| Kubutz andshuruk | |
| וּ ֻ | |
| IPA | u |
| Transliteration | u |
| English example | moon |
| Same appearance as shuruk | Dagesh,Mappiq |
| Kubutz example | |
| קֻבּוּץ | |
| The word kubutz inHebrew. The first vowel (under the letterQuf, the three diagonal dots) is the kubutz itself. | |
| Shuruk example | |
| שׁוּרוּק | |
| The word shuruk inHebrew. Both lettersvav with a dot in the middle are examples of shuruk. | |
| OtherNiqqud | |
| Shva · Hiriq · Tzere · Segol · Patach · Kamatz · Holam · Dagesh · Mappiq · Shuruk · Kubutz · Rafe · Sin/Shin Dot | |
Kubutz orqubbutz (modernHebrew:קֻבּוּץ; IPA:[kuˈbuts], formerlyקִבּוּץ,qibbūṣ) andshuruk (Hebrew:שׁוּרוּק, IPA:[ʃuˈʁuk], also known asshuruq) are twoHebrewniqqudvowel signs that represent the sound[u]. In an alternative, Ashkenazi naming, the kubutz (three diagonal dots) is called "shuruk" and shuruk is called "melopum" (מלאפום).
Thekubutz sign is represented by three diagonal dots "◌ֻ" underneath a letter.
Theshuruk is the lettervav with a dot in the middle and to the left of it. The dot is identical to the grammatically different signsdagesh andmappiq, but in a fully vocalized text it is practically impossible to confuse them:shuruk itself is a vowel sign, so if the letter before thevav doesn't have its own vowel sign, then thevav with the dot is a shuruk and otherwise it is avav with adagesh or amappiq. Furthermore, themappiq only appears at the end of the word and only in the letterhe (ה) in modern Hebrew and in the Bible it sometimes appears inaleph (א) and only in some Bible manuscripts it appears in the lettervav, for example in the wordגֵּוּ ('torso')[ɡev].[1] Compare for examplevav with dagesh inמְגֻוָּן[məɡuvˈvan] 'varied' (withoutniqqud:מגוון) as opposed toshuruk inמִגּוּן[miɡˈɡun] 'protection' (withoutniqqud:מיגון); see alsoorthographic variants ofwaw.
In older grammar books the kubbutz is calledqibbûṣ pum etc. (קִבּוּץ פּוּם),compressionor contraction of the mouth. This was shortened toqibbûṣ (also transliterated askibbutz etc.) but later all the names of vowel signs were changed to include their own sound in their first syllable.[2] This way kibutz changed to kubutz, and this is the common name today, although the name "kibutz" is still occasionally used, for example by the Academy of the Hebrew Language.[3]
Shuruk was earlier calledshureq (שׁוּרֶק), but this name is rarely used today.
For details on the sounds of Hebrew, seeHelp:IPA/Hebrew andHebrew phonology
The shuruk is used to mark[u] at the last syllable of the word and in open syllables in the middle of the word:
Regardless of syllable type, shuruk is always written in foreign words and names if they weren't adapted to Hebrew word structure (mishkal):
Differently from all other niqqud signs, a shuruk can stand on its own in the beginning of the word and not after a consonant when it is theconjunctionו־and. Hebrew one-letter words are written together with the next word and their pronunciation may change according to the first letters of that word. The basic vocalization of this conjunction isshva na (וְ־[və]), but before thelabial consonantsbet (ב),vav (ו),mem (מ) andpe (פ), and before any letter withshva (exceptyodh) it becomes a shuruk (וּ־[u]). This is the consistent vocalization in the Bible[4] and in normative modern Hebrew, but in spoken modern Hebrew it is not consistently productive and the conjunction may simply remainוְ־ in these cases.[citation needed] It is not reflected in writing without niqqud. Examples:
Kubutz is used only in native Hebrew words and in words with foreign roots that were adapted to Hebrew word structure (mishkal), for exampleמְפֻרְמָט ('formatted (disk)')[məfuʁˈmat] (without niqqudמפורמט). It is written in closed syllables which do not appear at the end of the word. A closed syllable is one which ends in a consonant withshva nakh (zero vowel) or in a consonant withdagesh khazak (essentially two identical consonants, the first of which hasshva nakh).
Common noun patterns in which kubutz appears in the base form are:[5]
Common noun patterns in which kubutz appears in the declined form are:
The plural form of words which end in־וּת was in the past written with a kubutz in texts with niqqud: sg.חָנוּת ('shop'),[ħaˈnut], pl.חֲנֻיּוֹת[ħanujˈjot]. In March 2009 the Academy decided to simplify the niqqud of such words by eliminating the dagesh in the letteryodh and changing the kubutz to shuruk:חֲנוּיוֹת.[9] This doesn't change the pronunciation, since in modern Hebrew the dagesh is not realized anyway. The spelling without niqqud is also unchanged:חנויות.
Kubutz is common in verbs in the passivebinyanim pual and huf'al and in some conjugated forms of verbs whose roots' second and third letters are the same.
Verbs and participles in the passivebinyan pual usually have a kubutz in the first letter of the root:כֻּנַּס ('was gathered')[kunˈnas],מקֻבָּל ('acceptable')[məkubˈbal], without niqqud:כונס,מקובל.
If the second letter of the root is one of theguttural consonantsaleph (א),he (ה),ayin (ע) andresh (ר) - but notheth (ח) -, the kubutz changes toholam haser in a process calledtashlum dagesh (תשלום דגש):יְתֹאַר ('will be described')[yətoˈʔaʁ],מְדֹרָג ('graded')[mədoˈʁaɡ]; without niqqud:יתואר,מדורג.
Kubutz is used in the prefixes of verbs and participles in the passivebinyan Huf'al:הֻרְדַּם ('was put to sleep')[huʁˈdam],מֻסְדָּר ('organized')[musˈdaʁ]. It is also correct to write words in this binyan withkamatz katan in the prefix:הָרְדַּם,מָסְדָּר ([hoʁˈdam],[mosˈdaʁ]).[10] Without niqqud, in any case:הורדם,מוסדר.
The kubutz is used only if the prefix is a closed vowel, which is the majority of cases. With some root patterns, however, it becomes an open vowel, in which case a shuruk is written:
In many roots whose first letter isnun (נ) and in six roots whose first two letters areyodh (י) andtsade (צ), this letter is assimilated with the second letter of the root, which in turn takes a complementary dagesh. This makes the syllable of the prefix closed, so accordingly the prefix takes kubutz:הֻסַּע ('driven')[husˈsaʕ], rootנסע;הֻצַּג ('presented')[hut͡sˈt͡saɡ], rootיצג. Without niqqud:הוסע,הוצג.
Kubutz appears in some conjugated forms of verbs with roots whose second and third letter are the same (also called double stems andע"ע). Most of them are rarely used.
Examples with verbסָבַב ('turn')[saˈvav] in the future tense of binyan qal:
In the Bibleshuruk andkubutz are not always used according to the above consistent rules and sometimes quite arbitrarily.[11] For example, inJeremiah 2:19 appear the words:וּמְשֻׁבוֹתַיִךְ תּוֹכִחֻךְ ('and your backslidings shall reprove you',[uməʃuvoˈtajiχtoχiˈħuχ]). Kubutz is used in both of them, even though in the first word the syllable is not closed and thevav is even a part of this word's root, and in the second word the[u] sound is in the last syllable. Contrariwise, a shuruk is used in closed syllables where a kubutz would be expected, for example inGenesis 2:25 -עֲרוּמִּים ('naked',[ʕarumˈmim], the plural ofעָרֹם,[ʕaˈrom]), instead of the more regularעֲרֻמִּים (in modern Hebrew without niqqud:ערומים).
The wordנְאֻם (speech,[nəum]) is written with kubutz in the Bible. It was previously frequently used to mark the signature on documents (e.g.נאם יוסף לוי - 'so says Yosef Levi'), but this usage is rare in modern Hebrew, where this word usually means "(a delivered) speech" and is regularly spelled with shuruk -נְאוּם. The nameיְהוֹשֻׁעַ ('Joshua',[jəhoˈʃuaʕ]) is spelled with kubutz in the Bible, but usuallyיְהוֹשׁוּעַ in modern Hebrew.
In the first decades of therevival of the Hebrew language it was common in spelling without niqqud not to write thevav in words which were written with kubutz. For example, in the printed works ofEliezer Ben-Yehuda the word מרבה may meanמְרֻבֶּה ('multiplied',[məʁubˈbe]) andמַרְבֶּה ('multiplying',[maʁˈbe]).[12] This practice disappeared in the middle of twentieth century and nowמְרֻבֶּה is writtenמרובה andמַרְבֶּה is writtenמרבה.
In Biblical Hebrew both signs may have indicated the same sound and when the Bible manuscripts were vocalized kubutz was simply used where the lettervav was not written,[13] although other possibilities were proposed by researchers, most commonly that the vowels had differentlength (quantity), kubutz being shorter,[14] or that the signs indicated different sounds (quality), kubutz being more rounded,[15] although this is a matter of debate. It is also possible that Biblical Hebrew had several varieties of[u] sounds, which were not consistently represented in writing.[16]
Shuruk is usually a reflection of reconstructedProto-Semitic long/uː/ (ū) sound, although most likely in the Bible kubutz stands for it when the lettervav is not written. Kubutz is one of the reflections of the short Proto-Semitic short/u/ (ŭ) sound.Kamatz katan is a variant of kubutz in the Bible, as they are found incomplementary distribution in closely related morphological patterns.[16]
In modern Hebrew, both signs indicate thephoneme/u/, aclose back rounded vowel. Its closest equivalent in English is the "oo" sound in tool. It istransliterated as a "u".
In modern Hebrew writing without niqqud the/u/ sound is always written aswaw, in which case it is considered amater lectionis.
The following table contains thepronunciation of the kubutz and shuruk in reconstructed historical forms anddialects using theInternational Phonetic Alphabet.
| Symbol | Name | Pronunciation | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Israeli | Ashkenazi | Sephardi | Yemenite | Tiberian | Reconstructed | ||||
| Northern | Southern | Mishnaic | Biblical | ||||||
| ֻ | Kubutz | [u] | [ʊ~uː] | [ɪ~iː] | [u] | ? | [u,uː] | ? | [ʊ] |
| וּ | Shuruk | [u] | [ʊ~uː] | [ɪ~iː] | [u] | [əw] | [uː] | ? | [uː] |
These vowels lengths are not manifested in modern Hebrew. In addition, the shortu is usually promoted to a longu in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation.
| Vowel Length | IPA | Transliteration | English example | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long | Short | Very Short | |||
| וּ | ֻ | n/a | [u] | u | tube |
| Glyph | Unicode | Name |
|---|---|---|
| ֻ | U+05BB | QUBUTS |
| ּ | U+05BC | DAGESH,MAPIQ, OR SHURUQ |