Nikkud are shown in blue for emphasis (they would normally be the same color as the consonants). Illustration 1 is an example of pointed text. When it is pronounced "oh," pointed texts have a dot on top (though sometimes, Vav with a dot on top is pronounced "vo"). When it is pronounced "oo," pointed texts have a dagesh (though sometimes, Vav with a dagesh is pronounced "v"). Vav, usually a consonant pronounced as a "v," is sometimes a vowel pronounced "oo" as in "food" (transliterated "oo" or "u") or "oh" as in "Oh!" (transliterated "o"). Shin is pronounced "sh" when it has a dot over the right branch and "s" when it has a dot over the left branch. In Ashkenazic pronunciation (the pronunciation used by many Orthodox Jews and by many older Jews), Tav also has a soft sound, and is pronounced as an "s" when it does not have a dagesh. With the letters Beit, Kaf and Pei, however, the dagesh indicates that the letter should be pronounced with its hard sound (b, k, p) rather than its soft sound (v, kh, f). With most letters, the dagesh does not significantly affect pronunciation of the letter it simply marks a split between syllables, where the letter is pronounced both at the end of the first syllable and the beginning of the second. It can appear in just about any letter in Hebrew. The dot that appears in the center of some letters is called a dagesh. There are a few other nikkud, illustrated in Table 3. The letters shown in purple are technically consonants and would appear in unpointed texts, but they function as vowels in this context. The letter Alef, shown in red, is used to illustrate the position of the points relative to the consonants. Pronunciations are approximate I have heard quite a bit of variation in vowel pronunciation. Table 2 illustrates the vowel points, along with their pronunciations. Text containing these markings is referred to as "pointed" text. These dots and dashes are written above, below or inside the letter, in ways that do not alter the spacing of the line. However, as Hebrew literacy declined, particularly after the Romans expelled the Jews from Israel, the rabbis recognized the need for aids to pronunciation, so they developed a system of dots and dashes called nikkud (points). People who are fluent in the language do not need vowels to read Hebrew, and most things written in Hebrew in Israel are written without vowels. Like most early Semitic alphabetic writing systems, the alefbet has no vowels. Kaf, Mem, Nun, Pei and Tzadei Vowels and Points Note that there are two versions of some letters. The "Kh" and the "Ch" are pronounced as in German or Scottish, a throat clearing noise, not as the "ch" in "chair." If this sounds like Greek to you, you're not far off! Many letters in the Greek alphabet have similar names and occur in the same order (though they don't look anything alike!): Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta. The Hebrew alphabet is often called the "alefbet," because of its first two letters. Note that Hebrew is written from right to left, rather than left to right as in English, so Alef is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and Tav is the last. The picture below illustrates the Hebrew alphabet, in Hebrew alphabetical order. The Hebrew and Yiddish languages use a different alphabet than English. Writing in Hebrew may require a special word processor and fonts.There are several styles of Hebrew writing.
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