Hebrew/Aleph-Bet/6

 Aleph-Bet Lesson 6 —

Welcome to the sixth lesson of the Hebrew alphabet! In this lesson you will learn three new Hebrew letters -, and  and two new niqqud symbols - ħataf-pataħ and ħataf-qamats.

Letters
After reviewing the first nine letters and learning another three, you've already learned more than half the alphabet! Just 10 letters to go.

Now the next three letters:

Gimmel
The third letter in the Hebrew alphabet is Gimmel. It makes the "g" sound (IPA: /g/, "g" as in "give").

Zayin
The seventh letter in the Hebrew alphabet is Zayin. It makes the "z" sound (IPA: /z/, "z" as in "zoo").

Ħet
The eighth letter in the Hebrew alphabet is Ħet. You must have seen the names of vowels like ħiriq, pataħ and ħolam, and have been thinking: "What is that strange letter?". Well, that letter is called Ħet, and is transliterated in the WikiBook as Ħħ. This is to distinguish between it and Khaf, a letter you will later learn. The traditional sound this letter makes is marked in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and the Maltese language as well as many Semitic transliterations as ħ, which is the phoneme we used. Most Israelis, however, pronounce it the same as Khaf.

Now what is that sound? This sound is called voiceless uvular fricative - same as Resh only that you don't use your vocal cords (IPA: /χ/, "ch" as in German "Bach", in Dutch "acht"). A similar sound is perhaps more familiar to English speakers, the voiceless velar fricative (IPA: /x/, e.g. Spanish "j" as in "rojo").

Vowels
We have learned that Shva can either mean the end of a syllable or stand for the "ə" sound. However, the Shva Na‘ (ə) can't be put in guttural letters. What if one wants to make the "ħə" sound? The "hə" sound? The "ə" sound? For that purpose, three special reduced vowels, known as ħataf ("interrupted") have been devised. In this lesson we're going to learn the first two:

Ħataf-Pataħ
The Shva and Pataħ under the Ħet are the ħataf-pataħ.

It produces the "a" sound (IPA: /a/, "a" as in "spa").

Ħataf-Qamats
The Shva and Qamats under the Ħet are the ħataf-qamats.

It produces the "o" sound (IPA: /o/, "o" as in "gore").

Words
ani I anaħnu we  oniyyah ship (feminine, singular) ħag holiday (masculine, singular) ħaver friend (masculine, singular) zaħal caterpillar (masculine, singular) ħalah chalah, traditional Jewish bread made on the Sabbath and other festivities (feminine, singular) gezer carrot (masculine, singular)

Summary
In this lesson, you've learned: Practice what you've learned in the exercises.
 * The letters Gimmel, Zayin and Ħet.
 * The niqqud symbols ħataf-pataħ and ħataf-qamats.
 * The words and.

Next lesson: Aleph-Bet 7 >>>