Themater lectionis letter which is usually employed with holam isvav, although in a few words, the lettersalef orhe are used instead ofvav. When it is used with amater lectionis, the holam is calledholam male (חוֹלָם מָלֵא,IPA:[χoˈlammaˈle], "full holam"), and without it the holam is calledholam haser (חוֹלָם חָסֵר,IPA:[χoˈlamχaˈser], "deficient holam").
If a holam is used without a followingmater lectionis (vav, alef or he), as inפֹּה (/po/, "here"), it is written as a dot above at the upper-left corner of the letter after which it is pronounced.Letter-spacing is not supposed to be affected by it, although some buggy computer fonts may add an unneeded space before the next letter.
In the wordדֹּאר, the Biblical Hebrew spelling of the nameDor, the alef is amater lectionis, and in traditional typography the holam is written above thealef's right arm. In the wordדֹּאַר (/ˈdo.aʁ/, "mail"), thealef is a consonant (aglottal stop), under which appears the vowelpataḥ, so theḥolam is written above the previous letter's upper left corner. Not all fonts actually implement these placement rules, however.
If vav is used as amater lectionis, the holam appears above the vav. If themater lectionis is alef, as inלֹא (/lo/, "no"), it is supposed to appear above thealef's right hand, although this is not implemented in all computer fonts, and does not always appear even in professionally typeset modern books. This means a holam withalef may, in fact, appear in the same place as a regularholam haser. If the alef itself is not amater lectionis, but a consonant, the holam appears in its regular place above the upper-left corner of the previous letter, as inתֹּאַר (/ˈto.aʁ/, "epithet").
If aholam haser is written aftervav, as inלִגְוֺעַ (/liɡˈvo.a/, "to agonize"), it may appear above thevav, or slightly farther to the left; this varies between different fonts. In some fonts, a holam merges with theshin dot (which appears on the upper-right corner of its letter seat), in words such asחֹשֶׁךְ (ḥṓšeḵ,[ˈχoʃeχ], 'darkness') or with thesin dot, as inשֹׂבַע (/ˈsova/, 'satiation'). (These dots may or may not appear merged on your screen, as that depends on your device's Hebrew font.)
Holam male is, in general, the most common way to write the/o/ sound in modern spelling with niqqud. If a word hasHolam male in spelling with niqqud, themater lectionis lettervav is without any exception retained in spelling without niqqud, both according to the spelling rules of theAcademy of the Hebrew Language and in common practice.
The use ofholam haser is restricted to certain word patterns, although many common words appear in them. In most cases the Academy's spelling rules mandate that thevav will be written even when the spelling with niqqud does not have it. The normative exceptions from this rule are listed below. The Academy's standard is not followed perfectly by all speakers, and common deviations from it are also noted below.
In Biblical Hebrew the above rules are not followed consistently, and sometimes thevav is omitted or added.[1]
For further complications involvingKamatz katan andHataf kamatz, see the articleKamatz.
Holam haser which is written asvav in text without niqqud
Some people tend to spell some of these words without thevav, e.g.דאר instead ofדואר, although the Academy mandatesדואר. The tendency is especially strong when the words can be used as personal names.
WhenKubutz is changed toholam before guttural letters in the passivebinyan Pual due totashlum dagesh (a vowel-change due to the inability of guttural letters to carry adagesh):
מְפֹאָר ('fancy'),/məfoˈʔaʁ/. Without niqqud:מפואר.
פֹּרַשׁ ('was explained'),/poˈʁaʃ/. Without niqqud:פורש.
In words which have the pattern /CaCoC/ in the singular and become /CəCuCCim/ with Kubutz in the plural, especially names of colors:
Without niqqud:כתום,כתומים,עגול,עגולים,שחור,שחורים.
A similar pattern, in which the last letter of the root is not doubled in declension, hasholam male in the base form, which is preserved in declension:
The standard spelling without niqqud for all of them exceptכָּל־ inconstruct state is withvav:כול,כולה,רוב,רובו,תוף,תופים,מעוז,מעוזים. Despite this, some people occasionally omit thevav in some of those words and spellרב,תף etc.
Several common words are spelled with aholam haser in the Bible, but the Academy mandates that they be spelled withholam male in modern Hebrew, among them:
כֹּחַ/כּוֹחַ ('force'),/ˈkoaχ/
מֹחַ/מוֹחַ ('brain'),/ˈmoaχ/
יַהֲלֹם/יַהֲלוֹם ('a precious stone', in modern Hebrew 'diamond'),/jahaˈlom/
מְאֹד/מְאוֹד ('very'),/məʔod/
פִּתְאֹם/פִּתְאוֹם ('suddenly'),/pitˈʔom/
Some people still spell them withoutvav, but the standard spelling is withvav.[6]
The participle of most verbs inbinyan Qal is often written withholam haser in the Bible, but always withholam male in modern Hebrew.
For example, in the Bible appear bothחֹזֶה andחוֹזֶה ('seer'),/χoˈze/, but in modern Hebrew onlyחוֹזֶה.
The most common occasion for not writing the/o/ sound as avav in text without niqqud is when in text with niqqud themater lectionis isAlef (א) orHe (ה) instead ofvav. In the Bible some words are irregularly and inconsistently spelled with ה as amater lectionis:
זֹה alongsideזוֹ, e.g.בֵּיתֹה alongsideבֵּיתוֹ, etc.
but the number of these irregularities was brought to minimum in modern Hebrew.
In the future forms of several verbs whoseroots' first letter isAlef:
תֹּאכַל ('you shall eat'),/toˈχal/, rootא־כ־ל, without niqqudתאכל.
The prefix of the first person singular is itself Alef and in spelling with niqqud only one Alef is written:אֹמַר ('I shall say'),/ʔoˈmaʁ/, rootא־מ־ר, and in spelling without niqqud avavis added:אומר. This always happens in the rootsא־ב־ד ('perish'),א־ב־י ('wish'),[7]א־כ־ל ('eat'),א־מ־ר ('say'),א־פ־י ('bake') and less consistently in the rootsא־ה־ב ('love'),א־ח־ז ('hold'),א־ס־ף ('collect'),א־ת־י ('come').[7] In the rootא־מ־ר aholam male withvav is used in the infinitive inMishnaic and modern Hebrew:
In the infinitive form of a small number of verbs whoseroots' last letter isAlef[dubious –discuss]:בִּמְלֹאת ('upon becoming full'),/bimˈlot/, rootמ־ל־א.[9]
In the following words the mater lectionis is always Alef (א):
In theabsolute infinitive form of verbs which end inHe:הָיֹה (/haˈjo/ 'to be'). This form is common in the Bible, but in modern Hebrew it is notproductive and it is preserved only in fossilized sayings. For example, a common opening for fairy tales,הָיֹה הָיָה ('there once was'),/haˈjohaˈja/ is writtenהיה היה without niqqud.
Some examples of usage of holam withoutvav in personal names:
The namesPharaoh (פַּרְעֹה,/paʁˈʕo/),Moshe (מֹשֶׁה)[14] andShlomo (שְׁלֹמֹה)[15] are never written withvav.Shilo (שִׁילֹה) is sometimes written withvav in the Bible, but always with He in modern Hebrew. The adjectivesפַּרְעוֹנִי,שִׁילוֹנִי are written withvav and with a nun in the suffix.
The nameAharon (אַהֲרֹן) is spelled withholam haser in the Bible. In modern Hebrew bothאהרן andאהרון are used.
The nameNoah (נֹחַ) is spelled withholam haser in the Bible, but it is sometimes written with thevav in the Mishna[16] and in modern Hebrew.
Several other names of places and people are spelled with holam and Alef in the Bible includeYoshiyahu (יֹאשִׁיָּהוּ,Josiah),Dor (דֹּאר, in modern Hebrewדּוֹר) andNo Amon (נֹא אָמוֹן, the Hebrew name ofThebes).
The wordכֹּהֵן ('priest'),/koˈhen/ is spelled withholam haser in the Bible. It is a common Jewish last name,Cohen. The Academy mandatesholam male for the nounכּוֹהֵן, but allows the omission ofvav for spelling the personal name.[17]
Some personal names, such asOhad (אֹהַד),Zohar (זֹהַר) andNogah (נֹגַהּ), are sometimes spelled withoutvav in modern writing without niqqud, although this varies from person to person.
God's nameAdonai (אֲדֹנָי) is written withholam haser to distinguish it from the word "Lord" (אָדוֹן) used for humans.[18] When theTetragrammaton is written with niqqud, it follows that ofAdonai, so it is written withholam haser, too. For religious reasons writing Adonai and the Tetragrammaton is avoided in modern religious texts except in direct quotes from the Bible. They rarely appear in secular modern Hebrew texts and their spelling there is inconsistent.
The nameElohim (אֱלֹהִים) is written withholam haser in the Bible, although its singular form Eloah (אֱלוֹהַּ) is usually written withholam male. In modern HebrewElohim is a common word for "God" and it is usually spelled with thevav, which is also the Academy's recommendation.
These vowel lengths are not manifested in modern Hebrew. In addition, the shorto is usually promoted to a longo in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation. As well, the shorto (qamatz qaṭan) and longa (qamatz) have the sameniqqud. As a result, aqamatz qaṭan is usually promoted toHolam male in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation.
In computers there are three ways to distinguish the vowelḥolam male and the consonant-vowel combinationvav +ḥolam ḥaser. For example, in the pairמַצּוֹת (/maˈt͡sot/, the plural ofמַצָּה,matza) andמִצְוֹת (/miˈt͡svot/, the plural ofמִצְוָהmitzva):[19]
^This word becomesכָּל־ inconstruct state, which is very common, so as another exception it is written withoutvav in spelling without niqqud:כל־האנשים ('all the people'), butהיא יודעת הכול ('she knows all').
^The full list appears atAcademy Decisions: Grammar, 2nd edition, §1.3.
^This word is writtenלוֹא several times in the Bible, but such spelling never occurs in modern Hebrew. With the particleהֲ־and only when it is used as a synonym ofהִנֵּה ('here') it may be written both asהלוא and asהלא (Academy Decisions: Grammar, 2nd edition, §2.4.4), but this usage is rare in modern Hebrew.
^The wordנוֹד is pronounced identically and means "wandering". It appears in the Bible and is rare in modern Hebrew. The Even-Shoshan dictionary also notes that it is an incorrect spelling forנֹאד.
^This word is actually spelled asשמאול several times in the Bible, but never in modern Hebrew. However, the intentionally wrong spellingסמול is often used as a disparaging term for thepolitical left and is documented inUri Orbach's lexicon ofReligious Zionist slang.
^TheEven-Shoshan Dictionary also registers the modern Hebrew wordאֵיפֹשֶׁהוּ ('somewhere'),/efoʃehu/, which is based onאֵיפֹה and־שֶׁהוּ, the ending of the indefinite pronounsמשהו,כלשהו, ('some'). The Academy has not decided on a standard spelling of this word.
^The related participleמוֹשֶׁה ('pulling out of water') is written withvav in modern Hebrew. Moderndiminutive forms of Moshe, such asMoshiko (מושיקו) are written withvav.
^A common moderndiminutive version of this name is regularly spelledשלומי (Shlomi).
