Hebrew alphabet

:This article is mainly about Hebrew letters. For Hebrew diacritical marks, see niqqud (for the vowel points) and cantillation.

Description

Both the old Hebrew script and the modern Jewish script have only one case, but in the modern script some letters have special final forms used only at the end of a word. This is similar to the Arabic alphabet, although much simpler. The Hebrew alphabet is an abjad: vowels are normally not indicated. Where they are it is because a weak consonant such as ? alef, ? he, ? vav, or ? yod has combined with a previous vowel and become silent or by imitation of such cases in spelling of other forms.

Related Topics:
Case - Final forms - Arabic alphabet - Abjad - Vowels - Consonant

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To preserve the proper vowel sounds, scholars developed several different sets of diacritic symbols called nikud (?????; literally: "applying points"). One of these, the Tiberian system, eventually prevailed. Aaron ben Moses ben Asher, and his family for several generations, are credited for creating and maintaining the system. These points are normally used only for special purposes, such as Biblical books intended for study, in poetry, or when teaching the language to children. The Tiberian system also includes a set of cantillation marks used to indicate how scriptural passages should be chanted, and decorative "crowns" used only for Torah scrolls.

Related Topics:
Diacritic - Nikud - Aaron ben Moses ben Asher - Biblical - Poetry - Cantillation - Torah

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Hebrew letters may also be used as numbers; see the entry on Hebrew numerals. This use of letters as numbers is used in Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism) in a practice known as gematria.

Related Topics:
Numbers - Hebrew numerals - Kabbalah - Jewish - Mysticism - Gematria

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