With most letters, the dagesh does not significantly affect pronunciation. The dot that appears in the center of some letters is called a dagesh. There are a few other nikkudim, illustrated and explained below. The letters shown in purple are technically consonents and would appear in unpointed texts, but they function as vowels in this context. The letter Alef, shown in red, is used to illustrate the position of the points relative to the consonents. Pronunciations are approximate I have heard quite a bit of variation in vowel pronunciation. The table at right illustrates the vowel points, along with their pronunciations. Most nikkudim are used to indicate vowels. Text containing these markings is referred to as "pointed" text. These dots and dashes are written above or below the letter, in ways that do not alter the spacing of the line. However, as Hebrew literacy declined, particularly after the Romans expelled the Jews from Israel, the Rabbis realized the need for aids to pronunciation, so they developed a system of dots and dashes known as nikkudim (points). People who are fluent in the language do not need vowels to read Hebrew, and most things written in Hebrew in Israel are written without vowels. Like most early Semitic alphabetic writing systems, the alef-bet has no vowels. Vowels and Points - Styles of Writing - Transliteration - Numerical Values of Words Vowels and Points In all cases except Final Mem, the final version has a long tail. The version of the letter on the left is the final version. The version used at the end of a word is referred to as Final Kaf, Final Mem, etc. Kaf, Mem, Nun, Peh and Tzadeh all are written differently when they appear at the end of a word than when they appear in the beginning or middle of the word. Note that there are two versions of some letters. The Hebrew alphabet is often called the " alef-bet," because of its first two letters. Note that Hebrew is written from right to left, rather than left to right as in English, so Alef is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and Tav is the last. The picture to the right illustrates the Hebrew alphabet, in Hebrew alphabetical order.
Hebrew (and Yiddish) uses a different alphabet than English. Hebrew: Table of Contents| The Revival of Hebrew| History of Hebrew
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