| Biblical Hebrew | |
| Also Known As: | Classical Hebrew |
| Nativename: | Hebrew: שְֹפַת כְּנַעַן, Hebrew: יְהוּדִית, Hebrew: (לָשׁוֹן) עִבְרִית, Hebrew: לְשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶשׁ |
| Era: | attested from the 10th century BCE; developed into Mishnaic Hebrew after the Jewish–Roman wars in the first century CE |
| Familycolor: | Afro-Asiatic |
| Fam2: | Semitic |
| Fam3: | West Semitic |
| Fam4: | Central Semitic |
| Fam5: | Northwest Semitic |
| Fam6: | Canaanite |
| Stand1: | Samaritan |
| Stand3: | Medieval Hebrew (Became Modern Hebrew) |
| Stand5: | Ashkenazi |
| Stand6: | Sephardi |
| Stand7: | Italki |
| Stand8: | Mizrahi |
| Stand9: | Temani |
| Lc1: | hbo |
| Ld1: | Ancient Hebrew |
| Lc2: | smp |
| Ld2: | Samaritan Hebrew |
| Linglist: | hbo |
| Linglist2: | smp |
| Glotto: | anci1244 |
| Glottoname: | Ancient Hebrew |
| Glotto2: | sama1313 |
| Glottoname2: | Samaritan |
| Notice: | IPA |
Biblical Hebrew (Hebrew: עִבְרִית מִקְרָאִית||ʿiḇrîṯ miqrāʾîṯ or Hebrew: לְשׁוֹן הַמִּקְרָא||ləšôn ham-miqrāʾ), 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 Hebrew: שְֹפַת כְּנַעַן śəp̄aṯ kənaʿan "language of Canaan" or Hebrew: יְהוּדִית Yəhûḏîṯ, "Judean", but it was used in Koine Greek and Mishnaic Hebrew texts.[1]
The Hebrew language is attested in inscriptions from about the 10th century BCE, when it was almost identical to Phoenician and other Canaanite languages, and spoken Hebrew persisted through and beyond the Second Temple period, which ended in the siege of Jerusalem (70 CE). It eventually developed into Mishnaic Hebrew, which was spoken until the fifth century.
The language of the Hebrew Bible reflects various stages of the Hebrew language in its consonantal skeleton, as well as a vocalization system which was added in the Middle Ages by the Masoretes. There is also some evidence of regional dialectal variation, including differences between Biblical Hebrew as spoken in the northern Kingdom of Israel and in the southern Kingdom of Judah. The consonantal text called the Masoretic Text was transmitted in manuscript form and underwent redaction in the Second Temple period, but its earliest portions (parts of Amos, Isaiah, Hosea and Micah) can be dated to the late 8th to early 7th centuries BCE.
Biblical Hebrew has several different writing systems. From around the 12th century BCE until the 6th century BCE, writers employed the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. This was retained by the Samaritans, who use the descendent Samaritan script to this day. However, the Imperial Aramaic alphabet gradually displaced the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet after the Babylonian captivity, and it became the source for the current Hebrew alphabet. These scripts lack letters to represent all of the sounds of Biblical Hebrew, although these sounds are reflected in Greek and Latin transcriptions/translations of the time. They initially indicated only consonants, but certain letters, known by the Latin term matres lectionis, became increasingly used to mark vowels. In the Middle Ages, various systems of diacritics were developed to mark the vowels in Hebrew manuscripts; of these, only the Tiberian vocalization is still widely used.
Biblical Hebrew possessed a series of emphatic consonants whose precise articulation is disputed, likely ejective or pharyngealized. Earlier Biblical Hebrew possessed three consonants not distinguished in writing and later merged with other consonants. The stop consonants developed fricative allophones under the influence of Aramaic, and these sounds eventually became marginally phonemic. The pharyngeal and glottal consonants underwent weakening in some regional dialects, as reflected in the modern Samaritan Hebrew reading tradition. The vowel system of Biblical Hebrew changed over time and is reflected differently in the ancient Greek and Latin transcriptions, medieval vocalization systems, and modern reading traditions.
Biblical Hebrew had a typical Semitic morphology with nonconcatenative morphology, arranging Semitic roots into patterns to form words. Biblical Hebrew distinguished two genders (masculine, feminine), three numbers (singular, plural, and uncommonly, dual). Verbs were marked for voice and mood, and had two conjugations which may have indicated aspect and/or tense (a matter of debate). The tense or aspect of verbs was also influenced by the conjunction ו|rtl=yes, in the so-called waw-consecutive construction. Unlike modern Hebrew, the default word order for biblical Hebrew was verb–subject–object, and verbs were inflected for the number, gender, and person of their subject. Pronominal suffixes could be appended to verbs (to indicate object) or nouns (to indicate possession), and nouns had special construct states for use in possessive constructions.
The earliest written sources refer to Biblical Hebrew as שפת כנען|rtl=yes "the language of Canaan".[2] The Hebrew Bible also calls the language יהודית|rtl=yes "Judaean, Judahite"[3] In the Hellenistic period, Greek writings use the names Hebraios, Hebraïsti[4] and in Mishnaic Hebrew we find עברית|rtl=yes 'Hebrew' and לשון עברית|rtl=yes "Hebrew language".[5] The origin of this term is obscure; suggested origins include the biblical Eber, the ethnonyms ʿApiru, Ḫabiru, and Ḫapiru found in sources from Egypt and the Near East, and a derivation from the root עבר|rtl=yes "to pass", alluding to crossing over the Jordan River. Jews also began referring to Hebrew as לשון הקדש|rtl=yes "the Holy Tongue" in Mishnaic Hebrew.
The term Classical Hebrew may include all pre-medieval dialects of Hebrew, including Mishnaic Hebrew, or it may be limited to Hebrew contemporaneous with the Hebrew Bible. The term Biblical Hebrew refers to pre-Mishnaic dialects (sometimes excluding Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew). The term Biblical Hebrew may or may not include extra-biblical texts, such as inscriptions (e.g. the Siloam inscription), and generally also includes later vocalization traditions for the Hebrew Bible's consonantal text, most commonly the early medieval Tiberian vocalization.
See also: Ancient Hebrew writings.
The archeological record for the prehistory of Biblical Hebrew is far more complete than the record of Biblical Hebrew itself. Early Northwest Semitic (ENWS) materials are attested from 2350 BCE to 1200 BCE, the end of the Bronze Age. The Northwest Semitic languages, including Hebrew, differentiated noticeably during the Iron Age (1200–540 BCE), although in its earliest stages Biblical Hebrew was not highly differentiated from Ugaritic and the Canaanite of the Amarna letters.
Hebrew developed during the latter half of the second millennium BCE between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, an area known as Canaan. The Deuteronomic history says the Israelites established a unified kingdom in Canaan at the beginning of the first millennium BCE, which later split into the kingdom of Israel in the north and the kingdom of Judah in the south after a disputed succession.
In 722 BCE, the Neo-Assyrian Empire destroyed Israel and some members of the upper class escaped to Judah. In 586 BCE, the Neo-Babylonian Empire destroyed Judah. The Judahite upper classes were exiled and Solomon's Temple was destroyed. Later, the Achaemenid Empire made Judah a province, Yehud Medinata, and permitted the Judahite exiles to return and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. According to the Gemara, Hebrew of this period was similar to Imperial Aramaic;[6] [7] Hanina bar Hama said that God sent the exiled Jews to Babylon because "[the Babylonian] language is akin to the Leshon Hakodesh" in the Talmud (Pesahim 87b).
Aramaic became the common language in the north, in Galilee and Samaria. Hebrew remained in use in Judah, but the returning exiles brought back Aramaic influence, and Aramaic was used for communicating with other ethnic groups during the Persian period. Alexander the Great conquered the province in 332 BCE, beginning the period of Hellenistic (Greek) domination. During the Hellenistic period, Judea became independent under the Hasmonean dynasty. Later, the Romans ended their independence, making Herod the Great their governor. A revolt against the Romans led to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, and the second Bar Kokhba revolt in 132–135 led to ampurge and expulsion of the Jewish population of Judea, the establishment of a new province of Syria Palaestina, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem as the roman colonia of Aelia Capitolina.
Hebrew after the Second Temple period evolved into Mishnaic Hebrew, which ceased being spoken and developed into a literary language around 200 CE. Hebrew continued to be used as a literary and liturgical language in the form of Medieval Hebrew. The revival of the Hebrew language as a vernacular began in the 19th century, culminating in Modern Hebrew becoming the official language of Israel. Currently, Classical Hebrew is generally taught in public schools in Israel and Biblical Hebrew forms are sometimes used in Modern Hebrew literature, much as archaic and biblical constructions are used in Modern English literature. Since Modern Hebrew contains many biblical elements, Biblical Hebrew is fairly intelligible to Modern Hebrew speakers.
The primary source of Biblical Hebrew material is the Hebrew Bible. Epigraphic materials from the area of Israelite territory are written in a form of Hebrew called Inscriptional Hebrew, although this is meagerly attested.[8] According to Waltke & O'Connor, Inscriptional Hebrew "is not strikingly different from the Hebrew preserved in the Masoretic text."[8] The damp climate of Israel caused the rapid deterioration of papyrus and parchment documents, in contrast to the dry environment of Egypt, and the survival of the Hebrew Bible may be attributed to scribal determination in preserving the text through copying. No manuscript of the Hebrew Bible dates to before 400 BCE, although two silver rolls (the Ketef Hinnom scrolls) from the seventh or sixth century BCE show a version of the Priestly Blessing. Vowel and cantillation marks were added to the older consonantal layer of the Bible between 600 CE and the beginning of the 10th century.[9] The scholars who preserved the pronunciation of the Bibles were known as the Masoretes. The most well-preserved system that was developed, and the only one still in religious use, is the Tiberian vocalization, but both Babylonian and Palestinian vocalizations are also attested. The Palestinian system was preserved mainly in piyyutim, which contain biblical quotations.
See also: Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic languages and Canaanite languages.
| Hebrew | Aramaic | Arabic | Examples | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hebrew | Aramaic | Arabic | meaning | ||||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| זָהָב זָכָר | דְּהָב דְּכָר | ذَهَب ذَكَر | 'gold' 'male' |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| מֹאזְנָיִם זְמָן | מֹאזְנָיִן זְמָן | مَوَازَيْن زَمَن | 'scale' 'time' | |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
pronounced as /
| סַכִּין סַהַר | سِكِّين شَهْر | 'knife' 'moon/month' | ||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| עָשָׂר | عَشْر | 'ten' | ||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| שָׁנָה שָׁלוֹם | שָׁנָה שְׁלָם | سَنة سَلام | 'year' 'peace' |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| שָׁלוֹשׁ שְׁתָּיִם | תְּלָת תְּרֵין | ثَلاث اِثْنان | 'three' 'two' | |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| צֵל צָהֳרָיִם | טְלָה טֹהֶר | ظِلّ ظُهْر | 'shadow' 'noon' |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| אֶרֶץ צָחַק | אֶרַע עֲחַק | أَرْض ضَحِكَ | 'land' 'laughed' | |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| צָרַח צַבָּר | צְרַח צַבָּר | صَرَخَ صَبْر | 'shout' 'water melon like plant' | |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| חֲמִשָּׁה צָרַח | חַמְשָׁה צְרַח | خَمْسة صَرَخَ | 'five' 'shout' | |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| מֶלַח חָלוֹם | מֶלַח חֲלָם | مِلْح حُلْم | 'salt' 'dream' | ||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| עוֹרֵב מַעֲרָב | עוֹרָב מַעֲרָב | غُرَاب غَرْب | 'raven' 'west' | |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| עֶבֶד שֶׁבַע | عَبْد سَبْع | 'slave' 'seven' | |||
Biblical Hebrew is a Northwest Semitic language from the Canaanite subgroup.
As Biblical Hebrew evolved from the Proto-Semitic language it underwent a number of consonantal mergers parallel with those in other Canaanite languages.[10] There is no evidence that these mergers occurred after the adaptation of the Hebrew alphabet.[11]
As a Northwest Semitic language, Hebrew shows the shift of initial pronounced as /
The Northwest Semitic languages formed a dialect continuum in the Iron Age (1200–540 BCE), with Phoenician and Aramaic on each extreme. Hebrew is classed with Phoenician in the Canaanite subgroup, which also includes Ammonite, Edomite, and Moabite. Moabite might be considered a Hebrew dialect, though it possessed distinctive Aramaic features. Although Ugaritic shows a large degree of affinity to Hebrew in poetic structure, vocabulary, and some grammar, it lacks some Canaanite features (like the Canaanite shift and the shift pronounced as /
Hebrew underwent the Canaanite shift, where Proto-Semitic pronounced as //aː// tended to shift to pronounced as //oː//, perhaps when stressed. Hebrew also shares with the Canaanite languages the shifts pronounced as /
Typical Canaanite words in Hebrew include: גג|rtl=yes "roof" שלחן|rtl=yes "table" חלון|rtl=yes "window" ישן|rtl=yes "old (thing)" זקן|rtl=yes "old (person)" and גרש|rtl=yes "expel". Morphological Canaanite features in Hebrew include the masculine plural marker -ם, first person singular pronoun אנכי|rtl=yes, interrogative pronoun מי|rtl=yes, definite article ה- (appearing in the first millennium BCE), and third person plural feminine verbal marker Hebrew: ת-.
Biblical Hebrew as preserved in the Hebrew Bible is composed of multiple linguistic layers. The consonantal skeleton of the text is the most ancient, while the cantillation and modern vocalization are later additions reflecting a later stage of the language. These additions were added after 600 CE; Hebrew had already ceased being used as a spoken language around 200 CE. Biblical Hebrew as reflected in the consonantal text of the Bible and in extra-biblical inscriptions may be subdivided by era.
The oldest form of Biblical Hebrew, Archaic Hebrew, is found in poetic sections of the Bible and inscriptions dating to around 1000 BCE, the early Monarchic Period. This stage is also known as Old Hebrew or Paleo-Hebrew, and is the oldest stratum of Biblical Hebrew. The oldest known artifacts of Archaic Biblical Hebrew are various sections of the Tanakh, including the Song of Moses (Exodus 15) and the Song of Deborah (Judges 5). Biblical poetry uses a number of distinct lexical items, for example חזה|rtl=yes for prose ראה|rtl=yes 'see', כביר|rtl=yes for גדול|rtl=yes 'great'. Some have cognates in other Northwest Semitic languages, for example פעל|rtl=yes 'do' and חָרוּץ|rtl=yes 'gold' which are common in Canaanite and Ugaritic. Grammatical differences include the use of זה|rtl=yes, זוֹ|rtl=yes, and זוּ|rtl=yes as relative particles, negative בל|rtl=yes, and various differences in verbal and pronominal morphology and syntax.
Later pre-exilic Biblical Hebrew (such as is found in prose sections of the Pentateuch, Nevi'im, and some Ketuvim) is known as 'Biblical Hebrew proper' or 'Standard Biblical Hebrew'. This is dated to the period from the 8th to the 6th century BCE. In contrast to Archaic Hebrew, Standard Biblical Hebrew is more consistent in using the definite article ה-, the accusative marker את|rtl=yes, distinguishing between simple and waw-consecutive verb forms, and in using particles like אשר|rtl=yes and כי|rtl=yes rather than asyndeton.
Biblical Hebrew from after the Babylonian exile in 587 BCE is known as 'Late Biblical Hebrew'. Late Biblical Hebrew shows Aramaic influence in phonology, morphology, and lexicon, and this trend is also evident in the later-developed Tiberian vocalization system.[12]
Qumran Hebrew, attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls from ca. 200 BCE to 70 CE, is a continuation of Late Biblical Hebrew. Qumran Hebrew may be considered an intermediate stage between Biblical Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew, though Qumran Hebrew shows its own idiosyncratic dialectal features.
Dialect variation in Biblical Hebrew is attested to by the well-known shibboleth incident of Judges 12:6, where Jephthah's forces from Gilead caught Ephraimites trying to cross the Jordan River by making them say שִׁבֹּ֤לֶת|rtl=yes šibboleṯ ('ear of corn') The Ephraimites' identity was given away by their pronunciation: Hebrew: סִבֹּ֤לֶת sibboleṯ. The apparent conclusion is that the Ephraimite dialect had pronounced as //s// for standard pronounced as //ʃ//. As an alternative explanation, it has been suggested that the proto-Semitic phoneme pronounced as /
/, which shifted to pronounced as //ʃ// in most dialects of Hebrew, may have been retained in the Hebrew of the Transjordan[13] (however, there is evidence that שִׁבֹּ֤לֶת|rtl=yes's Proto-Semitic ancestor had initial consonant š (whence Hebrew pronounced as //ʃ//), contradicting this theory; for example, שִׁבֹּ֤לֶת|rtl=yes's proto-Semitic ancestor has been reconstructed as *šu(n)bul-at-.[14]); or that the Proto-Semitic sibilant *s1, transcribed with šin and traditionally reconstructed as *pronounced as //ʃ//, had been originally *pronounced as //s// while another sibilant *s3, transcribed with sameḵ and traditionally reconstructed as pronounced as //s//, had been initially pronounced as //ts//; later on, a push-type chain shift changed *s3 pronounced as //ts// to pronounced as //s// and pushed s1 pronounced as //s// to pronounced as //ʃ// in many dialects (e.g. Gileadite) but not others (e.g. Ephraimite), where *s1 and *s3 merged into pronounced as //s//.
Hebrew, as spoken in the northern Kingdom of Israel, known as Israelian Hebrew, shows phonological, lexical, and grammatical differences from southern dialects. The northern dialect spoken around Samaria shows a more frequent simplification of pronounced as //aj// into pronounced as //eː// as attested by the Samaria ostraca (8th century BCE), e.g. ין|rtl=yes (= pronounced as //jeːn// < pronounced as /
The guttural phonemes pronounced as //ħ ʕ h ʔ// merged over time in some dialects. This was found in Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew, but Jerome (d. 420) attested to the existence of contemporaneous Hebrew speakers who still distinguished pharyngeals. Samaritan Hebrew also shows a general attrition of these phonemes, though pronounced as //ʕ ħ// are occasionally preserved as pronounced as /[ʕ]/.
See main article: Biblical Hebrew orthography.
| Name | Paleo-Hebrew | Block | Samaritan | Phonetic value (Pre-Exilic) (IPA) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aleph | א|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Beth | ב|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Gimel | ג|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Daleth | ד|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |||
| He | ה|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Waw | ו|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link//pronounced as /wᶹ/ | |||
| Zayin | ז|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Heth | ח|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Teth | ט|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Yodh | י|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Kaph | כ|rtl=yes, ך|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Lamedh | ל|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Mem | מ|rtl=yes, ם|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Nun | נ|rtl=yes, ן|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Samekh | ס|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Ayin | ע|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/ or pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Pe | פ|rtl=yes, ף|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Tsade | צ|rtl=yes, ץ|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Qoph | ק|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Resh | ר|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ | |||
| Shin | ש|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/ or [<nowiki/>[[Voiceless dental and alveolar lateral fricatives|ɬ͡s]]] | |||
| Taw | ת|rtl=yes | pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ |
The earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, found at Khirbet Qeiyafa, dates to the 10th century BCE. The 15 cm x 16.5 cm (5.9 in x 6.5 in) trapezoid pottery sherd (ostracon) has five lines of text written in ink in the Proto-Canaanite alphabet (the old form which predates both the Paleo-Hebrew and Phoenician alphabets). The tablet is written from left to right, suggesting that Hebrew writing was still in the formative stage.
The Israelite tribes who settled in the land of Israel used a late form of the Proto-Sinaitic Alphabet (known as Proto-Canaanite when found in Israel) around the 12th century BCE, which developed into Early Phoenician and Early Paleo-Hebrew as found in the Gezer calendar . This script developed into the Paleo-Hebrew script in the 10th or 9th centuries BCE. The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet's main differences from the Phoenician script were "a curving to the left of the downstrokes in the "long-legged" letter-signs... the consistent use of a Waw with a concave top, [and an] x-shaped Taw."[16] The oldest inscriptions in Paleo-Hebrew script are dated to around the middle of the 9th century BCE, the most famous being the Mesha Stele in the Moabite language (which might be considered a dialect of Hebrew). The ancient Hebrew script was in continuous use until the early 6th century BCE, the end of the First Temple period. In the Second Temple Period the Paleo-Hebrew script gradually fell into disuse, and was completely abandoned among the Jews after the failed Bar Kochba revolt. The Samaritans retained the ancient Hebrew alphabet, which evolved into the modern Samaritan alphabet.
By the end of the First Temple period the Aramaic script, a separate descendant of the Phoenician script, became widespread throughout the region, gradually displacing Paleo-Hebrew. The oldest documents that have been found in the Aramaic Script are fragments of the scrolls of Exodus, Samuel, and Jeremiah found among the Dead Sea scrolls, dating from the late 3rd and early 2nd centuries BCE. It seems that the earlier biblical books were originally written in the Paleo-Hebrew script, while the later books were written directly in the later Assyrian script. Some Qumran texts written in the Assyrian script write the tetragrammaton and some other divine names in Paleo-Hebrew, and this practice is also found in several Jewish-Greek biblical translations.[17] While spoken Hebrew continued to evolve into Mishnaic Hebrew, A number of regional "book-hand" styles were put into use for the purpose of Torah manuscripts and occasionally other literary works, distinct from the calligraphic styles used mainly for private purposes. The Mizrahi and Ashkenazi book-hand styles were later adapted to printed fonts after the invention of the printing press. The modern Hebrew alphabet, also known as the Assyrian or Square script, appears a descendant of the Aramaic alphabet.
The Phoenician script had dropped five characters by the 12th century BCE, reflecting the language's twenty-two consonantal phonemes. The 22 letters of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet numbered less than the consonant phonemes of ancient Biblical Hebrew; in particular, the letters could each mark two different phonemes. After a sound shift the letters ח|rtl=yes, ע|rtl=yes could only mark one phoneme, but (except in Samaritan Hebrew) ש|rtl=yes still marked two. The old Babylonian vocalization system wrote a superscript ס|rtl=yes above the ש|rtl=yes to indicate it took the value pronounced as //s//, while the Masoretes added the shin dot to distinguish between the two varieties of the letter.
The original Hebrew alphabet consisted only of consonants, but the letters א|rtl=yes, ה|rtl=yes, ו|rtl=yes, י|rtl=yes, also were used to indicate vowels, known as matres lectionis when used in this function. It is thought that this was a product of phonetic development: for instance, *bayt ('house') shifted to בֵּית|rtl=yes in construct state but retained its spelling. While no examples of early Hebrew orthography have been found, older Phoenician and Moabite texts show how First Temple period Hebrew would have been written. Phoenician inscriptions from the 10th century BCE do not indicate matres lectiones in the middle or the end of a word, for example לפנ|rtl=yes and ז|rtl=yes for later לפני|rtl=yes and זה|rtl=yes, similarly to the Hebrew Gezer Calendar, which has for instance שערמ|rtl=yes for שעורים|rtl=yes and possibly ירח|rtl=yes for Hebrew: ירחו. Matres lectionis were later added word-finally, for instance the Mesha inscription has Hebrew: בללה, בנתי for later Hebrew: בלילה, בניתי; however at this stage they were not yet used word-medially, compare Siloam inscription זדה|rtl=yes versus אש|rtl=yes (for later Hebrew: איש). The relative terms defective and full/plene are used to refer to alternative spellings of a word with less or more matres lectionis, respectively.[18]
The Hebrew Bible was presumably originally written in a more defective orthography than found in any of the texts known today. Of the extant textual witnesses of the Hebrew Bible, the Masoretic text is generally the most conservative in its use of matres lectionis, with the Samaritan Pentateuch and its forebearers being more full and the Qumran tradition showing the most liberal use of vowel letters. The Masoretic text mostly uses vowel letters for long vowels, showing the tendency to mark all long vowels except for word-internal pronounced as //aː//.[19] In the Qumran tradition, back vowels are usually represented by whether short or long. is generally used for both long pronounced as /[iː]/ and pronounced as /[eː]/ (אבילים|rtl=yes, מית|rtl=yes), and final pronounced as /[iː]/ is often written as Hebrew: ־יא in analogy to words like היא|rtl=yes, הביא|rtl=yes, e.g. כיא|rtl=yes, sometimes Hebrew: מיא. is found finally in forms like Hebrew: חוטה (Tiberian Hebrew: חוטא), Hebrew: קורה (Tiberian Hebrew: קורא) while may be used for an a-quality vowel in final position (e.g. Hebrew: עליהא) and in medial position (e.g. Hebrew: יאתום). Pre-Samaritan and Samaritan texts show full spellings in many categories (e.g. Hebrew: כוחי vs. Masoretic Hebrew: כחי in Genesis 49:3) but only rarely show full spelling of the Qumran type.
Presumably, the vowels of Biblical Hebrew were not indicated in the original text, but various sources attest to them at various stages of development. Greek and Latin transcriptions of words from the biblical text provide early evidence of the nature of Biblical Hebrew vowels. In particular, there is evidence from the rendering of proper nouns in the Koine Greek Septuagint (3rd–2nd centuries BCE) and the Greek alphabet transcription of the Hebrew biblical text contained in the Secunda (3rd century CE, likely a copy of a preexisting text from before 100 BCE[20]). In the 7th and 8th centuries CE various systems of vocalic notation were developed to indicate vowels in the biblical text. The most prominent, best preserved, and the only system still in use, is the Tiberian vocalization system, created by scholars known as Masoretes around 850 CE. There are also various extant manuscripts making use of less common vocalization systems (Babylonian and Palestinian), known as superlinear vocalizations because their vocalization marks are placed above the letters.[21] [22] In addition, the Samaritan reading tradition is independent of these systems and was occasionally notated with a separate vocalization system.[23] These systems often record vowels at different stages of historical development; for example, the name of the Judge Samson is recorded in Greek as Σαμψών Sampsōn with the first vowel as pronounced as //a//, while Tiberian שִמְשוֹן|rtl=yes pronounced as //ʃimʃon// with pronounced as //i// shows the effect of the law of attenuation whereby pronounced as //a// in closed unstressed syllables became pronounced as //i//. All of these systems together are used to reconstruct the original vocalization of Biblical Hebrew.
At an early stage, in documents written in the paleo-Hebrew script, words were divided by short vertical lines and later by dots, as reflected by the Mesha Stone, the Siloam inscription, the Ophel inscription, and paleo-Hebrew script documents from Qumran. Word division was not used in Phoenician inscriptions; however, there is no direct evidence for biblical texts being written without word division, as suggested by Nahmanides in his introduction to the Torah. Word division using spaces was commonly used from the beginning of the 7th century BCE for documents in the Aramaic script. In addition to marking vowels, the Tiberian system also uses cantillation marks, which serve to mark word stress, semantic structure, and the musical motifs used in formal recitation of the text.
While the Babylonian and Palestinian reading traditions are extinct, various other systems of pronunciation have evolved over time, notably the Yemenite, Sephardi, Ashkenazi, and Samaritan traditions. Modern Hebrew pronunciation is also used by some to read biblical texts. The modern reading traditions do not stem solely from the Tiberian system; for instance, the Sephardic tradition's distinction between qamatz gadol and qatan is likely pre-Tiberian. However, the only orthographic system used to mark vowels is the Tiberian vocalization.
The phonology as reconstructed for Biblical Hebrew is as follows:
| Labial | Coronal | Post- alveolar | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dental | Alveolar | Lateral | |||||||||
| Nasals | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||
| Stops | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| emphatic | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||
| Fricatives | voiceless | (pronounced as /link/) | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| voiced | (pronounced as /link/) | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| emphatic | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||
| Approximants | pronounced as /link//pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||
The phonetic nature of some Biblical Hebrew consonants is disputed. The so-called "emphatics" were likely pharyngealized, but possibly velarized. The pharyngealization of emphatic consonants is viewed as a Central Semitic innovation.[24]
Some argue that pronounced as //s, z, sˤ// were affricated (pronounced as //ts, dz, tsˤ//), but Egyptian starts using s in place of earlier ṯ to represent Canaanite s around 1000 BC. It is likely that Canaanite was already dialectally split by that time, and the northern Early Phoenician dialect that the Greeks were in contact with could have preserved the affricate pronunciation until at least, unlike the more southern Canaanite dialects (like Hebrew) that the Egyptians were in contact with, so that there is no contradiction within this argument.
Originally, the Hebrew letters ([[Heth|ח]]) and ([[Ayin|ע]]) each represented two possible phonemes, uvular and pharyngeal, with the distinction unmarked in Hebrew orthography. However the uvular phonemes pronounced as //χ// ח|rtl=yes and pronounced as //ʁ// ע|rtl=yes merged with their pharyngeal counterparts pronounced as //ħ// ח|rtl=yes and pronounced as //ʕ// ע|rtl=yes respectively c. 200 BCE.
This is observed by noting the preservation of the double phonemes of each letter in one Sephardic reading tradition, and by noting that these phonemes are distinguished consistently in the Septuagint of the Pentateuch (e.g. Isaac Hebrew: יצחק|rtl=yes Hebrew: Yīṣ'''ḥ'''āq = Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ἰσαάκ versus Rachel Hebrew: רחל|rtl=yes Hebrew: Rā'''ḫ'''ēl = Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ῥαχήλ), but this becomes more sporadic in later books and is generally absent in translations of Ezra and Nehemiah.The phoneme pronounced as //ɬ//, is also not directly indicated by Hebrew orthography but is clearly attested by later developments: It is written with (ש|rtl=yes) (also used for pronounced as //ʃ//) but later merged with pronounced as //s// (normally indicated with (ס|rtl=yes)). As a result, three etymologically distinct phonemes can be distinguished through a combination of spelling and pronunciation: pronounced as //s// written (ס|rtl=yes), pronounced as //ʃ// written (ש|rtl=yes), and pronounced as //ś// (pronounced pronounced as //ɬ// but written (ש|rtl=yes)). The specific pronunciation of pronounced as //ś// as pronounced as /[ɬ]/ is based on comparative evidence (pronounced as //ɬ// is the corresponding Proto-Semitic phoneme and still attested in Modern South Arabian languages as well as early borrowings (e.g. balsam < Greek balsamon < Hebrew baśam). pronounced as //ɬ// began merging with pronounced as //s// in Late Biblical Hebrew, as indicated by interchange of orthographic (ש|rtl=yes) and (ס|rtl=yes), possibly under the influence of Aramaic, and this became the rule in Mishnaic Hebrew. In all Jewish reading traditions pronounced as //ɬ// and pronounced as //s// have merged completely; however in Samaritan Hebrew pronounced as //ɬ// has instead merged with pronounced as //ʃ//.
Allophonic spirantization of pronounced as //b ɡ d k p t// to pronounced as /[v ɣ ð x f θ]/ (known as begadkefat spirantization) developed sometime during the lifetime of Biblical Hebrew under the influence of Aramaic.[25] This probably happened after the original Old Aramaic phonemes pronounced as //θ, ð// disappeared in the 7th century BCE, and most likely occurred after the loss of Hebrew pronounced as //χ, ʁ// c. 200 BCE.[26] It is known to have occurred in Hebrew by the 2nd century CE. After a certain point this alternation became contrastive in word-medial and final position (though bearing low functional load), but in word-initial position they remained allophonic. This is evidenced both by the Tiberian vocalization's consistent use of word-initial spirants after a vowel in sandhi, as well as Rabbi Saadia Gaon's attestation to the use of this alternation in Tiberian Aramaic at the beginning of the 10th century CE.
The Dead Sea scrolls show evidence of confusion of the phonemes pronounced as //ħ ʕ h ʔ//, e.g. חמר|rtl=yes ħmr for Masoretic אָמַר|rtl=yes pronounced as //ʔɔˈmar// 'he said'. However the testimony of Jerome indicates that this was a regionalism and not universal. Confusion of gutturals was also attested in later Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic (see Eruvin 53b). In Samaritan Hebrew, pronounced as //ʔ ħ h ʕ// have generally all merged, either into pronounced as //ʔ//, a glide pronounced as //w// or pronounced as //j//, or by vanishing completely (often creating a long vowel), except that original pronounced as //ʕ ħ// sometimes have reflex pronounced as //ʕ// before pronounced as //a ɒ//.
Geminate consonants are phonemically contrastive in Biblical Hebrew. In the Secunda pronounced as //w j z// are never geminate. In the Tiberian tradition pronounced as //ħ ʕ h ʔ r// cannot be geminate; historically first pronounced as //r ʔ// degeminated, followed by pronounced as //ʕ//, pronounced as //h//, and finally pronounced as //ħ//, as evidenced by changes in the quality of the preceding vowel.[27]
| Language | |||||
| Hebrew | Aramaic | Arabic | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jewish | Samaritanּ | ||||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| ||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| ||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| ||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| silent (normally) ࠇ pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| ||||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| silent (normally) ࠏ pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| ||||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |
The vowel system of Hebrew has changed considerably over time. The following vowels are those reconstructed for the earliest stage of Hebrew, those attested by the Secunda, those of the various vocalization traditions (Tiberian and varieties of Babylonian and Palestinian), and those of the Samaritan tradition, with vowels
absent in some traditions color-coded.| Proto-Hebrew < | -- possible to find a written source? --> | Biblical Hebrew | Secunda Hebrew | Tiberian, Babylonian, and Palestinian Hebrew | Samaritan Hebrew | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
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The following sections present the vowel changes that Biblical Hebrew underwent, in approximate chronological order.
Proto-Semitic is the ancestral language of all the Semitic languages, and in traditional reconstructions possessed 29 consonants; 6 monophthong vowels, consisting of three qualities and two lengths, pronounced as /
Various changes, mostly in morphology, took place between Proto-Semitic and Proto-Central-Semitic, the language at the root of the Central Semitic languages. The phonemic system was inherited essentially unchanged, but the emphatic consonants may have changed their realization in Central Semitic from ejectives to pharyngealized consonants.
The morphology of Proto-Central-Semitic shows significant changes compared with Proto-Semitic, especially in its verbs, and is much like in Classical Arabic. Nouns in the singular were usually declined in three cases: pronounced as //-u// (nominative), pronounced as //-a// (accusative) or pronounced as //-i// (genitive). In some circumstances (but never in the construct state), nouns also took a final nasal after the case ending: nunation (final pronounced as //-n//) occurred in some languages, mimation (final pronounced as //-m//) in others. The original meaning of this marker is uncertain. In Classical Arabic, final pronounced as //-n// on nouns indicates indefiniteness and disappears when the noun is preceded by a definite article or otherwise becomes definite in meaning. In other languages, final pronounced as //-n// may be present whenever a noun is not in the construct state. Old Canaanite had mimation, of uncertain meaning, in an occurrence of the word urušalemim (Jerusalem) as given in an Egyptian transcription.
Broken plural forms in Arabic are declined like singulars, and often take singular agreement as well. Dual and "strong plural" forms use endings with a long vowel or diphthong, declined in only two cases: nominative and objective (combination accusative/genitive), with the objective form often becoming the default one after the loss of case endings. Both Hebrew and Arabic had a special form of nunation/mimation that co-occurred with the dual and masculine sound plural endings whenever the noun was not in the construct state. The endings were evidently felt as an inherent part of the ending and, as a result, are still used. Examples are Arabic strong masculine plural -ūna (nominative), -īna (objective), and dual endings -āni (nominative), -ayni (objective); corresponding construct-state endings are -ū, -ī (strong masculine plural), -ā, -ay (dual). (The strong feminine endings in Classical Arabic are -ātu nominative, -āti objective, marked with a singular-style -n nunation in the indefinite state only.)
If Hebrew had at some point had the broken plural, any vestigial forms that may remain have been extended with the strong plural endings. The dual and strong plural endings were likely much like the Arabic forms given above at one point, with only the objective-case forms ultimately surviving. For example, dual -ayim is probably from *-aymi with an extended mimation ending (cf. Arabic -ayni above), while dual construct -ē is from *-ay without mimation. Similarly, -īm < *-īma, -ōt < *-āti. (Expected plural construct state *-ī was replaced by dual -ē.)
Feminine nouns at this point ended in a suffix pronounced as //-at-// or pronounced as //-t-// in case endings. When the ending was final because of loss or non-presence of the case ending, it is replaced with pronounced as //-ah// and then pronounced as //-aː// in both Hebrew and Arabic. The final pronounced as //t// consonant therefore is silent in the absolute state, but becomes pronounced as //t// again in the construct state and when these words take suffixes, e.g. Hebrew: rtl=yes|תֹורָה pronounced as //toːraː// "law" becomes Hebrew: rtl=yes|תֹורַת pronounced as //toːrat// "law of", and Hebrew: rtl=yes|תֹורָתְךָ pronounced as //toːraːtəxaː// "your law", etc. (This is equivalent to the Arabic letter Tāʼ Marbūṭah ة, a modified final form of the letter He ه which indicates this same phoneme shifting, and only its pronunciation varies between construct and absolute state.)
Hebrew shows certain aspects of the Canaanite shift whereby pronounced as /
As a result of the Canaanite shift, the Proto-Hebrew vowel system is reconstructed as pronounced as /
Final unstressed short vowels dropped out in most words, making it possible for long vowels to occur in closed syllables.This appears to have proceeded in two steps:
Vowel lengthening in stressed, open syllables occurred between the two steps, with the result that short vowels at the beginning of a -VCV ending lengthened in nouns but not verbs. This is most noticeable with short pronounced as //a//: e.g. *kataba ('he wrote') > pronounced as //kɔˈθav// but *dabara ('word' acc.') > pronounced as //dɔˈvɔr//.
The dropping of final short vowels in verb forms tended to erase mood distinctions, but also some gender distinctions; however, unexpected vowel lengthening occurred in many situations to preserve the distinctions. For example, in the suffix conjugation, first-singular *-tu appears to have been remade into *-tī already by Proto-Hebrew on the basis of possessive -ī (likewise first singular personal pronoun *ʔana became *ʔanī).
Similarly, in the second-singular, inherited *-ta -ti competed with lengthened *-tā -tī for masculine and feminine forms. The expected result would be -t or -tā for masculine, -t or -tī for feminine, and in fact both variants of both forms are found in the Bible (with -h marking the long -ā and -y marking the long -ī). The situation appears to have been quite fluid for several centuries, with -t and -tā/tī forms found in competition both in writing and in speech (cf. the Secunda (Hexapla) of Origen, which records both pronunciations, although quite often in disagreement with the written form as passed down to us). Ultimately, writing stabilized on the shorter -t for both genders, while speech chose feminine -t but masculine -tā. This is the reason for the unexpected qamatz vowel written under the final letter of such words.
The exact same process affected possessive *-ka ('your' masc. sing.) and *-ki ('your' fem. sing.), and personal pronouns *ʔanta, *ʔanti, with the same split into shorter and longer forms and the same ultimate resolution.
The short vowels pronounced as /
In the process of lengthening, the high vowels were lowered. In the Secunda, the lengthened reflexes of pronounced as //a i u// are pronounced as //aː eː oː//; when kept short they generally have reflexes pronounced as //a e o//.[32] [33]
Stressed open syllables with a short vowel (i.e. syllables consisting of a short vowel followed by a consonant and another vowel) had the vowel reduced to pronounced as //ə// and the stressed moved one syllable later in the word (usually to the last syllable of the word).[34] Presumably, stress was originally penultimate and loss of final short vowels made many words have final stress. However, in this case, words whose final syllable had a long vowel or ended with a consonant were unaffected and still had penultimate stress at this point except in pausal position, where the penultimate stress is preserved, and vowel lengthening rather than reduction occurs.
The previous three changes occurred in a complex, interlocking fashion:
Examples:
| Proto-Central-Semitic | pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-Hebrew | pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |
| Canaanite shift | pronounced as /
| — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Penultimate stress | pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |
| Final short vowel loss (verb) | — | pronounced as /
| — | — | — | pronounced as /
| — | |
| Pre-tonic lengthening | — | pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| — | — | |
| Stress shift / de-stressed reduction | — | — | pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| — | — | pronounced as /
| |
| Tonic lengthening/lowering | pronounced as /
| — | — | — | pronounced as /
| — | — | |
| Final short vowel loss (noun) | pronounced as /
| — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Feminine pronounced as //-at// > pronounced as //aː// | — | — | pronounced as /
| — | — | — | — | |
| Short vowel lowering | — | — | — | — | — | pronounced as /
| — | |
| Law of attenuation | — | — | — | — | — | pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| |
| Tiberian pronounced as //aː// > pronounced as //ɔː// | pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| pronounced as /
| — | — | |
| Loss of phonemic vowel length; attested Tiberian form | pronounced as /qoˈṭel/ | pronounced as /qɔˈṭal/ | pronounced as /qɔṭəˈlɔ/ | pronounced as /qɔṭəˈlu/ | pronounced as /qɔˈṭɔlu/ | pronounced as /tiqˈṭol/ | pronounced as /tiqṭəˈli/ |
Many, perhaps most, Hebrew words with a schwa directly before a final stress are due to this stress shift.
This sound change shifted many more originally penultimate-stressed words to have final stress. The above changes can be seen to divide words into a number of main classes based on stress and syllable properties:
pronounced as /
The later Jewish traditions (Tiberian, Babylonian, Palestinian) show similar vowel developments. By the Tiberian time, all short vowels in stressed syllables and open pretonic lengthened, making vowel length allophonic.[36] Vowels in open or stressed syllables had allophonic length (e.g. pronounced as //a// in יְרַחֵם|rtl=yes pronounced as //jəraˈħem// pronounced as /[jəraːˈħeːm]/ ('he will have mercy') < previously short pronounced as /[jəraˈħeːm]/ < pronounced as /[jəraħˈħeːm]/ by Tiberian degemination of pronounced as //ħ// < PSem pronounced as /
The Babylonian and Palestinian systems have only one reduced vowel phoneme pronounced as //ə// like the Secunda, though in Palestinian Hebrew it developed the pronunciation pronounced as /[ɛ]/. However the Tiberian tradition possesses three reduced vowels pronounced as //ă ɔ̆ ɛ̆// of which pronounced as //ɛ̆// has questionable phonemicity.[39] pronounced as //ă// under a non-guttural letter was pronounced as an ultrashort copy of the following vowel before a guttural, e.g. וּבָקְעָה|rtl=yes pronounced as /[uvɔqɔ̆ˈʕɔ]/, and as pronounced as /[ĭ]/ preceding pronounced as //j//, e.g. תְדֵמְּיוּ֫נִי|rtl=yes pronounced as /[θăðamːĭˈjuni]/, but was always pronounced as pronounced as /[ă]/ under gutturals, e.g. Hebrew: שָחֲחו, חֲיִי. When reduced, etymological pronounced as /
Samaritan Hebrew also does not reflect etymological vowel length; however the elision of guttural consonants has created new phonemic vowel length, e.g. pronounced as //rɒb// רב|rtl=yes ('great') vs. pronounced as //rɒːb// רחב|rtl=yes ('wide').[40] Samaritan Hebrew vowels are allophonically lengthened (to a lesser degree) in open syllables, e.g. המצרי|rtl=yes pronounced as /[ammisˤriˑ]/, היא|rtl=yes pronounced as /[iˑ]/, though this is less strong in post-tonic vowels. Pretonic gemination is also found in Samaritan Hebrew, but not always in the same locations as in Tiberian Hebrew, e.g. גמלים|rtl=yes TH pronounced as //ɡămalːim// SH pronounced as //ɡɒmɒləm//; שלמים|rtl=yes TH pronounced as //ʃălɔmim// SH pronounced as //ʃelamːəm//. While Proto-Hebrew long vowels usually retain their vowel quality in the later traditions of Hebrew, in Samaritan Hebrew pronounced as /
Various more specific conditioned shifts of vowel quality have also occurred. Diphthongs were frequently monophthongized, but the scope and results of this shift varied among dialects. In particular, the Samaria ostraca show pronounced as //jeːn// < pronounced as /
The following chart summarizes the most regular reflexes of the Proto-Semitic vowels in the various stages of Hebrew:
| Hebrew language stage | |||||||
| Secunda | Jewish | Samaritan | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palestinian | Babylonian | Tiberian | |||||
| Proto-Hebrew vowel | pronounced as /
| usual | pronounced as /a/ | pronounced as /a, i/ | pronounced as /a, ɒ/ | ||
| lengthened | pronounced as /aː/ | pronounced as /a/ | pronounced as /ɔ/ | ||||
| reduced | pronounced as /ə/ | pronounced as /ə/ | pronounced as /ă/ | ||||
pronounced as /
| usual | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /e, i/pronounced as /, a/ | pronounced as /ɛ, i/pronounced as /, a/ | pronounced as /e, i, a/ | ||
| lengthened | pronounced as /eː/ | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /e/ | ||||
| reduced | pronounced as /ə/ | pronounced as /ə/ | pronounced as /ă, ɛ̆/ | pronounced as /e, i, a/ | |||
pronounced as /
| usual | pronounced as /o/ | pronounced as /o, u/ | pronounced as /ɔ, u/ | pronounced as /a, ɒ, i/ | ||
| lengthened | pronounced as /oː/ | pronounced as /o/ | |||||
| reduced | pronounced as /ə/ | pronounced as /ə/ | pronounced as /ă, ɔ̆/ | ||||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /oː/ | pronounced as /o/ | pronounced as /u/ | ||||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /iː/ | pronounced as /i/ | pronounced as /e, i/ | ||||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /uː/ | pronounced as /u/ | pronounced as /o, u/ | ||||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /eː/ | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /iː, i/ | ||||
pronounced as /
| pronounced as /oː/ | pronounced as /o/ | pronounced as /uː, o/ | ||||
Notes:
Proto-Hebrew generally had penultimate stress.[48] The ultimate stress of later traditions of Hebrew usually resulted from the loss of final vowels in many words, preserving the location of proto-Semitic stress.[49] Tiberian Hebrew has phonemic stress, e.g. בָּנוּ֫|rtl=yes pronounced as //bɔˈnu// ('they built') vs. בָּ֫נוּ|rtl=yes pronounced as //ˈbɔnu// ('in us'); stress is most commonly ultimate, less commonly penultimate, and antipenultimate stress exists marginally, e.g. הָאֹ֫הֱלָה|rtl=yes pronounced as //hɔˈʔohɛ̆lɔ// ('into the tent').[50] There does not seem to be evidence for stress in the Secunda varying from that of the Tiberian tradition. Despite sharing the loss of final vowels with Tiberian Hebrew, Samaritan Hebrew has generally not preserved Proto-Semitic stress, and has predominantly penultimate stress, with occasional ultimate stress. There is evidence that Qumran Hebrew had a similar stress pattern to Samaritan Hebrew.
Medieval grammarians of Arabic and Hebrew classified words as belonging to three parts of speech: Arabic ism ('noun'), fiʻl ('verb'), and ḥarf ('particle'); other grammarians have included more categories. In particular, adjectives and nouns show more affinity to each other than in most European languages. Biblical Hebrew has a typical Semitic morphology, characterized by the use of roots. Most words in Biblical Hebrew are formed from a root, a sequence of consonants with a general associated meaning. Roots are usually triconsonantal, with biconsonantal roots less common (depending on how some words are analyzed) and rare cases of quadri- and quinquiconsonantal roots. Roots are modified by affixation to form words. Verbal patterns are more productive and consistent, while noun patterns are less predictable.
The most common nominal prefix used is pronounced as //m//, used for substantives of location (מוֹשָׁב|rtl=yes 'assembly'), instruments (מַפְתֵּֽחַ|rtl=yes 'key'), and abstractions (מִשְׁפָּט|rtl=yes 'judgement'). The vowel after pronounced as //m// is normally pronounced as //a//, but appears sometimes as pronounced as //i//, or in the case of מוֹשָׁב|rtl=yes as pronounced as //o// (contracted from pronounced as /
In proto-Semitic nouns were marked for case: in the singular the markers were pronounced as /
Biblical Hebrew has two genders, masculine and feminine, which are reflected in nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs. Hebrew distinguishes between singular and plural numbers, and plural forms may also be used for collectives and honorifics. Hebrew has a morphological dual form for nouns that naturally occur in pairs and for units of measurement and time which contrasts with the plural (יום|rtl=yes 'day' יומים|rtl=yes 'two days' ימים|rtl=yes 'days'). A widespread misconception is that the Hebrew plural denotes three or more objects. In truth, it denotes two or more objects.[53] However adjectives, pronouns, and verbs do not have dual forms, and most nominal dual forms can function as plurals (שש כנפַים|rtl=yes 'six wings' from Isaiah 6:2). Finite verbs are marked for subject person, number, and gender. Nouns also have a construct form which is used in genitive constructions.
Nouns are marked as definite with the prefix pronounced as //ha-// followed by gemination of the initial consonant of the noun. In Tiberian Hebrew the vowel of the article may become pronounced as //ɛ// or pronounced as //ɔ// in certain phonetic environments, for example החכם|rtl=yes pronounced as //hɛħɔˈxɔm// ('the wise man'), האיש|rtl=yes pronounced as //hɔˈʔiʃ// ('the man').
The traditions differ on the form of segolate nouns, nouns stemming from roots with two final consonants. The anaptyctic pronounced as //ɛ// of the Tiberian tradition in segolates appears in the Septuagint (3rd century BCE) but not the Hexapla (2nd century CE), e.g. גֶּתֶר|rtl=yes pronounced as //ˈɡɛθɛr// = Γαθερ versus כֵּסֶל|rtl=yes pronounced as //ˈkesɛl// = Χεσλ (Psalms 49:14). This may reflect dialectal variation or phonetic versus phonemic transcriptions. Both the Palestinian and Babylonian traditions have an anaptyctic vowel in segolates, pronounced as //e// in the Palestinian tradition (e.g. pronounced as //ʔeresʼ// 'land' = Tiberian אֶרֶץ|rtl=yes Deuteronomy 26:15) and pronounced as //a// in Babylonian (e.g. pronounced as //ħepasʼ// 'item' = Tiberian חֵפֶץ|rtl=yes Jeremiah 22:28). The Qumran tradition sometimes shows some type of back epenthetic vowel when the first vowel is back, e.g. for Tiberian pronounced as //ˈʔohɛl// ('tent').
Biblical Hebrew has two sets of personal pronouns: the free-standing independent pronouns have a nominative function, while the pronominal suffixes are genitive or accusative. Only the first person suffix has different possessive and objective forms (Hebrew: -י and Hebrew: -ני).
Verbal consonantal roots are placed into derived verbal stems, known as בנינים|rtl=yes binyanim in Hebrew; the binyanim mainly serve to indicate grammatical voice. This includes various distinctions of reflexivity, passivity, and causativity. Verbs of all binyanim have three non-finite forms (one participle, two infinitives), three modal forms (cohortative, imperative, jussive), and two major conjugations (prefixing, suffixing).[54] The meaning of the prefixing and suffixing conjugations are also affected by the conjugation ו|rtl=yes, and their meaning with respect to tense and aspect is a matter of debate.
The default word order in Biblical Hebrew is commonly thought to be VSO, though one scholar has argued that this is due to the prevalence of clauses with a wayyiqtol verb form compared to other less marked forms that use SVO either more often or at least to a comparable degree.[55] Attributive adjectives normally follow the noun they modify. In Biblical Hebrew, possession is normally expressed with status constructus, a construction in which the possessed noun occurs in a phonologically reduced, "construct" form and is followed by the possessor noun in its normal, "absolute" form. Pronominal direct objects are either suffixed to the verb or alternatively expressed on the object-marking pronoun Hebrew: את.
Biblical Hebrew has two main conjugation types, the suffix conjugation, also called the Perfect, and the prefix conjugation, also called Imperfect. The Perfect verb form expressed the idea of the verb as a completed action, viewing it from start to finish as a whole, and not focusing on the process by which the verb came to be completed, stating it as a simple fact. This is often used in the past tense; however, there are some contexts in which a Perfect verb translates into the present and future tenses.[56]
The Imperfect portrays the verb as an incomplete action along with the process by which it came about, either as an event that has not begun, an event that has begun but is still in the process, or a habitual or cyclic action that is on an ongoing repetition. The Imperfect can also express modal or conditional verbs, as well as commands in the Jussive and Cohortative moods. It is conjectured that the imperfect can express modal quality through the paragogic nun added to certain imperfect forms.[57] While often future tense, it also has uses in the past and present under certain contexts. Biblical Hebrew tense is not necessarily reflected in the verb forms per se, but rather is determined primarily by context. The Participles also reflect ongoing or continuous actions, but are also subject to the context determining their tense.
The verbal forms can be Past Tense in these circumstances:[58]
The verbal forms can be Present Tense in these circumstances:
The verbal forms can be Future Tense in these circumstances:
The following is a sample from Psalm 18 as appears in the Masoretic text with medieval Tiberian niqqud and cantillation and the Greek transcription of the Secunda of the Hexapla along with its reconstructed pronunciation.
"The extrabiblical linguistic material from the Iron Age is primarily epigraphic, that is, texts written on hard materials (pottery, stones, walls, etc.). The epigraphic texts from Israelite territory are written in Hebrew in a form of the language which may be called Inscriptional Hebrew; this "dialect" is not strikingly different from the Hebrew preserved in the Masoretic text. Unfortunately, it is meagerly attested."