Module `tf.writing.hebrew`

Hebrew characters

Disclaimer

This just a look-up table, not a full exposition of the organization of the Masoretic system.

Transcriptions

The ETCBC transcription is used by the ETCBC. It has entries for all accents, but not for text-critical annotations such as uncertainty, and correction. The Abegg transcription is used in the Dead Sea scrolls. It has no entries for accents, but it has a repertoire of text-critical marks. We have back translated the latter to ETCBC-compatible variants and entered them in the ETCBC column, although they are not strictly ETCBC marks.

Phonetics

The phonetic representation is meant as a tentative 1-1 correspondence with pronunciation, not with the script. See phono.ipynb, where the phonetic transcription is computed and thoroughly documented.

Consonants

Details

For most consonants: an inner dot is a dagesh forte.
For the בגדכפת consonants: an inner dot is either a dagesh forte or a dagesh lene.
When the ה contains a dot, it is called a mappiq.

transcription (`ETCBC`)	transcription (Abegg)	glyph	phonetic	remarks	name	UNICODE
>	a	א	ʔ	when not mater lectionis	letter alef	05D0
B	b	ב	bb b v	forte lene normal	letter bet	05D1
G	g	ג	gg g ḡ	forte lene normal	letter gimel	05D2
D	d	ד	dd d ḏ	forte lene normal	letter dalet	05D3
H	h	ה	h	also with mappiq; when not mater lectionis	letter he	05D4
W	w	ו	ww w û	forte when not part of a long vowel with dagesh as vowel	letter vav	05D5
Z	z	ז	zz z	forte normal	letter zayin	05D6
X	j	ח	ḥ		letter het	05D7
V	f	ט	ṭ		letter tet	05D8
J	y	י	yy y ʸ	forte when not part of long vowel in front of final ו	letter yod	05D9
K	k	כ	kk k ḵ	forte lene normal	letter kaf	05DB
k	K	ך	k ḵ	forte normal	letter final kaf	05DA
L	l	ל	ll l	forte normal	letter lamed	05DC
M	m	מ	mm m	forte normal	letter mem	05DE
m	M	ם	m		letter final mem	05DD
N	n	נ	nn n	forte normal	letter nun	05E0
n	N	ן	n		letter final nun	05DF
S	s	ס	ss s	forte normal	letter samekh	05E1
<	o	ע	ʕ		letter ayin	05E2
P	p	פ	pp p f	forte lene normal	letter pe	05E4
p	P	ף	p f	forte normal	letter final pe	05E3
Y	x	צ	ṣṣ ṣ	forte normal	letter tsadi	05E6
y	X	ץ	ṣ		letter final tsadi	05E5
Q	q	ק	qq q	forte normal	letter qof	05E7
R	r	ר	rr r	forte normal	letter resh	05E8
#	C	ש	ŝ		letter shin without dot	05E9
C	v	שׁ	šš š	forte normal	letter shin with shin dot	FB2A
F	c	שׂ	śś ś	forte normal	letter shin with sin dot	FB2B
T	t	ת	tt t ṯ	forte lene normal	letter tav	05EA

Vowels

Qere Ketiv

The phonetics follows the qere, not the ketiv, when they are different. In that case a * is added.

Tetragrammaton

The tetragrammaton יהוה is (vowel)-pointed in different ways; the phonetics follows the pointing, but the tetragrammaton is put between [ ].

transcription (`ETCBC`)	transcription (Abegg)	glyph	phonetic	remarks	name	UNICODE
A	A Å	ַ	a ₐ	normal furtive	point patah	05B7
:A	S	ֲ	ᵃ		point hataf patah	05B2
@	D ∂ Î	ָ	ā o	gadol qatan	point qamats	05B8
:@	F ƒ Ï	ֳ	ᵒ		point hataf qamats	05B3
E	R ® ‰	ֶ	e eʸ	normal with following י	point segol	05B6
:E	T	ֱ	ᵉ ᵉʸ	normal with following י	point hataf segol	05B1
;	E é ´	ֵ	ê ē	with following י alone	point tsere	05B5
I	I ˆ î Ê	ִ	î i	with following י alone	point hiriq	05B4
O	O ø	ֹ	ô ō	with following ו alone	point holam	05B9
U	U ü ¨	ֻ	u		point qubuts	05BB
:	V √ J ◊	ְ	ᵊ	left out if silent	point sheva	05B0

Other points and marks

transcription (`ETCBC`)	transcription (Abegg)	glyph	phonetic	name	UNICODE
.	; … Ú ¥ Ω	ּ		point dagesh or mapiq	05BC
.c		ׁ		point shin dot	05C1
.f		ׂ		point sin dot	05C2
,		ֿ		point rafe	05BF
35		ֽ	ˈ	point meteg	05BD
45		ֽ	ˈ	point meteg	05BD
75		ֽ	ˈ	point meteg	05BD
95		ֽ	ˈ	point meteg	05BD
52		ׄ	ˈ	mark upper dot	05C4
53		ׅ	ˈ	mark lower dot	05C5
*		֯		mark masora circle	05AF

Punctuation

Details

Some specialities in the Masoretic system are not reflected in the phonetics:

setumah ס;
petuhah ף;
nun-hafuka ̇׆.

transcription (`ETCBC`)	transcription (Abegg)	glyph	phonetic	remarks	name	UNICODE
00	.	׃	.		punctuation sof pasuq	05C3
ñ		׆			punctuation nun hafukha	05C6
&	-	־	-		punctuation maqaf	05BE
_	(non breaking space)				space	0020
0000	±	׃׃		Dead Sea scrolls. We use as Hebrew character a double sof pasuq.	paleo-divider	05C3 05C3
'	/	׳		Dead Sea scrolls. We use as Hebrew character a geresh.	morpheme-break	05F3

Hybrid

Details

There is a character that is mostly punctuation, but that can also influence the nature of some accents occurring in the word before. Such a character is a hybrid between punctuation and accent. See also the documentation of the BHSA about cantillation.

transcription	glyph	phonetic	remarks	name	UNICODE
05		׀			punctuation paseq	05C0

Accents

Details

Some accents play a role in deciding whether a schwa is silent or mobile and whether a qamets is gadol or qatan. In the phonetics those accents appear as ˈ or ˌ. Implied accents are also added.

transcription	glyph	phonetic	name	UNICODE
94	֧	ˈ	accent darga	05A7
13	֭	ˈ	accent dehi	05AD
92	֑	ˈ	accent etnahta	0591
61	֜	ˈ	accent geresh	059C
11	֝	ˈ	accent geresh muqdam	059D
62	֞	ˈ	accent gershayim	059E
64	֬	ˈ	accent iluy	05AC
70	֤	ˈ	accent mahapakh	05A4
71	֥	ˌ	accent merkha	05A5
72	֦	ˈ	accent merkha kefula	05A6
74	֣	ˈ	accent munah	05A3
60	֫	ˈ	accent ole	05AB
03	֙		accent pashta	0599
83	֡	ˈ	accent pazer	05A1
33	֨	ˈ	accent qadma	05A8
63	֨	ˌ	accent qadma	05A8
84	֟	ˈ	accent qarney para	059F
81	֗	ˈ	accent revia	0597
01	֒		accent segol	0592
65	֓	ˈ	accent shalshelet	0593
04	֩		accent telisha qetana	05A9
24	֩		accent telisha qetana	05A9
14	֠		accent telisha gedola	05A0
44	֠		accent telisha gedola	05A0
91	֛	ˈ	accent tevir	059B
73	֖	ˌ	accent tipeha	0596
93	֪	ˈ	accent yerah ben yomo	05AA
10	֚	ˈ	accent yetiv	059A
80	֔	ˈ	accent zaqef qatan	0594
85	֕	ˈ	accent zaqef gadol	0595
82	֘	ˈ	accent zarqa	0598
02	֮	ˈ	accent zinor	05AE

Numerals

Details

These signs occur in the Dead Sea scrolls. We represent them with conventional Hebrew characters for numbers and use the geresh accent or another accent to mark the letter as a numeral.

The ETCBC codes are obtained by translating back from the UNICODE.

transcription (ETCBC)	transcription (Abegg)	glyph	remarks	name
>'	A	א֜		number 1
>52	å	אׄ	alternative for 1, often at the end of a number, we use the upper dot to distinguish it from the other 1	number 1
>53	B	אׅ	alternative for 1, often at the end of a number, we use the lower dot to distinguish it from the other 1	number 1
>35	∫	אֽ	alternative for 1, often at the end of a number, we use the meteg to distinguish it from the other 1	number 1
J'	C	י֜		number 10
k'	D	ך֜		number 20
Q'	F	ק֜		number 100
&	+	־	we use the maqaf to represent addition between numbers	add

Text-critical

Details

These signs occur in the Dead Sea scrolls. They are used to indicate uncertainty and editing acts by ancient scribes or modern editors. They do not have an associated glyph in UNICODE.

The ETCBC does not have codes for them, but we propose an ETCBC-compatible encoding for them. The ETCBC codes are surrounded by space, except for the brackets, where a space at the side of the ( or ) is not necessary.

Codes that are marked as flag apply to the preceding character.

Codes that are marked as brackets apply to the material within them.

transcription (Abegg)	transcription (`ETCBC`)	remarks	name
0	ε	token	missing
?	?	token	uncertain (degree 1)
\	#	token	uncertain (degree 2)
�	#?	token	uncertain (degree 3)
Ø	?	flag, applies to preceding character	uncertain (degree 1)
«	#	flag, applies to preceding character	uncertain (degree 2)
»	#?	flag, applies to preceding character	uncertain (degree 3)
\|	##	flag, applies to preceding character	uncertain (degree 4)
« »	(# #)	brackets	uncertain (degree 2)
≤ ≥	(- -)	brackets	vacat (empty space)
( )	( )	brackets	alternative
[ ]	[ ]	brackets	reconstruction (modern)
{ }	{ }	brackets	removed (modern)
{{ }}	{{ }}	brackets	removed (ancient)
< >	(< >)	brackets	correction (modern)
<< >>	(<< >>)	brackets	correction (ancient)
^ ^	(^ ^)	brackets	correction (supralinear, ancient)

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"""
.. include:: ../docs/writing/hebrew.md
"""