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The Tiberian vocalization, Tiberian pointing, or Tiberian niqqud (
Shva was used both to indicate lack of a vowel (''quiescent šwa'', ''shva nah'') and as another symbol to represent the phoneme (''mobile šwa'', ''shva na''), the latter also represented by hataf patah. The phoneme had a number of allophones; had to be written with shva rather than hataf patah when it was not pronounced as . Before a laryngeal-pharyngeal, mobile šwa was pronounced as an ultrashort copy of the following vowel ( ) and as preceding , ( ). Using ḥataf vowels was mandatory under gutturals but optional under other letters, and there was considerable variation among manuscripts.
That is referenced specifically by medieval grammarians:
The names of the vowel diacritics are iconic and show some variation:
The Tiberian vocalization, Tiberian pointing, or Tiberian niqqud (Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
: ''haNīqqūḏ haṬəḇērīyānī'') is a system of diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
s ('' niqqud'') devised by the Masoretes of Tiberias to add to the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...
to produce the ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...
Masoretic Text
The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...
. The system soon became used to vocalize other Hebrew texts, as well.
The Tiberian vocalization marks vowels and stress, makes fine distinctions of consonant quality and length, and serves as punctuation. While the Tiberian system was devised for Tiberian Hebrew, it has become the dominant system for vocalizing all forms of Hebrew and has long since eclipsed the Babylonian Babylonian may refer to:
* Babylon, a Semitic Akkadian city/state of ancient Mesopotamia founded in 1894 BC
* Babylonia, an ancient Akkadian-speaking Semitic nation-state and cultural region based in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq)
...
and Palestinian vocalization systems.
Consonant diacritics
The sin dot distinguishes between the two values of . A ''dagesh
The dagesh () is a diacritic used in the Hebrew alphabet. It was added to the Hebrew orthography at the same time as the Masoretic system of niqqud (vowel points). It takes the form of a dot placed inside a Hebrew letter and has the effect of m ...
'' indicates a consonant is geminate or unspirantized, and a '' raphe'' indicates spirantization. The '' mappiq'' indicates that is consonantal, not silent, in syllable-coda position.
Vowel diacritics
The seven vowel qualities of Tiberian Hebrew are indicated straightforwardly by distinct diacritics: The diacritics qubutz andshuruq
Kubutz or qubbutz (modern he, קֻבּוּץ; , formerly , ''qībūṣ'') and shuruk ( he, שׁוּרוּק, ) are two Hebrew niqqud vowel signs that represent the sound . In an alternative, Ashkenazi naming, the kubutz (three diagona ...
both represent , but shuruq is used when the text uses full spelling (with waw as a mater lectionis). Each of the vowel phonemes could be allophonically lengthened; occasionally, the length is marked with metheg. (Then, metheg also can indirectly indicate when a following shva is vocal.)
The ultrashort vowels are slightly more complicated. There were two graphemes corresponding to the vowel , attested by alternations in manuscripts like .. In addition, one of the graphemes could also be silent:
Shva was used both to indicate lack of a vowel (''quiescent šwa'', ''shva nah'') and as another symbol to represent the phoneme (''mobile šwa'', ''shva na''), the latter also represented by hataf patah. The phoneme had a number of allophones; had to be written with shva rather than hataf patah when it was not pronounced as . Before a laryngeal-pharyngeal, mobile šwa was pronounced as an ultrashort copy of the following vowel ( ) and as preceding , ( ). Using ḥataf vowels was mandatory under gutturals but optional under other letters, and there was considerable variation among manuscripts.
That is referenced specifically by medieval grammarians:
The names of the vowel diacritics are iconic and show some variation:
Cantillation
Cantillation signs mark stress and punctuation. Metheg may mark secondary stress, andmaqqaf
Hebrew punctuation is similar to that of English and other Western languages, Modern Hebrew having imported additional punctuation marks from these languages in order to avoid the ambiguities sometimes occasioned by the relative paucity of such ...
conjoins words into one stress unit, which normally takes only one cantillation mark on the final word in the unit.
See also
*Babylonian vocalization
The Babylonian vocalization, also known as Babylonian supralinear punctuation, or Babylonian pointing or Babylonian niqqud Hebrew: ) is a system of diacritics (niqqud) and vowel symbols assigned above the text and devised by the Masoretes of B ...
* Hebrew cantillation
* Cardinal vowels
* Niqqud
* Palestinian vocalization
* Tiberian Hebrew
References
Sources
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tiberian Vocalization Language of the Hebrew Bible Hebrew alphabet