Ancient Hebrew Education Center
Instructions: Read and study the following article to familiarize yourself with the mechanics of
the Ancient Hebrew Parent Roots.
Ancient Hebrew Parent Roots
A Parent root is a single syllable of two Hebrew letters. An example is the word ‫( בל‬remember
that Hebrew is read from right to left). The first letter is the beyt (B sound) and the second
letter is the lamed (L sound) and is pronounced BaL (because Hebrew is often written without
vowels, the vowel sounds between two consonants need to be memorized).
Stops and Spirants
Three of the twenty-two Hebrew consonants have two different sounds, one sound being a
stop and the other a spirant. A stop sound is one that is made and abruptly ends such as in the
sound “B.” A spirant sound is made and can be held such as in the sound “Bh” (The “bh”
represents the “V” sound). In the word ‫( בל‬BaL) the letter ‫ ב‬is pronounced with the stop sound
“B.” However, in the word ‫( לב‬LeB), the letter ‫ ב‬is pronounced with the spirant sound “Bh” and
this word is pronounced “Lebh.” The following are the stop and spirant sounds for the three
letters.
Letter
Name
Stop Sound
Spirant Sound
‫ב‬
Beyt
B
Bh (V)
‫כ‬
Kaph
K
Kh (like the "ch" in the name Bach)
‫פ‬
Pey
P
Ph (F)
There are two rules to remember to determine if the stop sound is used. First, if the letter is at
the beginning of a syllable, such as in the example of the word ‫( בל‬BaL), the stop sound is used.
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Please feel free to use, copy or distribute this material for non-profit educational purposes only.
Secondly, if the letter does not follow a vowel sound, the stop is used. In the word ‫( לב‬LeBh),
the letter ‫ ב‬follows the vowel sound “eh” and therefore the spirant is used.
Vowels
Four Hebrew letters are used as vowels.
Letter
Name
Consonant
Vowel
‫א‬
El
‫ה‬
Hey
H
ah, eh
‫ו‬
Waw
W
o, u
‫י‬
Yad
Y
ee, ai (as in aisle)
ah, eh, ey
The Hebrew letter ‫ א‬is strictly used as a vowel, but the other three may be used as a consonant
or a vowel. A general rule to remember is that the consonant sound is used when the letter is
used at the beginning of a syllable and the vowel sound is used when at the end of the syllable
(there are some exceptions to this rule but we will learn those later). Because each vowel has
more than one sound, it is necessary to memorize which sound is used for each word. For
instance, the letter ‫ א‬is pronounced with an “eh” in the word ‫( אל‬el) but as an “ah” in the word
‫( אב‬av).
Translations and Transliterations
A translation is taking a word from one language and changing it to a word in another language
with the same, or in most cases a similar, meaning. As an example, the translation of the
Hebrew word ‫( אב‬av) into English is "father." In reverse, the translation of the English word
"mother" into Hebrew is ‫( אמ‬eym).
A transliteration is taking a word from one language and writing the sounds of that word using
a different alphabet. As an example, the transliteration of the Hebrew word ‫( אב‬av) into Roman
characters is "av." In reverse, the transliteration of the English word "pa" into Hebrew
characters is ‫( פא‬pa).
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Please feel free to use, copy or distribute this material for non-profit educational purposes only.
Parent Root Meanings
Each parent root has one meaning such as in the case of the word ‫( אב‬av) which is a “tent
pole.” However, each word may have more than one extended meaning. The word ‫( אב‬av) may
also represent the action (verbal) meaning of “standing” (in the sense of a tent pole that
stands up), the object (noun) meaning of a “pole” and an abstract (noun) meaning of “father”
(in the sense of the one who supports the family in the same way that a pole supports the
tent).
Letter and Word meaning Relationship
Each letter used to write a Hebrew parent root has a meaning within itself. For instance, the
letter ‫א‬, an image of an ox head, represents the idea of strength and the letter ‫ב‬, an image of
an tent, represents the tent or the home. When these two letters are combined in the word ‫אב‬
(av) the letters form the idea of “the strength of the tent,” which corresponds to the meaning
of the word which is a tent pole.
Copyright © 2009 Ancient Hebrew Education Center
Please feel free to use, copy or distribute this material for non-profit educational purposes only.