TheBabylonian vocalization, also known asBabylonian supralinear punctuation, orBabylonian pointing orBabylonian niqqudHebrew:נִקּוּד בָּבְלִי) is a system ofdiacritics (niqqud) and vowel symbols assigned above the text and devised by theMasoretes ofBabylon to add to theconsonantal text of theHebrew Bible to indicate the proper pronunciation of words (vowel quality), reflecting the Hebrew of Babylon. The Babylonian notation is no longer in use in any Jewish community, having been supplanted by the sublinearTiberian vocalization. However, the Babylonian pronunciation as reflected in that notation appears to be the ancestor of that used byYemenite Jews.
The simple Babylonian vocalization system was created between the 6th and 7th centuries, while the complex system developed later.[1] There is evidence that Babylonian Hebrew had emerged as a distinct dialect by the end of the 9th century.[2] Babylonian Hebrew reached its peak in the 8th to 9th centuries, being used from Persia to Yemen.[3] Under Muslim hegemony in the 10th century, the main academies disappeared and the Babylonian vocalization was replaced by theTiberian vocalization.[3] However, contemporaryYemenite Hebrew is thought to be the descendant of a variety of Babylonian Hebrew, as represented in the Babylonian system.[4] The first example of the Babylonian vocalization to become known to modern scholars was acodex of the Prophets discovered in 1839 atChufut-Kale.[5]
The Babylonian vocalization, along with thePalestinian vocalization, are known as thesupralinear vocalizations because they place the vowel graphemes above the consonant letters, rather than both above and below as in the Tiberian system.[6] As in the Palestinian vocalization, only the most important vowels are indicated.[7]
Two Babylonian systems developed: an earliersimple (oreinfach,E) system, and a latercomplex (orkompliziert,K) system.[8] The following vowel graphemes were used in the simple system:[9]
| niqqud with ב |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| Tiberian analogue | patah, segol | qamatz | tzere | hiriq | holam | qubutz, shuruq | shva mobile (shva na) |
| value | /a/ | /ɔ/ | /e/ | /i/ | /o/ | /u/ | /ə/ |
The simple system also has signs corresponding to Tiberiandagesh andrafe, though not used identically.[9] Shva quiescens (shva nah) is unmarked.[9]
The complex system may be subdivided intoperfect andimperfect systems.[9] The former, unlike the latter, "has special signs for each kind of syllable and uses them consistently."[9] It marks allophones of /a e i u/, consonant gemination, distinguishes vocalic and consonantal א and ה, and marks shva mobile and quiescens with a single grapheme.[8] The perfect system is most notably employed by theCodex Babylonicus Petropolitanus.
A number of manuscripts with features intermediate between Tiberian and Babylonian also exist.[10] Later Yemenite manuscripts, using both simple and complex systems, show Yemenite features such as confusion between patah and shva and between tsere and holam.[10]
The Babylonian system usescantillation similarly to the Tiberian system.[11] The oldest manuscripts (which use the simple system) mark only disjunctive accents (pauses), do not write the accent over the stressed syllable, and do not markmappiq, while later manuscripts do.[11] In the simple system there are only eight types of pause, and they are denoted by small Hebrew letters written after the word, in much the same way as the punctuation of theQuran.
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