Tzere

Tzere
ֵ
IPA	Template:IPAlink, Template:IPAlink
Transliteration	e
English example	⦁ bed ⦁ bay ⦁ (Scottish) bay
Same sound	segol
Example
תֵּל
The word for mound in Hebrew, tel. The only vowel (under Tav, the two dots horizontally) is the Tzere itself.
Other Niqqud
Shva · Hiriq · Tzere · Segol · Patach · Kamatz · Holam · Dagesh · Mappiq · Shuruk · Kubutz · Rafe · Sin/Shin Dot

Tzere (also spelled Tsere, Tzeirei, Zere, Zeire, Ṣērê; modern Template:Langx, , sometimes also written צירה‎; formerly צֵרֵי‎ ṣērê) is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign represented by two horizontally-aligned dots "◌ֵ" underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, tzere is mostly pronounced the same as segol and indicates the phoneme /e̞/, which is the same as the "e" sound in the vowel segol and is transliterated as an "e". There was a distinction in Tiberian Hebrew between segol and Tzere.

Name

The name comes from Aramaic/Syriac “a tearing asunder, splitting, tearing, bursting” is probably a loan translation from Arabic kasrah Template:Angle bracket, the name of the short vowel /i/, literally “a breaking, breach”.

Usage

Tzere is usually written in these cases:

• In final stressed closed syllables: (, computer), (, he told; without niqqud ). Also in final syllables closed by guttural letters with an added furtive patach: (, coin), (, forgetting). Notable exceptions to this rule are:
  • The personal suffixes (, 2 pl. m.), (, 2 pl. f.), (, 2 pl. m.), (, 2 pl. f.), (, 3 pl. m.), (, 3 pl. f.) are written with segol. (But the words (, they m.), (, they f.) are written with Tzere.)
  • The words (, truth), (, iron), (, axe), (, Carmel, gardenland), (, fog) are written with segol.
  • The word (, son, boy) is written with tzere in the absolute state, but with segol in the construct state: . In the Bible this rule also applies to other words which end in tzere, when they are written with maqaf.
• In non-final, unstressed open syllables: (, grape), (, chest, ark; without niqqud ).
• In the first (stressed) syllable of about 70 segolate words, among them (, part), (, book), (, Eden). In other – much more numerous – segolate words the first sound is a segol.
• In final open syllables, when the mater lectionis is yod () or aleph (): (, sons of), (, finding). When the mater lectionis is he (), the vowel sign is usually segol, but tzere is written in the imperative and absolute infinitive forms of the verb, in nouns in construct state, and in the base form of several other nouns (see below for details).

In declension tzere sometimes changes to other vowels or to shva. The full rules for these changes were formulated the Academy of the Hebrew Language.

In modern Hebrew there are words which are homophones and homographs in spelling without niqqud, but are written differently with niqqud, the difference being segol and tzere. For example, evening and weft are both pronounced and written without niqqud (these words also have different etymology).

Writing tzere with and without matres lectionis

Template:Main article Tzere can be written with and without matres lectionis. The most prominent mater lectionis for tzere is Yod (י‎), and in some cases it is used with the letters aleph (א‎) and he (ה‎).

Standard spelling rules mandate only one way to spell every word with or without the Yod after tzere. Although in standard modern pronunciation the sound of tzere with or without the Yod is the same, it may change the word's meaning in a written text (see below).

Standard usage without Yod

Tzere can be written by itself without mater lectionis, in which case it is called tzere ḥaser ("lacking tzere"), for example in the word זֵר‎ (, wreath). In this case, in text without niqqud the vowel is usually not written at all: זר. This word can be also vocalized as זָר‎ (, stranger) and the reader has to guess the right pronunciation according to the context. According to the standardized Hebrew spelling the letter Yod is sometimes written in texts without niqqud, when there is a grammatical reason for it; for example, the verb תֵּעָדֵר‎ (, she will be absent) is written without Yod in texts with niqqud, but the Yod is written in a text without niqqud: תיעדר‎.

Standard usage with Yod

Tzere with Yod is called "full tzere". When a full tzere is written in text with niqqud, the letter Yod must be written in text without niqqud. The main cases for writing the tzere with Yod are these:

• Tzere is written with Yod to indicate the plural number of declined words, for example מוּצָרֵנוּ‎ means our product and מוּצָרֵינוּ‎ means our products; the standard pronunciation is the same: .
• Tzere is written with Yod in words in which the Yod is a part of the root:
  • Nouns, for example (, egg), root ; (, olives, the plural of ), root , (, information), root . Tzere is also traditionally written with Yod in several other words, the roots of which are rarely used productively to form other words, among them (, mosaic), (, sliver) and the word "tzere" itself – ().
  • Verbs, in which the last letter of the root is he (), which is by convention treated as interchangeable with Yod, for example (, being built f.), root (or ). In Arabic the corresponding verbs are written with ʾalif maqṣūra, which represents a similar interchange of the letters yāʾ (ي) and ʾalif (ا).
  • Some verbs in which the first letter of the root is Yod (), for example (, he did well), root .
• In standard spelling without niqqud Yod is written to represent the [e] sound in words formed in the pattern heCCeC (), in which the first and the second consonants of the root merge, even though the vowel there is not tzere, but seggol, for example (, achievement; root , without niqqud ).

Nonstandard usage of Yod to represent tzere

In texts with full niqqud – mostly poetry, religious and children books – tzere is usually written in accordance with the rules mandated by the academy. The academy defined some cases in which a Yod is added to texts without niqqud to signify an sound, but in common usage Yod is often written or not written contrary to the standard.

Some notable common deviations from the standard in which a Yod is added include:

• Some words are often written with Yod in texts without niqqud, even though the Yod is not a part of the root and is not written in a text with niqqud. For example: (, dimension), (, Merab, most), (, hair) are often written , , and , even though the standard spelling without niqqud is , , . This goes further as the Yod is retained in declined forms of the word, which aren't written with tzere at all, but with shva; for example, the word (, hairs) is frequently written , although the vowel of the is shva (the standard spelling is ).
• Words in the pattern CəCeCa () are often written with a Yod, even though it is not the standard. Examples include (, pool), (, theft), (, burning), which are often written , , instead of the standard , , .
• Yod is often added in texts without niqqud to represent tzere in the future tense of verbs in which Yod is the first letter of the root, for example (, he will sit) is often written , although the standard spelling is . This spelling may also be vocalized (, he sat), but adding a Yod doesn't solve the ambiguity – may be vocalized (, he will settle) and (, he settled). Because of the many potential ambiguities, the academy suggests adding vocalization in such cases.
• Several other (non-comprehensive) examples:
  • The standard spelling of the plural form of the word (, fruit) is () with niqqud and without niqqud, but it is often written ( may also mean cows).
  • The words (, zone), (, contrary; also ), (, immediately; also ) are sometimes spelled , , , although the standard spelling without niqqud is , , . (In the Even-Shoshan dictionary refers to ; in the Rav-Millim dictionary it is the main entry.)

Some notable common deviations from the standard in which a Yod is not written include:

• According to the modern spelling rules, the academy mandates writing a Yod in some cases in which the vowel changes to for grammatical reasons. (Not writing the Yod is correct according to the old ktiv haser spelling.) For example:
  • In the future, imperative and infinitive forms of verbs in binyan nif'al, the vowel of the prefix is usually , which in standard spelling without niqqud is written with a Yod: (, to be cautious), standard spelling without niqqud: . This vowel changes to before the guttural letters , , , , : (, to fall asleep), standard spelling without niqqud: . Sometimes, however, verbs with both and are written without a Yod in texts without niqqud: , .
  • In nouns of the pattern CiCCuC, such as (, satisfaction, without niqqud ) the vowel also changes to before guttural letters: (, commentary), (, description), without niqqud: , , but sometimes , .
• The Yod is sometimes omitted from words, the last letter of whose root is . This is a mistake, because in these verbs the Yod is written in texts with niqqud. For example: (, I thanked, root ), (, we enjoyed, root ) are sometimes incorrectly spelled , .

Tzere with aleph and he

The letter aleph () is the mater lectionis after tzere in the middle or the end of the word when it is a part of the root: (, finding m.), (, finding f.).

The letter he () is very rarely used as a mater lectionis for in the middle of the word. The notable example for this is the word (, pretty), in which the two last letters of the root () are reduplicated. It can also be spelled (fem.; so in the Bible, ) or .

The letter he () is often used as a mater lectionis for the vowel in the end of the word, but the niqqud is usually segol. It is tzere in these cases:

• In the construct state of nouns: absolute state (, field), but construct state ().
• In the imperative and absolute infinitive forms of the verb: future form (, he will discover), but (, discover!); future form (, she shall increase, make many), absolute infinitive (, many).
• In some words, among them (, where?), (, lion), (, here!), (, jasper; also ), (, -teen f.).

Pronunciation

The following table contains the pronunciation and transliteration of the different tzeres in reconstructed historical forms and dialects using the International Phonetic Alphabet.

The letter Bet Template:Angle bracket used in this table is only for demonstration, any letter can be used.

Symbol	Name	Pronunciation
		Israeli	Ashkenazi	Sephardi	Yemenite	Tiberian	Reconstructed
							Mishnaic	Biblical
בֵ‎	Tzere						?	Template:Ipa
בֵי‎, בֵה‎, בֵא‎	Tzere Male						?

In Modern Hebrew tzere – with or without a following yod – may be pronounced as and transliterated as "ei or "ey". Such pronunciation and transliteration of tzere are not correct in the normative pronunciation and not consistent in the spoken language.

Unicode encoding

Glyph	Unicode	Name
ֵ	U+05B5	HEBREW POINT TSERE

See also

• Niqqud
• Segol