Makes a strong guttural H”sound. In this book, this letter is represented as ḥ.
Tet
teht
ה
Makes a T sound as in teaspoon.
Yod
yohd
י
Makes a Y sound at the beginning of a word, as in young. This letter also behaves like a vowel at times. I discuss it in “Those dots and dashes they call vowels” later in this chapter.
Kaf
kahf
כּ
Makes a K sound as in kite.
Khaf
khahf
כ
Makes a strong guttural H sound. This letter is represented in this book as kh.
Lamed
lah-mehd
ל
Makes an L sound as in lemon.
Mem
mehm
מ
Makes an M sound as in mouse.
Nun
noon
נ
Makes an N sound as in no. (And you thought only Catholics had nuns.)
Samekh
sah-mehḥ
ס
Makes an S sound as in soda.
Ayin
ah-yeen
ע
Makes a barely audible guttural sound in the back of the throat. (For practical purposes, as most non-native speakers can’t make this sound, this letter is a silent letter. You pronounce the vowels that are placed below it, but the letter itself doesn’t make a sound.)
Pey
pay
פּ
Makes a P sound as in popsicle.
Fey
fay
פ
Makes an F sound as in fish.
Tzadi
tzah-dee
צ
Makes a hard Tz sound as in pizza. In this book, I represent it as tz.
Kof
kohf
ק
Makes a K sound as in Kansas.
Reish
raysh
ר
Makes an R sound as in round. This letter is actually a guttural letter. Roll it like a Spanish R and pronounce it from the back of the throat.
Shin
sheen
שׁ
(Not Charlie’s brother or Martin’s long-lost son.) When the dot is on the right side of the letter, it makes a Sh sound. as in show. In this book, I represent it as sh.
Sin
seen
שׂ
When the dot is on the left side of the letter, it makes an S sound as in Sam.
Tav
tahv
ת
Makes a T sound as in toe.
Those dots and dashes they call vowels
Originally, Hebrew had no vowels. Vowels, in the form of dots and lines below the consonants, were added to Hebrew writing in the seventh century CE. Before then, people read without vowels. Even today, most books, magazines, and newspapers in Modern Hebrew — not to mention the Torah scroll — are written without vowels.
Modern Hebrew has both long and short vowels. As a general rule, a long vowel can make up one syllable, but a short vowel needs either another vowel or a שָׁוְא (shuh-vah; two vertical dots below a consonant) to form a syllable. For more on the שָׁוְא, see “Introducing the Shvah” later in this chapter.
As I mentioned earlier, vowels are divided into long and short vowels. This categorization doesn’t have to do with their pronunciation but with the fact that long vowels are usually in open syllables — syllables that end with a vowel — and short vowels are usually in closed syllables — syllables that end with a consonant. The long vowel חִירִיק מָלֵא (Chirik Maleh), however, holds its sound longer than the corresponding short vowel חָרִיק חַסֵּר (hirek haser). Table 1-6 shows the long vowels.
