Ktiv hasar niqqud

Template:Short description Template:Italic title Template:Use American English Ktiv hasar niqqud (; Template:Langx, literally "spelling lacking niqqud"), colloquially known as ktiv maleh (; , literally "full spelling"), are the rules for writing Hebrew without vowel points (niqqud), often replacing them with matres lectionis (ו‎ and י‎). To avoid confusion, consonantal ו‎ (Template:IPAblink) and י‎ (Template:IPAblink) are doubled in the middle of words. In general use, niqqud are rarely used, except in specialized texts such as dictionaries, poetry, or texts for children or for new immigrants.

Comparison example

From a Hebrew translation of "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe (translated by Eliyahu Tsifer):

Ktiv male

With niqqud

וילון של משי ארגמן, ספק רשרוש, מסך מוכמן, הפחידוני, ביעתוני, חששות אימה וסלוד, פעמי לבי מקבת, במאוץ וגם בשבת, האושפיז בשוט ושבט, את דלתי הזיז במנוד, את דלתי הזיז הניע, קטב לשכתי ישוד, אלמוני הוא האורח, אלמוני הוא ולא עוד! שלוותי פרשה כנפיים, היסוסיי אפסו אפיים, אדון וגברת, בכנות אפציר אסגוד, כן עובדה היא, שעת גלוש, וברוך ידך תקוש, מדורי אזי נלוש, עת הנדת שדוד, לרווחה דלתי פרשתי, כי נועדתי לשרוד, ושור! הבט! רק שחור, לא עוד!‎

וִילוֹן שֶׁל מֶשִׁי אַרְגָּמָן, סָפֵק רִשְׁרוּשׁ, מָסָךְ מֻכְמָן, הִפְחִידֻנִּי, בִּעֲתֻנִי, חֲשָׁשוֹת אֵימָה וּסְלוֹד, פַּעֲמֵי לִבִּי מַקֶּבֶת, בִּמְאוֹץ וְגַם בְּשֶׁבֶת, הָאֻשְׁפִּיז בְּשׁוֹט וָשֵׁבֶט, אֶת דַּלְתִּי הֵזִיז בִּמְנֹד, אֶת דַלְתִּי הֵזִיז הֵנִיעַ, קֶטֶב לִשְׁכַּתִּי יָשׁוֹד, אַלְמוֹנִי הוּא הָאוֹרֵחַ, אַלְמוֹנִי הוּא וְלֹא עוֹד! שַׁלְוַתִּי פַּרְשָׂה כְּנָפַיִם, הִסּוּסַי אָפְסוּ אַפַּיִם, אָדוֹן וּגְבֶרֶת, בְּכֵנוּת אָפְצִיר אֶסְגֹּד, כֵּן עֻבְדָּה הִיא, שְׁעַת גְּלֹש, וּבְרוֹךְ יָדְךָ תַּקֹּשׁ, מְדוֹרִי אֲזַי נַלֹּשׁ, עֵת הֵנַדְתָּ שָׁדֹד, לִרְוָחָה דַּלְתִּי פָּרַשְׂתִּי, כִּי נוֹעַדְתִּי לִשְׂרֹד, וְשּׁוּר! הַבֵּט! רַק שְׁחוֹר, לֹא עוֹד!‎

Added letters highlighted and respective phonemes
	וילון של משי ארגמן, ספק רשרוש, מסך מוכמן,‎
	הפחידוני, ביעתוני, חששות אימה וסלוד,‎
	פעמי לבי מקבת, במאוץ וגם בשבת,‎
	האושפיז בשוט ושבט, את דלתי הזיז במנוד,‎
	את דלתי הזיז הניע, קטב לשכתי ישוד,‎
	אלמוני הוא האורח, אלמוני הוא ולא עוד!‎
	שלוותי פרשה כנפיים, היסוסי אפסו אפיים,‎
	אדון וגברת, בכנות אפציר אסגוד,‎
	כן עובדה היא, שעת גלוש, וברוך ידך תקוש,‎
	מדורי אזי נלוש, עת הנדת שדוד,‎
	לרווחה דלתי פרשתי, כי נועדתי לשרוד,‎
	ושור! הבט! רק שחור, לא עוד!‎
Note: In Modern Hebrew, the letter ח‎ is commonly pronounced (not ), and the letter ע‎ is (not ) if at all; i.e., often neither א‎ nor ע‎ is pronounced. The consonants and 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 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 and is distinctly pronounced only dialectically or in festive or theatrical contexts and is otherwise not pronounced, resulting in the hiatus .

Historical examination

Ktiv haser

Ktiv haser () is writing whose consonants match those generally used in voweled text, but without the actual niqqud. For example, the words and written in ktiv haser are and . 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 where 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.

Ktiv male

Due to the difficulty of reading unvowelled text, the Va'ad ha-lashon introduced the Rules for the Spelling-Without-Niqqud (), which in reality dictates ktiv male. This system mostly involved the addition of ו‎ and י‎ 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 absence 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.

Rules for spelling without niqqud

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 isha ("woman") should be written without a yod י‎ (to distinguish it from ishah – "her husband"), but currently the exception has been removed, and now, the Academy prefers . 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:

• Every letter that appears in vowelled text also appears in unvowelled text.
• After a letter vowelled with a kubuts (the vowel /u/), the letter waw ו‎ appears: , , (kufsa, hupal, kulam).
• After a letter vowelled with a holam haser (the vowel /o/) the letter waw ו‎ appears: , (boker, yishmor).
• After a letter vowelled with a hirik haser (the vowel /i/) the letter yod י‎ appears: , , (dibur, yishuv, ta'asiya). The letter yod י‎ does not appear in the following situations:
  • Before a shva nah, for example: , , (hirgish, minhag, dimyon);
  • Words whose base forms do not contain the vowel /i/: , , (livi, itkha/itakh, itim), which are inflected forms of , , ; (lev, et, et), respectively
  • After affix letters, like in , (mi-beto, mi-yad), and also in the words: im, hine
  • Before יו‎ (/ju/ or /jo/): , , , (diyun, kiyum, briyot, netiyot).
• After a letter vowelled with a tsere (the vowel /e/) the letter yod י‎ generally does not appear: (=), (=) (memad, ezor), but there are situations when yod י‎ does appear: , (teva, heseg) and in words in which tsere replaces hirik because the presence of a guttural letter (): , (te'avon, teaved).
• Consonantal vav ו‎ (the consonant /v/) is doubled in the middle of a word: , (tikva, zavit). The letter is not doubled at the beginning or the end of a word: , , (varod, vatik, tzav). Initial vav ו‎ is doubled when an affix letter is added except for the affix ו-‎ (meaning "and-"). Thus from the word varod one has ha-varod but u-varod.
• Consonantal yod י‎ (the consonant /j/) is doubled in the middle of a word, for example: , (binyan, hayta). The letter is not doubled at the beginning of a word or after affix letters: , , (yeled, yatza, ha-yeled). Still, consonantal yod י‎ is not doubled in the middle of a word where it appears before or after a mater lectionis: , , , , (proyekt, mesuyam, re'aya, be'aya).

These are the most basic rules. Each one has exceptions which is described in the handbook "" (spelling rules without niqqud) that the Academy publishes in Hebrew.

Notes

• When a reader is likely to err in the reading of a word, the use of partial vowelling is recommended: minhal (to distinguish it from menahel).
• While the rules above apply to the writing of native Hebrew words, they are not used for spelling given names, which are frequently written in ktiv haser rather than ktiv male: , , (Shlomo, Ya'akov, Kohen).

See also

• Hebrew alphabet

External links

• Template:In langAcademy of the Hebrew Language rules
• The Ivrix Project – Spell Checker Template:Webarchive