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Hiriq

Hebrew niqqud vowel sign


Summary

Hebrew niqqud vowel sign

Hiriq, also called Chirik ( he ) is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign represented by a single dot underneath the letter. In Modern Hebrew, it indicates the phoneme which is similar to the "ee" sound in the English word deep and is transliterated with "i". In Yiddish, it indicates the phoneme which is the same as the "i" sound in the English word skip and is transliterated with "i".

Spelling

When writing with niqqud, the letter yud is often written after the letter that carries the Hiriq sign. This is called he ( ), meaning "full" (or "plene") hiriq. In writing without niqqud, the letter yud is added more often as a mater lectionis, than in writing with niqqud, The main exception is the "i" vowel in a syllable that ends with shva naḥ. For example the words (series) and (she organized) are pronounced identically in modern Hebrew, but in spelling without niqqud is written because there is a shva naḥ on the letter , and is written .

In Yiddish orthography the he is placed under the yud .

Pronunciation

The following table contains the pronunciation and transliteration of the different Hiriqs in reconstructed historical forms and dialects using the International Phonetic Alphabet.

The letter Bet used in this table is only for demonstration, any letter can be used.

SymbolNamePronunciationIsraeliAshkenaziSephardiYemeniteTiberianReconstructedMishnaicBiblical
Hiriq?
he
(Also called, he)?

Vowel length comparison

These vowels lengths are not manifested in Modern Hebrew. In addition, the short i is usually promoted to a long i in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation.

Vowel comparison tableVowel LengthIPATransliterationEnglish
approximationLongShortVery Short
n/aiski
Yiddish orthography styleVowelIPATransliterationEnglish
approximationNo length distinction
iskip

Note: In Yiddish orthography only, the glyph, he ( ), pronounced , can be optionally used, rather than typing he then he (). In Hebrew spelling this would be pronounced . is written he under the previous letter then he ().

Computer encoding

GlyphUnicodeName
ִ}}U+05B4HIRIQ
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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