Hatuf
Patach
Segol
Qamets
Qamets Hatuf – considered a short vowel in closed, unaccented syllables;
has an “o” sound as in “hope”
Qamets – changeable long in all syllables except closed, unaccented; has an
“a” sound as in “father” (a metheg helps identify these, for example pg. 9
vocabulary)
Reduced Vowels – occur below gutturals since gutturals cannot take a full
shewa.
Pratico, Gary D. and Miles V. Van Pelt, Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar, Zondervan, 2007 (pg. 15).
Pro/pre/tonic
Tonic – the syllable receiving the accent (usually the last syllable of the word).
Pretonic – the syllable before the syllable receiving the accent.
Propretonic – the syllable before the pretonic syllable.
‫ְמלָכִ ים‬
‫כִ ים‬
Tonic
‫ָל‬
Pretonic
‫ְמ‬
Propretonic
When a suffix is added to a noun….
First: There is an attempt to reduce the vowel in the propretonic syllable to a shewa.
If the propretonic syllable has a short vowel, it will not reduce.
For example:
‫ע ֹולָם‬
(singular)
‫ע ֹול ִָמים‬
(plural)
If the propretonic syllable is a closed syllable, it will not reduce.
For example:
‫ִמ ְשפָ ט‬
(singular)
‫ִמ ְשפָ ִטם‬
(plural)
If the propretonic syllable is open and has a qamets (not a qamets hatuf) or tsere, it will
reduce to a shewa.
For example:
‫דָ בָ ר‬
(singular)
‫ְדבָ רים‬
(plural)
If at first you don’t succeed….
First: There is an attempt to reduce the vowel in the propretonic syllable to a shewa.
Second: If the reduction cannot take place in the propretonic syllable, reduction
tries to take place in the pretonic syllable.
Only if the pretonic vowel is a tsere, will it reduce to a shewa.
For example:
‫ִמזְבֵּ ח‬
(singular)
‫ִמזְבְ חות‬
(plural)
An example where the pretonic vowel is not a tsere:
‫ִמ ְשפָ ט‬
(singular)
‫ִמ ְשפָ ִטים‬
(plural)
Will the vowels of these nouns reduce?
‫בוֹר‬
‫סּוס‬
No
‫נָבִ יא‬
‫צָ בָ א‬
‫ְרחוב‬
‫זָקֵּ ן‬
Yes
Yes
‫ְצבָ אות‬
‫ְרחובות‬
‫זְקֵּ נִים‬
‫לֵּבָ ב‬
‫מֶ לֶך‬
Yes
‫לְ בָ בות‬
Yes
‫ְמלֵָּך‬
No
Yes
No
‫בורות‬
‫סּוסי‬
ִ
‫נְבִ ִם‬
‫יאים‬
1st Propretonic
If the propretonic syllable has a
short vowel or unchangeable
long vowel, it will not reduce.
Wait! How
come the
vowels
changed??
If the propretonic syllable is a
closed syllable, it will not reduce.
If the propretonic syllable is open
and has a qamets or tsere, it will
reduce to a shewa.
2nd Pretonic
Only if the pretonic vowel is a
tsere, will it reduce to a shewa.
‫מֶ לְֶך‬
‫דֶ ֶרְך‬
‫נֶפֶ ש‬
The masculine plural form always has the vowel pattern of shewa-qamets
‫ְמלָכִ ים‬
‫ְד ָרכִ ים‬
‫נְפָ ִשים‬
Unless the first consonant is a guttural (remember, they are a pain),
then the pattern is khatef patakh-qamets
For example:
‫אֶ ֶרץ‬
‫אֲ ָר ִצים‬
*Whew*
Time for a Scooby Snack!
Just remember:
When a new syllable is added
the vowels may or may not reduce.
There are all sorts of exceptions to
the basic rules and you will start
to pick up on what’s happening
the more you practice your Hebrew.
Don’t worry, you’ll never have to actually
reduce vowels on a test, you just need to
understand what has happened to the
original vowels.
PS. The rules are different for
verbs….
….so STAY TUNED!
We’ll deal with those later!