Segol Explained

Segol - ֶ
IPApronounced as /link/
Transliteratione
English examplebed
Same soundtzere
Example - שֶׁל - The word for of in Hebrew, shel. The triangular array of three dots under the letter Shin form the segol.
Other Niqqud
Segol (modern Hebrew: סֶגּוֹל, pronounced as /he/; formerly, səḡôl) is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign that is represented by three dots forming an upside down equilateral triangle "ֶ ". As such, it resembles an upside down therefore sign (a because sign) underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, it indicates the phoneme pronounced as /link/ which is similar to "e" in the English word sound in sell and is transliterated as an e.

In Modern Hebrew, segol makes the same sound as tzere, as does the Hataf Segol (Hebrew: חֲטַף סֶגּוֹל   pronounced as /he/, "Reduced Segol"). The reduced (or ħataf) niqqud exist for segol, patah, and kamatz which contain a shva next to it.

Pronunciation

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

The letters Bet and Het used in this table are only for demonstration; any letter can be used.

Symbol NamePronunciation
ModernAshkenaziSephardiYemeniteTiberianReconstructed
Biblical
Segolpronounced as /link/ [e̞] [e̞] [a] pronounced as /[ɛ, ɛː]/ ? pronounced as /[ɛ]/
Segol Malepronounced as /link/ [e̞] [e̞] [a] pronounced as /[ɛː]/ ? pronounced as /[ɛː, ɛj]/
Hataf Segolpronounced as /link/ [e̞] [e̞] [a] pronounced as /[ɛ̆]/ ? pronounced as /[ɛ]/

In addition, a letter with a segol or tzere with a succeeding yod often makes the "ei" (also spelled "ey") sound such as in they or tape.

Vowel length comparison

By adding two vertical dots (shva), the vowel can be made very short. However, the vowels lengths are not manifested in Modern Hebrew.

Vowel comparison table
Vowel lengthIPATransliterationEnglish
example
LongShortVery Short
pronounced as /link/etemp
TzereSegolReduced Segol

Unicode encoding

GlyphUnicodeName
ֶU+05B6SEGOL
ֱU+05B1HATEF SEGOL