ISO 259 is a series of international standards for theromanization ofHebrew characters intoLatin characters, dating to 1984, with updatedISO 259-2 (a simplification, disregarding several vowel signs, 1994) andISO 259-3 (Phonemic Conversion, 1999).

ISO 259, dating to the year 1984, is atransliteration of theHebrew script, including thediacritical signs (niqqud) used forBiblical Hebrew.

Thedagesh (dot inside the letter) is always transcribed with anoverdot:ḃ,ġ,ż, etc. The apostrophe (׳‎‎) in the table above is the Hebrew signgeresh used after some letters to write down non-Hebrew sounds:ג׳‎ [d͡ʒ],ז׳‎ [ʒ],צ׳‎ [t͡ʃ], etc.^[1]

ISO 259-2 simplifies the diacritical signs for vowels of ISO 259, and is designed forModern Hebrew.

Thedagesh is not transcribed excepted in the indicated cases. The apostrophe (׳‎‎) in the table above is the Hebrew signgeresh used after some letters to write down non-Hebrew sounds.^[1][2]

ISO 259-3 isUzzi Ornan's romanization, which reached the stage of anISO Final Draft (FDIS)^[3] but not of a published International Standard (IS).^[4] It is designed to deliver the common structure of the Hebrew word throughout the different dialects or pronunciation styles of Hebrew, in a way that it can be reconstructed into the original Hebrew characters by both man and machine.

It is neither a character-by-charactertransliteration nor aphonetic transcription of one pronunciation style of Hebrew, but is insteadphonemic from the viewpoint that all the different dialects and pronunciations of Hebrew through the generations can be regarded as different realizations of the same structure, and by predefined reading rules every pronunciation style can be directly derived from it.

Each consonant character in the Hebrew script is converted into its unique Latin character. ISO 259-3 has fivevowel characters, corresponding to the five vowel phonemes ofModern Hebrew: a, e, i, o, u. In addition there is a sixth sign for denoting the vowel/ej/ or/e/ that is written followed by ⟨י‎⟩ in common Hebrew spelling:ei.

Thedageshforte (gemination in Biblical Hebrew) is transcribed with a double consonant. Non-phonemic vowels are ignored, such as:

• schwaטְ‎, which is however transcribed with an underscore (_) between two identical consonants in order to distinguish it from a geminate consonant:יְלָדִים‎[jeladim] "boys" =yladim,הַלְלוּיָהּ‎[halelujah] "Hallelujah" =hal_luyah,
• "segolate" vowel (on the second to last consonant an unaccented vowelטֶ‎, which can also be the vowelחַ‎ on somelaryngeal consonants, orיִ‎, etc.) :גֹּלֶם‎[ɡolem] "golem" =golm,צֹהַר‎[tsohar] "opening, window" =cohr,
• "furtive"pataḥחַ‎ (an unaccented[a] sound before some final laryngeal consonants):רוּחַ‎[ʁuax] "breeze, spirit" =ruḥ, but ISO 259-3 also allows (in section 5, "SIMPLIFIED VERSION"^[5]) the transcription witha for non-linguistic purposes:ruaḥ.^[5]

Though the official proposal for ISO-259-3 gives onlyC/c as the Latin character corresponding to Hebrewצ‎/ץ‎, Ornan also provided for its alternate romanization asÇ/ç, even writing in a 2008 paper^[6] on the topic that it was his preference, and in an earlier 2003 paper^[7] especially recommending the use ofÇ/ç for use in the romanization of Hebrew placenames—for example, on Israeli road signs.

• DIN 31635
• List of ISO transliterations
• ISO 233 forArabic transliteration

• Hebrew alphabet
• ISO romanization
• ISO standards

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