtl=yes|סמול is often used as a disparaging term for the political left and is documented in Uri Orbach's lexicon of Religious Zionist slang.
13. The Even-Shoshan Dictionary also registers the modern Hebrew word Hebrew: rtl=yes|אֵיפֹשֶׁהוּ ('somewhere'), pronounced as //efoʃehu//, which is based on Hebrew: rtl=yes|אֵיפֹה and Hebrew: rtl=yes|־שֶׁהוּ, the ending of the indefinite pronouns Hebrew: rtl=yes|משהו, Hebrew: rtl=yes|כלשהו, ('some'). The Academy has not decided on a standard spelling of this word.
14. The related participle Hebrew: rtl=yes|מוֹשֶׁה ('pulling out of water') is written with in modern Hebrew. Modern diminutive forms of Moshe, such as Moshiko (Hebrew: rtl=yes|מושיקו) are written with .
15. A common modern diminutive version of this name is regularly spelled Hebrew: rtl=yes|שלומי (Shlomi).
16. For example, in Avot 5:2 in the Kaufmann manuscript.
17. Academy Decisions: Grammar, 2nd edition, §1.3 fn. 55.
18. According to The Brown–Driver–Briggs Hebrew Lexicon.
19. This is the Biblical spelling in Jeremiah 35:18 (actually). The standard modern Hebrew spelling, with niqqud, is with : .
20. Also known as a presentation form in Unicode.