See main article: Hebrew spelling. Ktiv hasar niqqud (pronounced as /he/; Hebrew: כתיב חסר ניקוד, literally "spelling lacking niqqud"), colloquially known as ktiv maleh (pronounced as /he/; Hebrew: rtl=yes|כתיב מלא, literally "full spelling"), are the rules for writing Hebrew without vowel points (niqqud), often replacing them with matres lectionis (and). To avoid confusion, consonantal (pronounced as /link/) and (pronounced as /link/) are doubled in the middle of words. In general use, niqqud are seldom used, except in specialized texts such as dictionaries, poetry, or texts for children or for new immigrants.
From a Hebrew translation of "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe (translated by Eliyahu Tsifer):
| Added letters highlighted and respective phonemes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| dir=ltr | pronounced as /viˈlon ʃel ˈmeʃi ʔarɡaˈman, saˈfek riʃˈruʃ, maˈsaχ m/pronounced as /u/pronounced as /χˈman/ | וילון של משי ארגמן, ספק רשרוש, מסך מוכמן, | |
| dir=ltr | pronounced as /hifħiˈd/pronounced as /u/pronounced as /ni, b/pronounced as /i/pronounced as /ʕaˈt/pronounced as /u/pronounced as /ni, ħaʃaˈʃot ʔejˈma ʔuˈslod/ | הפחידוני, ביעתוני, חששות אימה וסלוד, | |
| dir=ltr | pronounced as /paʕaˈmej liˈbi maˈkevet, bimˈʔots veˈɡam beˈʃevet,/ | פעמי לבי מקבת, במאוץ וגם בשבת, | |
| dir=ltr | pronounced as /haʔ/pronounced as /u/pronounced as /ʃˈpiz beˈʃot vaˈʃevet, ʔet dalˈti heˈziz bimˈn/pronounced as /o/pronounced as /d,/ | האושפיז בשוט ושבט, את דלתי הזיז במנוד, | |
| dir=ltr | pronounced as /ʔet dalˈti heˈziz heˈniaʕ, ˈketev liʃkaˈti jaˈʃod,/ | את דלתי הזיז הניע, קטב לשכתי ישוד, | |
| dir=ltr | pronounced as /ʔalmoˈni hu haʔoˈreaħ, ʔalmoˈni hu velo ʕod/ | אלמוני הוא האורח, אלמוני הוא ולא עוד! | |
| dir=ltr | pronounced as /ʃal/pronounced as /v/pronounced as /aˈti parˈsa knaˈfaj/pronounced as /i/pronounced as /m, hisuˈsaj ʔafˈsu ʔaˈpaj/pronounced as /i/pronounced as /m,/ | שלוותי פרשה כנפיים, היסוסי אפסו אפיים, | |
| dir=ltr | pronounced as /ʔaˈdon uɡˈveret, beχeˈnut ʔafˈtsir ʔesˈɡ/pronounced as /o/pronounced as /d,/ | אדון וגברת, בכנות אפציר אסגוד, | |
| dir=ltr | pronounced as /ken ʕ/pronounced as /u/pronounced as /vˈda hi, ʃʕat ɡl/pronounced as /o/pronounced as /ʃ, uveˈroχ jadˈχa taˈk/pronounced as /o/pronounced as /ʃ,/ | כן עובדה היא, שעת גלוש, וברוך ידך תקוש, | |
| dir=ltr | pronounced as /medoˈri aˈzaj naˈl/pronounced as /o/pronounced as /ʃ, ʕet heˈnadeta ˈʃad/pronounced as /o/pronounced as /d,/ | מדורי אזי נלוש, עת הנדת שדוד, | |
| dir=ltr | pronounced as /lir/pronounced as /v/pronounced as /aˈħa dalˈti paˈrasti, ki noˈʕadeti lisˈr/pronounced as /o/pronounced as /d,/ | לרווחה דלתי פרשתי, כי נועדתי לשרוד, | |
| dir=ltr | pronounced as /veˈʃur, haˈbet, rak ʃħor, lo ʕod/ | ושור! הבט | רק שחור, לא עוד! |
| Note: In Modern Hebrew the letter ח is commonly pronounced pronounced as /he/ (not pronounced as /he/), and the letter ע is pronounced as /[ʔ]/ (not pronounced as /[ʕ]/) if at all; i.e., often neither א nor ע is pronounced. The consonants pronounced as //ħ// and pronounced as //ʕ// are pronounced daily only dialectally; sometimes however they are also pronounced in festive or theatrical contexts: in poetry readings, where a more distinct articulation than usual of the א as pronounced as //ʔ// would be common; thus the proposed transcription could be representative of a literary reading of this text, not representative of everyday Israeli speech. Similarly, the consonantal י in the dual forms כנפיים pronounced as //knaˈfajim// and אפיים pronounced as //ʔaˈpajim// is distinctly pronounced pronounced as /[j]/ only dialectically or in festive or theatrical contexts and is otherwise not pronounced, resulting in the hiatus pronounced as //ˈa.i//. | |||
Ktiv haser (Hebrew: rtl=yes|כתיב חסר) is writing whose consonants match those generally used in voweled text, but without the actual niqqud. For example, the words Hebrew: שֻׁלְחָן and Hebrew: דִּבֵּר written in ktiv haser are Hebrew: שלחן and Hebrew: דבר. In vowelled text, the niqqud indicate the correct vowels, but when the niqqud is missing, the text is difficult to read, and the reader must make use of the context of each word to know the correct reading.
A typical example of a Hebrew text written in ktiv haser is the Torah, read in synagogues (simply called the Torah reading). For assistance readers often use a Tikkun, a book in which the text of the Torah appears in two side-by-side versions, one identical to the text which appears in the Torah, and one with niqqud and cantillation.
Because of the difficulty of reading unvowelled text, the Va'ad ha-lashon introduced the Rules for the Spelling-Without-Niqqud (Hebrew: rtl=yes|כללי הכתיב חסר הניקוד), which in reality dictates ktiv male. This system mostly involved the addition of and to mark the different vowels. Later on, these rules were adopted by the Academy of the Hebrew Language, which continued to revise them, and they were mostly accepted by the public, mainly for official writing.
Ktiv haser became obsolete in Modern Hebrew, and ktiv male has already been dominant for decades in unvowelled texts: all of the newspapers and books published in Hebrew are written in ktiv male. Additionally, it is common for children's books or texts for those with special needs to contain niqqud, but ktiv haser without niqqud is rare.
Despite the Academy's standardization of the rules for ktiv male, there is a substantial lack of unity in writing, partly because of a lack of grammatical knowledge, partly because of the historical layers of the language, and partly because of a number of linguistic categories in which the Academy's decisions are not popular. As a result, book publishers and newspaper editors make their own judgments.
As is the norm for linguistic rules, the rules for spelling without niqqud are not entirely static. Changes occur from time to time, based on amassed experience. For example, originally the rules for spelling without niqqud dictated that Hebrew: rtl=yes|אשה isha ("woman") should be written without a yod (to distinguish it from Hebrew: rtl=yes|אישה ishah – "her husband"), but currently the exception has been removed, and now, the Academy prefers Hebrew: rtl=yes|אישה. The last substantial change to the rules for spelling without niqqud was made in 1993 updated in 1996. The following is the summary of the current rules:[1]
These are the most basic rules. Each one has exceptions which is described in the handbook "Hebrew: rtl=yes|כללי הכתיב חסר הניקוד" (spelling rules without niqqud) that the Academy publishes in Hebrew.