You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in Hebrew. (August 2012)Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Hebrew article. Machine translation, likeDeepL orGoogle Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. Youmust providecopyright attribution in theedit summary accompanying your translation by providing aninterlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary isContent in this edit is translated from the existing Hebrew Wikipedia article at [[:he:ניקוד העברית בת ימינו]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template{{Translated|he|ניקוד העברית בת ימינו}} to thetalk page. For more guidance, seeWikipedia:Translation.

Hebrew orthography includes three types ofdiacritics:

• Niqqud in Hebrew is the way to indicatevowels, which are omitted in modern orthography, using a set of ancillary glyphs. Since the vowels can be understood from surrounding letters, context can help readers read the correct pronunciations of several letters of theHebrew alphabet (therafe sign and other rare glyphs are also listed as part of theniqqud system but are not in common use)^[*];
• geresh andgershayim, two diacritics that are not considered a part ofniqqud, each of which has several functions (e.g. to denoteHebrew numerals);
• andcantillation, "accents" which are used exclusively to indicate howBiblical passages should be chanted and may possess a punctuating function.

Several diacritical systems were developed in theEarly Middle Ages. The most widespread system, and the only one still used to a significant degree today, was created by theMasoretes ofTiberias in the second half of the first millennium in theLand of Israel (seeMasoretic Text,Tiberian Hebrew).The Niqqud signs and cantillation marks developed by the Masoretes are small in size compared to consonants, so they could be added to the consonantal texts without retranscribing them.

In modern Israeli orthography, vowel and consonant pointing is seldom used, except in specialised texts such as dictionaries, poetry, or texts for children or for new immigrants. Israeli Hebrew has five vowel phonemes—/i/,/e/,/a/,/o/ and/u/—but many more written symbols for them.Niqqud distinguish the following vowels and consonants; for more detail, see the main article.

Name	Symbol	Unicode	Israeli Hebrew			Keyboard input		Hebrew	Alternate Names
			IPA	Transliteration	English Example	Letter	Key
Hiriq	אִ‎	U+05B4	[i]	i	seek	4		חִירִיק	‒
Tzere	אֵ‎	U+05B5	[e̞] and[ei̯]	e and ei	men	5		צֵירֵי orצֵירֶה
Segol	אֶ‎	U+05B6	[e̞],([ei̯] with succeedingyod)	e,(ei with succeeding yod)	men	6		סֶגוֹל
Patach	אַ‎	U+05B7	[ä]	a	far	7		פַּתָּח
Kamatz	אָ‎	U+05B8	[ä]	a	far	8		קָמָץ
Kamatz Katan	אׇ‎	U+05C7	[o̞]	o	for			קָמָץ
Sin dot (left)	שׂ‎	U+05C2	[s]	s	sour	9		שִׂי״ן
Shin dot (right)	שׁ‎	U+05C1	[ʃ]	sh	shop	0		שִׁי״ן
Holam Haser	אֹ‎	U+05B9	[o̞]	o	bore	-		חוֹלָם חָסֵר
Holam MaleorVav Haluma	וֹ‎							חוֹלָם מָלֵא
Dagesh orMappiq	בּ‎	U+05BC	N/A	N/A	N/A	=		דָּגֵשׁ orמַפִּיק
Shuruk	וּ‎		[u]	u	cool			שׁוּרוּק
Kubutz	אֻ‎	U+05BB				\		קֻבּוּץ
Below: Two vertical dots underneath the letter (calledsh'va) make the vowel very short.
Shva	אְ‎	U+05B0	[e̞] or[-]	apostrophe, e, or nothing	silent	~		שְׁוָא	‒
Reduced Segol	אֱ‎	U+05B1	[e̞]	e	men	1		חֲטַף סֶגוֹל	Hataf Segol
Reduced Patach	אֲ‎	U+05B2	[ä]	a	far	2		חֲטַף פַּתָּח	Hataf Patakh
Reduced Kamatz	אֳ‎	U+05B3	[o̞]	o	bore	3		חֲטַף קָמָץ	Hataf Kamatz

Note 1: The letters "א‎" or "ב‎"represent whatever Hebrew letter is used.
Note 2: The letter "ש‎" is used since it can only be represented by that letter.
Note 3: Thedagesh,mappiq, andshuruk are different, however, they look the same and are inputted in the same manner. Also, they are represented by the sameUnicode character.
Note 4: The letter "ו‎" is used since it can only be represented by that letter.

Notes:

• ^[1] : These vowels lengths are not manifested in Modern Hebrew.
• ^[2] : Adding two vertical dots (sh'va) to the "short-vowel" diacritic produces the diacritic for "very short vowel" (Hebrew:חטףḥatáf ).
• ^[3] : The short/o/ is usually promoted to a long/o/ (holam male, vav with dot above) in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation.
• ^[4] : The short/u/ is usually promoted to a long/u/ (shuruk, vav with middle dot) in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation.

Meteg is a vertical bar placed below a character next to the niqqud for various purposes, including marking vowel length and secondary stress. Its shape is identical to the cantillation marksof pasuq.

Geresh is a mark,⟨׳‎⟩ that may be used as adiacritic, as apunctuation mark forinitialisms, or as a marker ofHebrew numerals. It is also used in cantillation.

As a diacritic, thegeresh is combined with the following consonants:

Cantillation has a more limited use than vowel pointing, as it is only used for reciting the Tanakh, and is not found in children's books or dictionaries.

Gershayim between the penultimate and last letters ( ״‎  e.g.פזצט״א‎) marks acronyms, alphabetic numerals, names of Hebrew letters, linguisticroots and, in older texts, transcriptions of foreign words. Placed above a letter (◌֞‎  e.g.פְּרִ֞י‎) it is one of the cantillation marks.

Protestant literalists who believe that the Hebrew text of the Old Testament is the inspired Word of God are divided on the question of whether or not the vowel points should be considered an inspired part of the Old Testament. In 1624,Louis Cappel, a FrenchHuguenot scholar atSaumur, published a work in which he concluded that the vowel points were a later addition to the biblical text and that the vowel points were added not earlier than the fifth century AD. This assertion was hotly contested by Swiss theologianJohannes Buxtorf II in 1648.Brian Walton's 1657 polyglot bible followed Cappel in revising the vowel points. In 1675, the 2nd and 3rd canons of the so-calledHelvetic Consensus of theSwiss Reformed Church confirmed Buxtorf's view as orthodox and affirmed that the vowel points were inspired.^{[citation needed]}

Torah scrolls in Jewish synagogues do not have any diacritical marks whatsoever, only the letters themselves. It is expected of anyone reading out-loud to know the correct intonations.

• Arabic diacritics
• Q're perpetuum
• Hebrew alphabet
• Hebrew spelling

*^ Therafe sign (רפה‎, ֿ ‎ ) which is used to mark fricative consonants in theYIVO orthography ofYiddish; is no longer used in modern printed Hebrew. Rafe may appear inmasoretic manuscripts as well as other older texts where the soft fricative consonants and sometimesmatres lectionis are indicated by this sign.

• A free online course to learn the Hebrew Vowel System
• Rules for Spelling without Niqqud - a simplified version of the Rules, published on theAcademy of the Hebrew Language website.
• Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar, §5m for usage of Geresh in abbreviations;§7,§8,§9,§10 for vowel signs;§12,§13,§14 for Dagesh, Mappiq and Rafe;§15,§16 for the cantillation signs and Maqqeph.
• Hebrew tutorial on how to use diacritics in WordArchived 2011-12-08 at theWayback Machine

• Hebrew diacritics

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