A GRAMMAR FOR BIBLICAL HEBREW

Lesson 1

The Alphabet

1.1 All the Hebrew letters are consonants.

There are 22 letters in Hebrew.

1.2 Among them, 5 letters have another ending form:

When these 5 letters appear at the end of a word, it changes to its ending form.

1.3 Among them, 6 letters have a dotted and an undotted form:

The 6 letters are called BEGAD-KEPHAT letters.

Only gimel has the same pronunciation with or without the dot.

1.4 The dot in the above table is called dagesh.

There are two types of dagesh in Hebrew, namely dagesh lene and dagesh forte.

Dagesh lene (weak dagesh) only appears in BEGAD-KEPHAT letters.

Dagesh forte (strong dagesh) can appear in any letter. And it marks a double of the consonant.

1.5 The dageshed letters produce “stop sounds” - the air flow is stopped and then it bursts out.

The undageshed letters are spirants – the air flow rubs the the surface of the tongue or the edge of the teeth or the lips.

1.6 Hebrew words are written from right to left. But the Latin sound notation should go from left to right.