Holam
Encyclopedia
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Romanization of Hebrew
Hebrew uses the Hebrew alphabet with optional vowel points. The romanization of Hebrew is the use of the Latin alphabet to transliterate Hebrew words....
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Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
. The first vowel (the dot above the letter) is the Holam.
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| colspan="2" align="center" style="background:white;height:50px"|חוֹלָם
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Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
. The letter Vav ("ו") with the dot above it is the Holam male itself.
Holam is a Hebrew
Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet , known variously by scholars as the Jewish script, square script, block script, or more historically, the Assyrian script, is used in the writing of the Hebrew language, as well as other Jewish languages, most notably Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic. There have been two...
niqqud vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
sign represented by a dot above the upper left corner of the consonant letter. For example, here the Holam appears after the letter Mem (מ): . In modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew , also known as Israeli Hebrew or Modern Israeli Hebrew, is the language spoken in Israel and in some Jewish communities worldwide, from the early 20th century to the present....
it indicates the mid back rounded vowel
Mid back rounded vowel
Mid back rounded vowel might refer to:*The exact mid back rounded vowel , between and *The close-mid back rounded vowel *The open-mid back rounded vowel...
, o̞, and is transliterated
Romanization of Hebrew
Hebrew uses the Hebrew alphabet with optional vowel points. The romanization of Hebrew is the use of the Latin alphabet to transliterate Hebrew words....
as an "o".
The mater lectionis
Mater lectionis
In the spelling of Hebrew and some other Semitic languages, matres lectionis , refers to the use of certain consonants to indicate a vowel. The letters that do this in Hebrew are aleph, he, waw and yod...
letter which is usually employed with Holam is Vav, although in a few words, the letters Alef or He
He (letter)
He is the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician , Aramaic, Hebrew , Syriac and Arabic . Its sound value is a voiceless glottal fricative ....
are used instead of Vav. When it is used with a mater lectionis, the Holam is called Holam male (full Holam), and without it the Holam is called Holam haser.
Appearance
Holam without mater lectionis after it or with the letter He, as in (/po/, 'here'), is written as a dot above the upper left corner of the letter after which it is pronounced. Letter-spacing is not supposed to be affected by it, although some buggy computer fonts may add an unneeded space before the next letter.If the mater lectionis is Vav, the Holam appears above the Vav. If the mater lectionis is Alef, as in (/lo/, 'no'), it is supposed to appear above the Alef's right hand, although this is not implemented in all computer fonts, and not always appears even in professionally typeset modern books, so Holam with Alef may, in fact, appear in the same place as a regular Holam haser. If the Alef itself is not a mater lectionis, but a consonant, the Holam appears in its regular place above the upper left corner of the previous letter, as in (/ˈtoaʁ/, 'epithet').
If Holam haser is written after Vav, as in (/ligˈvoaʕ/, 'to agonize'), it may appear above the Vav, or slightly further to the left; this varies between different fonts. In some fonts Holam merges with the Shin dot, in words such as (/ˈħoʃeχ/, 'darkness') or with the Sin dot, as in (/ˈsovaʕ/, 'satiation').
Usage
Holam male is, in general, the most common way to write the /o/ sound in modern spelling with niqqud. If a word has Holam male in spelling with niqqud, the mater lectionisMater lectionis
In the spelling of Hebrew and some other Semitic languages, matres lectionis , refers to the use of certain consonants to indicate a vowel. The letters that do this in Hebrew are aleph, he, waw and yod...
letter Vav is without any exception retained in spelling without niqqud, both according to the spelling rules of The Academy of the Hebrew Language and in common practice.
The use of Holam haser is restricted to certain word patterns, although many common words appear in them. In most cases the Academy's spelling rules mandate that the Vav will be written even when the spelling with niqqud doesn't have it. The normative exceptions from this rule are listed below. It must also be noted, that the Academy's standard is not followed perfectly by all the speakers and common deviations from it are also noted below.
In Biblical Hebrew the above rules are not followed consistently, and sometimes the Vav is omitted or added.
For further complications involving Kamatz katan and Hataf kamatz, see the article Kamatz.
Holam haser which is written as Vav in text without niqqud
- For details on the transcription of Hebrew, see WP:IPA for Hebrew and Hebrew phonologyHebrew phonologyThis article is about the phonology of the Hebrew language based on the Israeli dialect. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof, including geographical variants....
- In words, in which the penultimate syllable has the vowel /o/ and is stressed (sometimes called segolateSegolateSegolates are words in the Hebrew language whose end is of the form CVCVC, where the penultimate vowel receives syllable stress. Such words are called "segolates" because the final unstressed vowel is typically segol...
): ('diameter'), /ˈkoteʁ/, ('radiance', ZoharZoharThe Zohar is the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on Mysticism, mythical cosmogony, and mystical psychology...
), /ˈzohaʁ/ or /ˈzohaʁ/, ('brightness', Nogah), /noˈɡa/, ('mail'), /ˈdo.aʁ/ or /ˈdoʔaʁ/. Some people tend to spell some of these words without the Vav, e.g. דאר instead of דואר, although the Academy mandates דואר. The tendency is especially strong when the words can be used as personal names. - When Kubutz is changed to Holam before guttural letters in the passive binyan Pual due to tashlum dagesh (a vowel-change due to the inability of guttural letters to carry a dagesh): ('fancy'), /məfoˈʔaʁ/, ('was explained'), /poˈʁaʃ/. Without niqqud: מפואר, פורש.
- In words which have the pattern /CaCoC/ in the singular and become /CəCuCCim/ with Kubutz in the plural, especially names of colors: ('orange'), /kaˈtom/, pl. /kətumˈmim/, ('round'), /ʕaˈɡol/, pl. /ʕaɡulˈlim/. When the last letter of the root is guttural, Holam haser is preserved due to tashlum dagesh: ('black'), /ʃaˈħoʁ/, pl. /ʃəħoˈʁim/. Without niqqud: כתום, כתומים, עגול, עגולים, שחור, שחורים. A similar pattern, in which the last letter of the root is not doubled in declination, has Holam male in the base form, which is preserved in declination: sg. ('big'), /ɡaˈdol/, pl. /ɡədoˈlim/. In three words Holam male is changed to shuruk in declination: ('place of living'), /maˈɡoʁ/, pl. /məɡuˈʁim/; ('escape'), /maˈnos/, pl. /mənuˈsim/; ('sweet'), /maˈtoל/, pl. /mətuˈלim/.
- Similar to the above is the pattern /CəCaCCoC/, with reduplicationReduplicationReduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....
of the second and third letters of the root: ('crooked'), /pətalˈtol/, pl. /pətaltulˈlim/. Without niqqud: פתלתול, פתלתולים. - In the future, infinitive and imperative forms of most verbs in binyan Qal: ('I shall close'), /ʔesˈɡoʁ/, ('to close'), /lisˈɡoʁ/, ('close!'), /səɡoʁ/. Without niqqud: אסגור, לסגור, סגור.
- In words, whose roots' second and third letter are the same, in which case in declination the Holam changes to Kubutz after which there will be a dagesh: all, /kol/, decl. /kulˈlah/ ('all of her'), root כ־ל־ל, ('most'), /rov/, decl. /rubˈbo/ ('most of him'), root ר־ב־ב, ('drum'), /tof/, pl. /tupˈpim/, root ת־פ־פ, ('stronghold'), /maˈʕoz/, pl. /maʕuzˈzim/, root ע־ז־ז. The standard spelling without niqqud for all of them except in construct state is with Vav: כול, כולה, רוב, רובו, תוף, תופים, מעוז, מעוזים. Despite this, some people occasionally omit the Vav in some of those words and spell רב, תף etc.
- In words, in which the penultimate syllable has the vowel /o/ and is stressed (sometimes called segolate
Several common words are spelled with Holam haser in the Bible, but the Academy mandates that they be spelled with Holam male in modern Hebrew, among them: ('force'), /ˈkoaħ/, ('brain'), /ˈmoaħ/, ('a precious stone', in modern Hebrew 'diamond'), /jahaˈlom/, ('very'), /məʔod/, ('suddenly'), /pitˈʔom/. Some people still spell them without Vav, but the standard spelling is with Vav.
The participle of most verbs in binyan Qal is often written with Holam haser in the Bible, but always with Holam male in modern Hebrew. For example, in the Bible appear both and ('seer'), /ħoˈze/, but in modern Hebrew only .
Holam with other matres lectionis
The most common reason for not writing the /o/ sound as a Vav in text without niqqud is when in text with niqqud the mater lectionisMater lectionis
In the spelling of Hebrew and some other Semitic languages, matres lectionis , refers to the use of certain consonants to indicate a vowel. The letters that do this in Hebrew are aleph, he, waw and yod...
is Alef (א) or He
He (letter)
He is the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician , Aramaic, Hebrew , Syriac and Arabic . Its sound value is a voiceless glottal fricative ....
(ה) instead of Vav. In the Bible some words are irregularly and inconsistently spelled with ה as a mater lectionis
Mater lectionis
In the spelling of Hebrew and some other Semitic languages, matres lectionis , refers to the use of certain consonants to indicate a vowel. The letters that do this in Hebrew are aleph, he, waw and yod...
- along , along , etc., but the number of these irregularities was brought to minimum in modern Hebrew.
- In the future forms of several verbs whose roots' first letter is Alef: ('you shall eat'), /toˈχal/, root א־כ־ל, without niqqud תאכל. The prefix of the first person singular is itself Alef and in spelling with niqqud only one Alef is written: ('I shall say'), /ʔoˈmaʁ/, root א־מ־ר, and in spelling without niqqud a Vav is added: אומר. This always happens in the roots א־ב־ד ('perish'), א־ב־י ('wish'), א־כ־ל ('eat'), א־מ־ר ('say'), אפי ('bake') and less consistently in the roots א־ה־ב ('love'), א־ח־ז ('hold'), א־ס־ף ('collect'), א־ת־י ('come'). In the root א־מ־ר a Holam male with Vav is used in the infinitive in Mishnaic and modern Hebrew: /loˈmaʁ/.
- In the infinitive form of a small number of verbs whose roots' last letter is Alef: ('upon becoming full'), /bimˈlot/, root מ־ל־א.
- In the following words the mater lectionis is always Alef (א):
- ('this' fem.), /zot/
- ('no'), /lo/
- ('scales'), /mozˈnajim/, without niqqud מאזניים
- ('wineskin'), /nod/
- ('sheep' or 'goats'), /t͡son/
- ('head'), /ʁoʃ/
- ('left'), /səmol/
- In the following words the mater lectionis is always He (ה):
- ('such'), /ko/
- ('here'), /po/
- ('where?'), /eˈfo/
- In the absolute infinitive form of verbs which end in HeHe (letter)He is the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician , Aramaic, Hebrew , Syriac and Arabic . Its sound value is a voiceless glottal fricative ....
: (/haˈjo/ 'be'). This form is common in the Bible, but in modern Hebrew it is not productiveProductivity (linguistics)In linguistics, productivity is the degree to which native speakers use a particular grammatical process, especially in word formation. Since use to produce novel structures is the clearest proof of usage of a grammatical process, the evidence most often appealed to as establishing productivity is...
and it is preserved only in fossilized sayings. For example, a common opening for fairy tales, ('there once was'), /haˈjo haˈja/ is written היה היה without niqqud.
Holam without Vav in personal names
Some examples of usage of Holam without Vav in personal names:- The names PharaohPharaohPharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
, ('Moshe') () and ShlomoShlomoShlomo, meaning God's peace, is a common Hebrew male given name.It also means Hello in syriacThe following individuals are often referred to only by the name Shlomo:* Solomon* Shlomo...
() are never written with Vav. ShiloShiloShilo Inns is a mid-priced hotel chain operating 43 hotels predominantly on the west coast of the United States, with a large concentration of locations in the state of Oregon...
is sometimes written with Vav in the Bible, but always with He in modern Hebrew. Note also that the adjectives , are written with Vav and with a nun in the suffix. - The name AharonAharon-People:* alternate spelling for Aaron, prominent biblical figure in the Old Testament* Aharon , includes name origin, variants, plus people with the given name* Ben-Aharon , includes name origin, variants, plus people with the surname...
is spelled with Holam haser in the Bible. In modern Hebrew both אהרן and אהרון are used. - The name NoahNoahNoah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...
is spelled with Holam haser in the Bible, but it is sometimes written with the Vav in the Mishna and in modern Hebrew. - Several other names of places and people are spelled with Holam and Alef in the Bible include Yoshiyahu , DorDorTel Dor , is an archeological site located on Israel's Mediterranean coast, about 30 km south of Haifa. Lying on a small headland at the north side of a protected inlet, it is identified with D-jr of Egyptian sources, Biblical Dor, and with Dor/Dora of Greek and Roman sources...
and No Amon ' onMouseout='HidePop("18898")' href="/topics/Thebes,_Egypt">ThebesThebes, EgyptThebes is the Greek name for a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile within the modern city of Luxor. The Theban Necropolis is situated nearby on the west bank of the Nile.-History:...
). - The word ('priest'), /koˈhen/ is spelled with Holam haser in the Bible. It is a common Jewish last name, CohenCohen (surname)Cohen is a Jewish surname of biblical origins . It is a very common Jewish surname, comparable to 'Smith' in an English-language context....
. The Academy mandates Holam male for the noun , but allows the omission of Vav for spelling the personal name. - Some personal names, such as Ohad , Zohar and Nogah , are sometimes spelled without Vav in modern writing without niqqud, although this varies from person to person.
- GodGodGod is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
's name Adonai is written with Holam haser to distinguish it from the word "Lord" used for humans. When the TetragrammatonTetragrammatonThe term Tetragrammaton refers to the name of the God of Israel YHWH used in the Hebrew Bible.-Hebrew Bible:...
is written with niqqud, it follows that of Adonai, so it is written with Holam haser, too. For religious reasons writing Adonai and the Tetragrammaton is avoided in modern religious texts except in direct quotes from the Bible. They rarely appear in secular modern Hebrew texts and their spelling there is inconsistent. - The name ElohimElohimElohim is a grammatically singular or plural noun for "god" or "gods" in both modern and ancient Hebrew language. When used with singular verbs and adjectives elohim is usually singular, "god" or especially, the God. When used with plural verbs and adjectives elohim is usually plural, "gods" or...
is written with Holam haser in the Bible, although its singular form Eloah is usually written with Holam male. In modern Hebrew Elohim is a common word for "God" and it is usually spelled with the Vav, which is also the Academy's recommendation.
Pronunciation
The following table contains the pronunciationPronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
and transliteration
Transliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
of the different Holams in reconstructed historical forms and dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s using the International Phonetic Alphabet. The transcription in IPA is above and the transliteration is below.
The letters Pe
Pe (letter)
Pe is the seventeenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Pei and Persian, Arabic ....
"פ" and Tsade "צ" are used in this table is only for demonstration. Any letter can be used.
| Symbol | Name | | Pronunciation | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | Israeli | | Ashkenazi Ashkenazi Hebrew Ashkenazi Hebrew , is the pronunciation system for Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew favored for liturgical use by Ashkenazi Jewish practice. Its phonology was influenced by languages with which it came into contact, such as Yiddish, German, and various Slavic languages... |
| Sephardi Sephardi Hebrew language Sephardi Hebrew is the pronunciation system for Biblical Hebrew favored for liturgical use by Sephardi Jewish practice... |
| Yemenite Yemenite Hebrew language Yemenite Hebrew , also referred to as Temani Hebrew , is the pronunciation system for Biblical and liturgical Hebrew traditionally used by Yemenite Jews. Yemenite Jews brought their language to Israel through immigration. Their first organized immigration to the region began in 1882.It is believed... |
| Tiberian Tiberian Hebrew Tiberian Hebrew is the extinct canonical pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh and related documents in the Roman Empire. This traditional medieval pronunciation was committed to writing by Masoretic scholars based in the Jewish community of Tiberias , in the form of the Tiberian vocalization... |
| Reconstructed | |||||||
| Mishnaic | Biblical | |||||||||||
| Holam | o̞ | [əʊ, ɔi, ɛi, ɐʊ] | [o] | [œ] | [oː] | ? | ? | |||||
| , ה, | Holam male | o̞ | [əʊ, ɔi, ɛi, ɐʊ] | [o] | [œ] | [oː] | ? | ? | ||||
Vowel length comparison
These vowels lengths are not manifested in modern Hebrew. In addition, the short o is usually promoted to a long o in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation. As well, the short o (Kamatz katan) and long a (Hataf kamatz) have the same niqqud. As a result, a Kamatz katan is usually promoted to Holam male in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation.| | Vowel Length Vowel length In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in... |
| IPA | | Transliteration Transliteration Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another... |
| English example |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long | Short | Very Short | |||||||
| n/a | o̞ | o | cone | ||||||
Computer encoding
| Glyph | Unicode | Name |
|---|---|---|
| U+05B9 | HEBREW POINT HOLAM | |
| U+05BA | HEBREW POINT HOLAM HASER FOR VAV | |
In computers there are two ways to distinguish the vowel Holam male and the constant-vowel combination Vav + Holam haser, for example in the pair (/maˈt͡sot/, the plural of , matza) and (/miˈt͡svot/, the plural of mitzva):
- By using the zero-width non-joinerZero-width non-joinerThe zero-width non-joiner is a non-printing character used in the computerization of writing systems that make use of ligatures. When placed between two characters that would otherwise be connected into a ligature, a ZWNJ causes them to be printed in their final and initial forms, respectively...
after the Vav. - By using the Unicode character U+05BA HEBREW POINT HOLAM HASER FOR VAV: .