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Biblical Hebrew

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Biblical Hebrew
Classical Hebrew
שְֹפַת כְּנַעַן, יְהוּדִית, (לָשׁוֹן) עִבְרִית, לְשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶשׁ
Siloam Inscription at Istanbul Archaeological Museum
Region Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)
Kingdom of Judah
Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)
Global (as a liturgical language for Judaism)
Era attested from 10th century BCE; developed into Mishnaic Hebrew after the Jewish-Roman Wars in the first century CE
Proto-Canaanite / Phoenician alphabet
Paleo-Hebrew alphabet
Hebrew alphabet
Samaritan alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Either:
smp – Samaritan Hebrew
Linguist list
Glottolog anci1244  (Ancient Hebrew)[1]
sama1313  (Samaritan)[2]

Biblical Hebrew (Hebrew: עִבְרִית מִקְרָאִית), also called Classical Hebrew (Hebrew: עִבְרִית קְלַסִּית‎), is the archaic form of the Hebrew language, a Canaanite Semitic language spoken by the Israelites in the area known as Israel, roughly west of the Jordan River and east of the Mediterranean Sea. The term "Hebrew" was not used for the language in the Bible,[3] which referred to Canaanite or Judahite,[3] but the name was used in Greek and Mishnaic Hebrew texts.[3] Biblical Hebrew is attested from about the 10th century BCE[citation needed], and persisted through and beyond the Jewish Second Temple period (which in 70 CE ended by Roman destruction). Biblical Hebrew eventually developed into Mishnaic Hebrew, which was spoken until the 2nd century CE. Biblical Hebrew is best-attested in the Hebrew Bible, the collection of Judaic religious and historical texts which reflect various stages of the Hebrew language in its consonantal skeleton, as well as a vocalic system which was added later, in the Middle Ages by the Masoretes. There is also some evidence of regional dialectal variation, including differences between Biblical Hebrew as spoken in the northern Kingdom of Israel and in the southern Kingdom of Judah.

Biblical Hebrew has been written with a number of different writing systems. The Hebrews adopted the Phoenician script around the 12th century BCE, which developed into the Paleo-Hebrew script. This was retained by the Samaritans, who use the descendent Samaritan script to this day. However the Aramaic script gradually displaced the Paleo-Hebrew script for the Jews, and it became the source for the modern Hebrew alphabet. All of these scripts were lacking letters to represent all of the sounds of Biblical Hebrew, though these sounds are reflected in Greek and Latin transcriptions/translations of the time. These scripts originally only indicated consonants, but certain letters, known as matres lectionis, became increasingly used to mark vowels. In the Middle Ages various systems of diacritics were developed to mark the vowels in Hebrew manuscripts; of these, only the Tiberian system is still in wide use.


Biblical Hebrew had a typical Semitic morphology, placing triconsonantal roots into patterns to form words. Biblical Hebrew distinguished two genders (masculine, feminine), three numbers (singular, plural, and uncommonly, dual). Verbs were marked for voice and mood, and had two conjugations which may have indicated aspect and/or tense (a matter of debate). The tense or aspect of verbs was also influenced by the conjugation ו, in the so-called waw consecutive construction. Default word order was verb–subject–object, and verbs inflected for the number, gender, and person of their subject. Pronominal suffixes could be appended to verbs (to indicate object) or nouns (to indicate possession), and nouns had special construct forms for use in possessive constructions.


G43 A1
ˁApiru (ʕprw)[4]
in hieroglyphs




Coin issued during the Bar-Kokhba revolt. Paleo-Hebrew text reads שמעון ('Simeon') on front and לחרות ירושלם ('for the freedom of Jerusalem') on back.




Aramaic became the common language in the north, in Galilee and Samaria.[12] Hebrew remained in use in Judah; however the returning exiles brought back Aramaic influence, and Aramaic was used for communicating with other ethnic groups during the Persian period.[12] Alexander conquered Judah in 332 BCE, beginning the period of Hellenistic (Greek) domination.[12] During the Hellenistic period Judea became independent under the Hasmoneans, but later the Romans ended their independence, making Herod the Great their governor.[9] One Jewish revolt against the Romans led to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, and the second Bar-Kochba revolt in 132–135 CE led to a large departure of the Jewish population of Judea.[9]


The primary source of Biblical Hebrew material is the Hebrew Bible.[8][18] Biblical Hebrew is meagerly attested from epigraphic materials, and the Hebrew in these materials differs little from the variety of Hebrew in the Hebrew Bible.[8][18] The damp climate of Palestine caused the rapid deterioration of papyrus and parchment documents, in contrast to the dry environment of Egypt, and the survival of the Hebrew Bible may be attributed to scribal determination in preserving the text through copying.[19] No manuscript of the Hebrew Bible dates to before 400 BCE, although two silver rolls (the Ketef Hinnom scrolls) from the 7th or 6th century BCE show a version of the priestly blessing.[19][20][21] Vowel and cantillation marks were added to the older consonantal layer of the Bible between 600 CE and the beginning of the 10th century.[22][nb 1] The scholars who preserved the pronunciation of the Bibles were known as the Masoretes. The most well-preserved system that was developed, and the only one still in religious use, is the Tiberian vocalization, but both Babylonian and Palestinian vocalizations are also attested.[22] The Palestinian system was preserved mainly in piyyutim, which contain biblical quotations.[22]


Reflexes of Proto-Semitic consonants in Hebrew[23][24]
Proto-Semitic IPA Hebrew Aramaic Arabic Examples
Hebrew Aramaic Arabic meaning
*z */z/ /z/ ז /z/ ز מאזנים מאזניא موازين 'scale'
*ṯ */θ/ /t/ ת /θ/ ث שלושה תלתא ثلاثة 'three'

Biblical Hebrew is a Northwest Semitic language of the Canaanite subgroup.[25][26]

As a Northwest Semitic language, Hebrew shows the shift of initial */w/ to /j/, a similar independent pronoun system to the other Northwest Semitic languages (with third person pronouns never containing /ʃ/), some archaic forms, such as /naħnu/ 'we', first person singular pronominal suffix -i or -ya, and /n/ commonly preceding pronominal suffixes.[27] Case endings are found in Northwest Semitic languages in the second millennium BCE, but disappear almost totally afterwards.[27] Mimation is absent in singular nouns, but is often retained in the plural, as in Hebrew.[27]

The Northwest Semitic languages formed a dialect continuum in the Iron Age (1200–540 BCE), with Phoenician and Aramaic on each extreme.[27][28] Hebrew is classed with Phoenician in the Canaanite subgroup, which also includes Ammonite, Edomite, and Moabite.[27] Moabite might be considered a Hebrew dialect, though it possessed distinctive Aramaic features.[28][29] Although Ugaritic shows a large degree of affinity to Hebrew in poetic structure, vocabulary, and some grammar, it lacks some Canaanite features (like the Canaanite shift and the shift */ð/ > /z/), and its similarities are more likely a result of either contact or preserved archaism.[30]

Hebrew underwent the Canaanite vowel shift, where Proto-Semitic /aː/ tended to shift to /oː/, perhaps when stressed.[27][31] Hebrew also shares with the Canaanite languages the shifts */ð/ > /z/, */θʼ/ and */ɬʼ/ > /sʼ/, widespread reduction of diphthongs, and full assimilation of non-final /n/ to the following consonant if word final, i.e. בת /bat/ from *bant.[27] There is also evidence of an rule of assimilation of /y/ to the following coronal consonant in pre-tonic position, shared by Hebrew, Phoenician and Aramic.[32]

Typical Canaanite words in Hebrew include: גג 'roof' שלחן 'table' חלון 'window' ישן 'old (thing)' זקן 'old (person)' גרש 'expel'.[27] Morphological Canaanite features in Hebrew include the masculine plural marker -ם, first person singular pronoun אנכי, interrogative pronoun מי, definite article ה- (appearing in the first millennium BCE), and third person plural feminine verbal marker ת-‎.[27]

As Biblical Hebrew evolved from Proto-Semitic it underwent a number of consonantal mergers, parallel with those in other Canaanite languages.[23][27][33][nb 2] There is no evidence that these mergers occurred after the adaptation of the Hebrew alphabet.[34][nb 3]



The oldest form of Biblical Hebrew, Archaic Hebrew, is found in poetic sections of the Bible and inscriptions dating to around 1000 BCE, the early Monarchic Period.[36][37] This stage is also known as Old Hebrew or Paleo-Hebrew, and is the oldest stratum of Biblical Hebrew. The oldest known artifacts of Archaic Biblical Hebrew are various sections of the Tanakh, including the Song of Moses (Exodus 15) and the Song of Deborah (Judges 5).[38] Biblical poetry uses a number of distinct lexical items, for example חזה for prose ראה 'see', כביר for גדול 'great'.[39] Some have cognates in other Northwest Semitic languages, for example פעל 'do' and חָרוּץ 'gold' which are common in Canaanite and Ugaritic.[40] Grammatical differences include the use of זה, זוֹ, and זוּ as relative particles, negative בל, and various differences in verbal and pronominal morphology and syntax.[41]


Biblical Hebrew from after the Babylonian exile in 587 BCE is known as 'Late Biblical Hebrew'.[36][37] Late Biblical Hebrew shows Aramaic influence in phonology, morphology, and lexicon, and this trend is also evident in the later-developed Tiberian vocalization system.[43]

Qumran Hebrew, attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls from ca. 200 BCE to 70 CE, is a continuation of Late Biblical Hebrew.[37] Qumran Hebrew may be considered an intermediate stage between Biblical Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew, though Qumran Hebrew shows its own idiosyncratic dialectal features.[44]


Dialect variation in Biblical Hebrew is attested to by the well-known shibboleth incident of Judges 12:6, where Jephthah's forces from Gilead caught Ephraimites trying to cross the Jordan river by making them say שִׁבֹּ֤לֶת ('ear of corn')[45] The Ephraimites' identity was given away by their pronunciation: סִבֹּ֤לֶת‎.[45] The apparent conclusion is that the Ephraimite dialect had /s/ for standard /ʃ/.[45] As an alternative explanation, it has been suggested that the proto-Semitic phoneme */θ/, which shifted to /ʃ/ in most dialects of Hebrew, may have been retained in the Hebrew of the trans-Jordan.[46][nb 4] However, there is evidence that the word שִׁבֹּ֤לֶת had initial consonant */ʃ/ in proto-Semitic, contradicting this theory.[45]

Hebrew as spoken in the northern Kingdom of Israel, known also as Israelian Hebrew, shows phonological, lexical, and grammatical differences from southern dialects.[47] The Northern dialect spoken around Samaria shows more frequent simplification of /aj/ into /eː/ as attested by the Samaria ostraca (8th century BCE), e.g. ין (= /jeːn/ < */jajn/ 'wine'), while the Southern (Judean) dialect instead adds in an epenthetic vowel /i/, added halfway through the first millennium BCE (יין = /ˈjajin/).[27][nb 5][48] The word play in Amos 8:1–2 כְּלוּב קַ֫יִץ... בָּא הַקֵּץ may reflect this: given that Amos was addressing the population of the Northern Kingdom, the vocalization *קֵיץ would be more forceful.[48] Other possible Northern features include use of שֶ- 'who, that', forms like דֵעָה 'to know' rather than דַעַת and infinitives of certain verbs of the form עֲשוֹ 'to do' rather than עֲשוֹת‎.[49] The Samaria ostraca also show שת for standard שנה 'year', as in Aramaic.[49]

The guttural phonemes /ħ ʕ h ʔ/ merged over time in some dialects.[50] This was found in Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew, but Jerome attested to the existence of contemporaneous Hebrew speakers who still distinguished pharyngeals.[50] Samaritan Hebrew also shows a general attrition of these phonemes, though /ʕ ħ/ are occasionally preserved as [ʕ].[51]


Name Paleo-Hebrew Block Samaritan Phonetic
Aleph Aleph א [ʔ],
Beth Beth ב [b]
Gimel Gimel ג [ɡ]
Daleth Daleth ד [d]
He Heh ה [h],
Waw Waw ו [w],
Zayin Zayin ז [z]
Heth Heth ח [ħ], [χ][54][55]
Teth Teth ט [][54][55]
Yodh Yodh י [j],
Kaph Kaph כ, ך [k]
Lamedh Lamedh ל [l]
Mem Mem מ, ם [m]
Nun Nun נ, ן [n]
Samekh Samekh ס [s]
Ayin Ayin ע [ʕ], [ʁ][54][55]
Pe Pe פ, ף [p]
Sadhe Sadhe צ, ץ [][54][55]
Qoph Qoph ק [q] or [][54][55]
Resh Resh ר [r]
Shin Shin ש [ʃ], [ɬ][54][55]
Taw Taw ת [t]


The Israelite tribes who settled in the land of Israel adopted the Phoenician script around the 12th century BCE, as found in the Gezer calendar (c. 10th century BCE).[56][57] This script developed into the Paleo-Hebrew script in the 10th or 9th centuries BCE.[58][59][60] The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet's main differences from the Phoenician script were "a curving to the left of the downstrokes in the "long-legged" letter-signs... the consistent use of a Waw with a concave top, [and an] x-shaped Taw."[58][nb 6] The oldest inscriptions in Paleo-Hebrew script are dated to around the middle of the 9th century BCE, the most famous being the Mesha Stele in the Moabite language (which might be considered a dialect of Hebrew).[20][29] The ancient Hebrew script was in continuous use until the early 6th century BCE, the end of the First Temple period.[61] In the Second Temple Period the Paleo-Hebrew script gradually fell into disuse, and was completely abandoned among the Jews after the failed Bar Kochba revolt.[59][62] The Samaritans retained the ancient Hebrew alphabet, which evolved into the modern Samaritan alphabet.[59][62]

By the end of the First Temple period the Aramaic script, a separate descendant of the Phoenician script, became widespread throughout the region, gradually displacing Paleo-Hebrew.[62] The oldest documents that have been found in the Aramaic Script are fragments of the scrolls of Exodus, Samuel, and Jeremiah found among the Dead Sea scrolls, dating from the late 3rd and early 2nd centuries BCE.[63] It seems that the earlier biblical books were originally written in the Paleo-Hebrew script, while the later books were written directly in the later Assyrian script.[59] Some Qumran texts written in the Assyrian script write the tetragrammaton and some other divine names in Paleo-Hebrew, and this practice is also found in several Jewish-Greek biblical translations.[59][nb 7] While spoken Hebrew continued to evolve into Mishnaic Hebrew, the scribal tradition for writing the Torah gradually developed.[64] A number of regional "book-hand" styles developed for the purpose of Torah manuscripts and occasionally other literary works, distinct from the calligraphic styles used mainly for private purposes.[64] The Mizrahi and Ashkenazi book-hand styles were later adapted to printed fonts after the invention of the printing press.[64] The modern Hebrew alphabet, also known as the Assyrian or Square script, is a descendant of the Aramaic alphabet.[62]

The Phoenician script had dropped five characters by the 12th century BCE, reflecting the language's twenty-two consonantal phonemes.[60] As a result, the 22 letters of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet numbered less than the consonant phonemes of ancient Biblical Hebrew; in particular, the letters ח, ע, ש could each mark two different phonemes.[65] After a sound shift the letters ח, ע could only mark one phoneme, but (except in Samaritan Hebrew) ש still marked two. The old Babylonian vocalization system wrote a superscript ס above the ש to indicate it took the value /s/, while the Masoretes added the shin dot to distinguish between the two varieties of the letter.[66][67]

The original Hebrew alphabet consisted only of consonants, but gradually the letters א, ה, ו, י, also became used to indicate vowels, known as matres lectionis when used in this function.[60][68] It is thought that this was a product of phonetic development: for instance, *bayt ('house') shifted to בֵּית in construct state but retained its spelling.[69] While no examples of early Hebrew orthography have been found, older Phoenician and Moabite texts show how First Temple period Hebrew would have been written.[68] Phoenician inscriptions from the 10th century BCE do not indicate matres lectiones in the middle or the end of a word, for example לפנ and ז for later לפני and זה, similarly to the Hebrew Gezer Calendar, which has for instance שערמ for שעורים and possibly ירח for ירחו‎.[68] Matres lectionis were later added word-finally, for instance the Mesha inscription has בללה, בנתי‎ for later בלילה, בניתי‎; however at this stage they were not yet used word-medially, compare Siloam inscription זדה versus אש (for later איש‎).[68] The relative terms defective and full/plene are used to refer to alternative spellings of a word with less or more matres lectionis, respectively.[68][nb 8]

The Hebrew Bible was presumably originally written in a more defective orthography than found in any of the texts known today.[68] Of the extant textual witnesses of the Hebrew Bible, the Masoretic text is generally the most conservative in its use of matres lectionis, with the Samaritan Pentateuch and its forebearers being more full and the Qumran tradition showing the most liberal use of vowel letters.[70] The Masoretic text mostly uses vowel letters for long vowels, showing the tendency to mark all long vowels except for word-internal /aː/.[69][nb 9] In the Qumran tradition, back vowels are usually represented by ו whether short or long.[71][72] י is generally used for both long [iː] and [eː] (אבילים, מית), and final [iː] is often written as יא-‎ in analogy to words like היא, הביא, e.g. כיא, sometimes מיא‎.[71][72] ה is found finally in forms like חוטה‎ (Tiberian חוטא‎), קורה‎ (Tiberian קורא‎) while א may be used for an a-quality vowel in final position (e.g. עליהא‎) and in medial position (e.g. יאתום‎).[71] Pre-Samaritan and Samaritan texts show full spellings in many categories (e.g. כוחי‎ vs. Masoretic כחי‎ in Genesis 49:3) but only rarely show full spelling of the Qumran type.[73]

In general the vowels of Biblical Hebrew were not indicated in the original text, but various sources attest them at various stages of development. Greek and Latin transcriptions of words from the biblical text provide early evidence of the nature of Biblical Hebrew vowels. In particular, there is evidence from the rendering of proper nouns in the Koine Greek Septuagint (3rd–2nd centuries BCE[74]) and the Greek alphabet transcription of the Hebrew biblical text contained in the Secunda (3rd century CE, likely a copy of a preexisting text from before 100 BCE[nb 10]). In the 7th and 8th centuries CE various systems of vocalic notation were developed to indicate vowels in the biblical text.[75] The most prominent, best preserved, and the only system still in use, is the Tiberian vocalization system, created by scholars known as Masoretes around 850 CE.[22][76] There are also various extant manuscripts making use of less common vocalization systems (Babylonian and Palestinian), known as superlinear vocalizations because their vocalization marks are placed above the letters.[22][76][nb 11][nb 12] In addition, the Samaritan reading tradition is independent of these systems, and was occasionally notated with a separate vocalization system.[76][77][nb 13] These systems often record vowels at different stages of historical development; for example, the name of the Judge Samson is recorded in Greek as Σαμψών Sampsōn with the first vowel as /a/, while Tiberian שִמְשוֹן /ʃimʃon/ with /i/ shows the effect of the law of attenuation whereby /a/ in closed unstressed syllables became /i/.[78] All of these systems together are used to reconstruct the original vocalization of Biblical Hebrew.

At an early stage, in documents written in the paleo-Hebrew script, words were divided by short vertical lines and later by dots, as reflected by the Mesha Stone, the Siloam inscription, the Ophel inscription, and paleo-Hebrew script documents from Qumran.[79] Word division was not used in Phoenician inscriptions; however, there is not direct evidence for biblical texts being written without word division, as suggested by Nahmanides in his introduction to the Torah.[79] Word division using spaces was commonly used from the beginning of the 7th century BCE for documents in the Aramaic script.[79] In addition to marking vowels, the Tiberian system also uses cantillation marks, which serve to mark word stress, semantic structure, and the musical motifs used in formal recitation of the text.[80][81]



The phonology as reconstructed for Biblical Hebrew is as follows:



Biblical Hebrew consonants[54][55]
Labial Dental/
Palatal Velar/
Nasals m n
Stops voiceless p t k ʔ
voiced b d ɡ
emphatic [54][55] kʼ/q[54][55]
Fricatives voiceless (f) (θ) s ɬ[54][55] ʃ (x)[54][55] χ[54] ħ h
voiced (v) (ð) z (ɣ)[54][55] ʁ[54] ʕ
emphatic [54]
Approximants w l j
Trill r

The phonetic nature of some Biblical Hebrew consonants is disputed. The so-called "emphatics" were likely ejective, but possibly pharyngealized or velarized.[83][84] Some argue that /s, z, sʼ/ were affricated (/ts, dz, tsʼ/).[83]


Proto-Semitic IPA Hebrew Aramaic Arabic Examples
Hebrew Aramaic Arabic meaning


The phoneme /ɬ/, is also not directly indicated by Hebrew orthography but is clearly attested by later developments: It is written with ש (also used for /ʃ/) but later merged with /s/ (normally indicated with ס). As a result, three etymologically distinct phonemes can be distinguished through a combination of spelling and pronunciation: /s/ written ס, /ʃ/ written ש, and /ś/ (pronounced /s/ but written ש). The specific pronunciation of /ś/ as [ɬ] is based on comparative evidence (/ɬ/ is the corresponding Proto-Semitic phoneme and still attested in Modern South Arabian dialects)[67] as well as early borrowings (e.g. balsam < Greek balsamon < Hebrew baśam). /ɬ/ began merging with /s/ in Late Biblical Hebrew, as indicated by interchange of orthographic ש and ס, possibly under the influence of Aramaic, and this became the rule in Mishnaic Hebrew.[54][84] In all Jewish reading traditions /ɬ/ and /s/ have merged completely; however in Samaritan Hebrew /ɬ/ has instead merged with /ʃ/.[54]

Allophonic spirantization of /b ɡ d k p t/ to [v ɣ ð x f θ] (known as begadkefat spirantization) developed sometime during the lifetime of Biblical Hebrew under the influence of Aramaic.[nb 14] This probably happened after the original Old Aramaic phonemes /θ, ð/ disappeared in the 7th century BCE,[87] and most likely occurred after the loss of Hebrew /χ, ʁ/ c. 200 BCE.[nb 15] It is known to have occurred in Hebrew by the 2nd century CE.[88] After a certain point this alternation became contrastive in word-medial and final position (though bearing low functional load), but in word-initial position they remained allophonic.[89] This is evidenced both by the Tiberian vocalization's consistent use of word-initial spirants after a vowel in sandhi, as well as Rabbi Saadia Gaon's attestation to the use of this alternation in Tiberian Aramaic at the beginning of the 10th century CE.[89]

The Dead Sea scrolls show evidence of confusion of the phonemes /ħ ʕ h ʔ/, e.g. חמר ħmr for Masoretic אָמַר /ʔɔˈmar/ 'he said'.[90] However the testimony of Jerome indicates that this was a regionalism and not universal.[50] Confusion of gutturals was also attested in later Mishnaic Hebrew and Aramaic (see Eruvin 53b). In Samaritan Hebrew, /ʔ ħ h ʕ/ have generally all merged, either into /ʔ/, a glide /w/ or /j/, or by vanishing completely (often creating a long vowel), except that original /ʕ ħ/ sometimes have reflex /ʕ/ before /a ɒ/.[51]

Geminate consonants are phonemically contrastive in Biblical Hebrew. In the Secunda /w j z/ are never geminate.[91] In the Tiberian tradition /ħ ʕ h ʔ r/ cannot be geminate; historically first /r ʔ/ degeminated, followed by /ʕ/, /h/, and finally /ħ/, as evidenced by changes in the quality of the preceding vowel.[92][nb 16]



Proto-Hebrew[93] Secunda Hebrew[94] Tiberian, Babylonian, and Palestinian Hebrew[95][96][97] Samaritan Hebrew[98]
Front Back
Close i iː u uː
Close-mid ()
Open a aː
Front Back
Close-mid e eː o oː
Open a1
Reduced ə
Front Back
Close i u
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ1 ɔ2
Open a
Reduced ă3 ɔ̆3 (ɛ̆)3
Front Back
Close i u
Mid e (o)1
Open a ɒ ɒː
Reduced (ə)2
  1. possibly pronounced [æ], as the orthography alternates α and ε[99]
  1. merges with /e/ in the Palestinian tradition and with /a/ in the Babylonian tradition[100][101][nb 17][nb 18]
  2. merges with /a/ or /o/ in the Palestinian tradition[101][nb 17][102]
  1. /u/ and /o/ only contrast in open post-tonic syllables, e.g. ידו /jedu/ ('his hand') ידיו /jedo/ ('his hands'), where /o/ stems from a contracted diphthong.[103] In other environments, /o/ appears in closed syllables and /u/ in open syllables, e.g. דור /dor/ דורות /durot/.[103]
  2. results from both /i/ and /e/ in closed post-tonic syllables[104]

Sound changes[edit]



Proto-Semitic is the ancestral language of all the Semitic languages, and in traditional reconstructions possessed 29 consonants; 6 monophthong vowels, consisting of three qualities and two lengths, i.e. */a aː i iː u uː/, where the long vowels only occurred in open syllables; and two diphthongs */aj aw/.[105][106] The stress system of Proto-Semitic is unknown but it is commonly described as being much like the system of Classical Latin or the modern pronunciation of Classical Arabic: If the penultimate (second-from-last) syllable is light (has a short vowel followed by a single consonant), stress goes on the antepenultimate (third-from-last), else on the penultimate.


The morphology of Proto-Central-Semitic shows significant changes compared with Proto-Semitic, especially in its verbs, and is much like in Classical Arabic. Nouns in the singular were usually declined in three cases: /-u/ (nominative), /-a/ (accusative) or /-i/ (genitive). In some circumstances (but never in the construct state), nouns also took a final nasal after the case ending: nunation (final /-n/) occurred in some languages, mimation (final /-m/) in others. The original meaning of this marker is uncertain. In Classical Arabic, final /-n/ on nouns indicates indefiniteness, and disappears when the noun is preceded by a definite article or otherwise becomes definite in meaning. In other languages, final /-n/ may be present whenever a noun isn't in the construct state. Very Early Biblical Hebrew (pre-1500 BCE) had mimation of uncertain meaning in an occurrence of the word urušalemim (Jerusalem).

Broken plural forms in Arabic are declined like singulars, and often take singular agreement as well. Dual and "strong plural" forms use endings with a long vowel or diphthong, declined in only two cases: nominative and objective (combination accusative/genitive), with the objective form often becoming the default one after the loss of case endings. Both Hebrew and Arabic had a special form of nunation/mimation that co-occurred with the dual and masculine sound plural endings whenever the noun wasn't in the construct state. These endings were evidently felt as an inherent part of the ending, and as a result have survived to the present day. Examples are Arabic strong masculine plural -ūna (nominative), -īna (objective), and dual endings -āni (nominative), -ayni (objective); corresponding construct-state endings are -ū, -ī (strong masculine plural), -ā, -ay (dual). (The strong feminine endings in Classical Arabic are -ātu nominative, -āti objective, marked with a singular-style -n nunation in the indefinite state only.)


Feminine nouns at this point ended in a suffix /-at-/ or /-t-/ and took normal case endings. (When this ending /-at-/ became final due to loss or non-presence of the case ending, both Hebrew and Arabic show a later shift /-at/ > /-ah/ > /-aː/.)

Canaanite shift[edit]

Hebrew shows the Canaanite shift whereby */aː/ often shifted to /oː/; the conditions of this shift are disputed.[31][nb 19] This shift had occurred by the 14th century BCE, as demonstrated by its presence in the Amarna letters (c. 1365 BCE).[107][108]



Loss of final unstressed vowels[edit]


  2. Final short case markers dropped in nominal forms.







  • Later, short vowels lengthened in stressed open syllables.[109] [nb 20]

In the process of lengthening, the high vowels were lowered. In the Secunda, the lengthened reflexes of /a i u/ are /aː eː oː/; when kept short they generally have reflexes /a e o/.[110][nb 21][nb 22]

Reduction of short open stressed syllables[edit]


The previous three changes occurred in a complex, interlocking fashion:

  1. Shift of stress to be universally penultimate.
  4. Tonic lengthening/lowering in open syllables.
  5. Loss of final short vowels in nouns.


Possible derivation of some nominal/verbal forms



Pre-stress reduction of short vowel[edit]

*/a i u/ were reduced to /ə/ in the second syllable before the stress,[94] and occasionally reduced rather than lengthened in pretonic position, especially when initial (e.g. σεμω = שמו /ʃəˈmo/ 'his name').[112][nb 23] Thus the vowel system of the Secunda was /a e eː iː o oː uː ə/.[94]

Later developments[edit]

The later Jewish traditions (Tiberian, Babylonian, Palestinian) show similar vowel developments. By the Tiberian time, all short vowels in stressed syllables and open pretonic lengthened, making vowel length allophonic.[113][nb 24][114] Vowels in open or stressed syllables had allophonic length (e.g. /a/ in יְרַחֵם /jǝraˈħem/ [jǝraːˈħeːm] ('he will have mercy') < previously short [jǝraˈħeːm] < [jǝraħˈħeːm] by Tiberian degemination of /ħ/ < PSem */juraħˈħimu/).[114][nb 25] The Babylonian and Palestinian vocalizations systems also do not mark vowel length.[82][101][115] In the Tiberian and Babylonian systems, */aː/ and lengthened */a/ become the back vowel /ɔ/.[101][116] In unaccented closed syllables, */i u/ become /ɛ~i ɔ~u/ (Tiberian), /a~i u/ (Babylonian), or /e~i o~u/ (Palestinian) – generally becoming the second vowel before geminates (e.g. לִבִּי) and the first otherwise.[101][102][116][117][nb 26] In the Tiberian tradition pretonic vowels are reduced more commonly than in the Secunda. It does not occur for /*a/, but is occasional for /*i/ (e.g. מסמְרים /masmǝˈrim/ 'nails' < */masmiriːm/), and is common for /*u/ (e.g. רְחוֹב /rǝˈħoβ 'open place' < */ruħaːb/).[112][118] In Tiberian Hebrew pretonic /*u/ is most commonly preserved by geminating the following consonant, e.g. אדֻמּים /ăðumˈmim/ ('red' pl.) (cf. /ăˈðom/ 'red' sg.); this pretonic gemination is also found in some forms with other vowels like אַסִּיר~אָסִיר /ɔˈsir/~/asˈsir/ ('prisoner').[119]

The Babylonian and Palestinian systems have only one reduced vowel phoneme /ə/ like the Secunda, though in Palestinian Hebrew it developed the pronunciation [ɛ].[94][101][120] However the Tiberian tradition possesses three reduced vowels /ă ɔ̆ ɛ̆/ of which /ɛ̆/ has questionable phonemicity.[121][122][nb 27] /ă/ under a non-guttural letter was pronounced as an ultrashort copy of the following vowel before a guttural, e.g. וּבָקְעָה [uvɔqɔ̆ˈʕɔ], and as [ĭ] preceding /j/, e.g. תְדֵמְּיוּ֫נִי [θăðamːĭˈjuni], but was always pronounced as [ă] under gutturals, e.g. שָחֲחו, חֲיִי‎.[123][124] When reduced, etymological */a i u/ become /ă ɛ̆~ă ɔ̆/ under gutturals (e.g. אֲמרתם 'you [mp.] said' cf. אָמר 'he said'), and generally /ă/ under non-gutturals, but */u/ > /ɔ̆/ (and rarely */i/ > /ɛ̆/) may still occur, especially after stops (or their spirantized counterparts) and /sʼ ʃ/ (e.g. דֳּמִי /dɔ̆ˈmi/).[125][126] Samaritan and Qumran Hebrew have full vowels in place of the reduced vowels of Tiberian Hebrew.[127]

Samaritan Hebrew also does not reflect etymological vowel length; however the elision of guttural consonants has created new phonemic vowel length, e.g. /rɒb/ רב ('great') vs. /rɒːb/ רחב ('wide').[128] Samaritan Hebrew vowels are allophonically lengthened (to a lesser degree) in open syllables, e.g. המצרי [ammisˤriˑ], היא [iˑ], though this is less strong in post-tonic vowels.[128] Pretonic gemination is also found in Samaritan Hebrew, but not always in the same locations as in Tiberian Hebrew, e.g. גמלים TH /ɡămalːim/ SH /ɡɒmɒləm/; שלמים TH /ʃălɔmim/ SH /ʃelamːəm/.[129] While Proto-Hebrew long vowels usually retain their vowel quality in the later traditions of Hebrew,[116][130] in Samaritan Hebrew */iː/ may have reflex /e/ in closed stressed syllables, e.g. דין /den/, */aː/ may become either /a/ or /ɒ/,[131] and */oː/ > /u/.[131] The reduced vowels of the other traditions appear as full vowels, though there may be evidence that Samaritan Hebrew once had similar vowel reduction. Samaritan /ə/ results from the neutralization of the distinction between /i/ and /e/ in closed post-tonic syllables, e.g. /bit/ בית ('house') /abbət/ הבית ('the house') /ɡer/ גר /aɡɡər/ הגר‎.[104]

Various more specific conditioned shifts of vowel quality have also occurred. Diphthongs were frequently monopthongized, but the scope and results of this shift varied among dialects. In particular, the Samaria ostraca show /jeːn/ < */jajn/ < */wajn/[nb 28] for Southern /jajin/ ('wine'), and Samaritan Hebrew shows instead the shift */aj/ > /iː/.[27][132] Original */u/ tended to shift to /i/ (e.g. אֹמֶר and אִמְרָה 'word'; חוץ 'outside' and חיצון 'outer') beginning in the second half of the second millennium BC.[133] This was carried through completely in Samaritan Hebrew but met more resistance in other traditions such as the Babylonian and Qumran traditions.[133] Philippi's law is the process by which original */i/ in closed stressed syllables shifts to /a/ (e,g, /*bint/ > בַּת /bat/ 'daughter'), or sometimes in the Tiberian tradition /ɛ/ (e.g. /*ʔamint/ > אֱמֶת /ɛ̆mɛt/ 'truth').[134][nb 29] This is absent in the transcriptions of the Secunda,[135] but there is evidence that the law's onset predates the Secunda. In the Samaritan tradition Philippi's law is applied consistently, e.g. */libː-u/ > /lab/ ('heart').[136][nb 30] In some traditions the short vowel /*a/ tended to shift to /i/ in unstressed closed syllables: this is known as the law of attenuation. It is common in the Tiberian tradition, e.g. */ʃabʕat/ > Tiberian שִבְעָה /ʃivˈʕɔ/ ('seven'), but exceptions are frequent.[137] It is less common in the Babylonian vocalization, e.g. /ʃabʕɔ/ ('seven'), and differences in Greek and Latin transcriptions demonstrate that it began quite late.[137] Attenuation generally did not occur before /i~e/, e.g. Tiberian מַפְתֵּחַ /mafˈteaħ/ ('key') versus מִפְתַּח /mifˈtaħ/ ('opening [construct]'), and often was blocked before a geminate, e.g. מתנה ('gift').[137] Attenuation is rarely present in Samaritan Hebrew, e.g. מקדש /maqdaʃ/.[138][nb 31] In the Tiberian tradition /e i o u/ take offglide /a/ before /h ħ ʕ/.[139][nb 32] This is absent in the Secunda and in Samaritan Hebrew but present in the transcriptions of Jerome.[132][140] In the Tiberian tradition an ultrashort echo vowel is sometimes added to clusters where the first element is a guttural, e.g. יַאֲזִין /jaʔăzin/ ('he will listen') פָּעֳלוֹ /pɔʕɔ̆lo/ ('his work') but יַאְדִּיר /jaʔdið/ ('he will make glorious') רָחְבּוֹ /ʀɔħbo/ 'its breadth'.[125][nb 33][nb 34]


Proto-Semitic Proto-Hebrew Secunda Tiberian Babylonian Palestinian Samaritan1
*aː *aː ɔ a a, ɒ
*oː o u
*iː *iː i e, i
*uː *uː u o, u4
  2. under the conditions of the law of attenuation
  3. under the conditions of Phillipi's law
  7. effectively in most closed syllables
  8. more common before geminate consonants


Proto-Hebrew generally had penultimate stress.[141] [nb 35] The ultimate stress of later traditions of Hebrew usually resulted from the loss of final vowels in many words, preserving the location of proto-Semitic stress.[nb 36] Tiberian Hebrew has phonemic stress, e.g. בָּנוּ֫ /bɔˈnu/ ('they built') vs. בָּ֫נוּ /ˈbɔnu/ ('in us'); stress is most commonly ultimate, less commonly penultimate, and antipenultimate stress exists marginally, e.g. הָאֹ֫הֱלָה /hɔˈʔohɛ̆lɔ/ ('into the tent').[142][nb 37] There does not seem to be evidence for stress in the Secunda varying from that of the Tiberian tradition.[143] Despite sharing the loss of final vowels with Tiberian Hebrew, Samaritan Hebrew has generally not preserved Proto-Semitic stress, and has predominantly penultimate stress, with occasional ultimate stress.[144] There is evidence that Qumran Hebrew had a similar stress pattern to Samaritan Hebrew.[127]


Medieval grammarians of Arabic and Hebrew classified words as belonging to three parts of speech: Arabic ism ('noun'), fiʻl ('verb'), and ḥarf ('particle'); other grammarians have included more categories.[145] In particular, adjectives and nouns show more affinity to each other than in most European languages.[145] Biblical Hebrew has a typical Semitic morphology, characterized by the use of roots. Most words in Biblical Hebrew are formed from a root, a sequence of consonants with a general associated meaning.[146] Roots are usually triconsonantal, with biconsonantal roots less common (depending on how some words are analyzed) and rare cases of quadri- and quinquiconsonantal roots.[146] Roots are modified by affixation to form words.[146] Verbal patterns are more productive and consistent, while noun patterns are less predictable.[147]

Nouns and adjectives[edit]

The most common nominal prefix used is /m/, used for substantives of location (מושב 'assembly'), instruments (מפתח 'key'), and abstractions (משפט 'judgement').[148] The vowel after /m/ is normally /a/, but appears sometimes as /i/, or in the case of מושב as /o/ (contracted from */aw/).[148] The prefix /t/ is used to denote the action of the verb it is derived from, more common for initial-/w/ verbs, e.g. תודה ('thanksgiving'; < ydy).[148] Prefixed /ʔ/ is used in adjectives, e.g. אכזב ('deceptive'), and also occurs in nouns with initial sibilants, e.g. אצבע ('finger').[148] In the latter case this prefix was added for phonetic reasons, and the א prefix is called either "prothetic" or "prosthetic".[148] Prefixed ע /ʕ/ occurs perhaps as a mark of forcefulness, e.g. גננ ('to cover') vs. עגנ ('to shut oneself off'), אגמ ('to be sad') vs. עגמ ('to grieve'), and often occurs in quadriliteral animal names, perhaps as a prefix, e.g. עֳטלף ('bat'), עכבר ('mouse'), עקרב ('scorpion').[148]

In proto-Semitic nouns were marked for case: in the singular the markers were */-u/ in the nominative, */-a/ in the accusative (used also for adverbials), and */-i/ in the genitive, as evidenced in Akkadian, Ugaritic, and Arabic.[149] The Amarna letters show that this was probably still present in Hebrew c. 1350 BCE.[150] In the development of Hebrew, final */-u, -i/ were dropped first, and later */-a/ was elided as well.[151] Mimation, a nominal suffix */-m/ of unclear meaning, was found in early Canaanite, as shown by early Egyptian transcriptions (c. 1800 BCE) of Jerusalem as Urušalimim, but there is no indication of its presence after 1800 BCE.[151][nb 38] Final */-a/ is preserved in לַ֫יְלָה /ˈlajlɔ/, originally meaning 'at night' but in prose replacing לַ֫יִל /ˈlajil/ ('night'), and in the "connective vowels" of some prepositions (originally adverbials), e.g. עִמָּ֫נוּ ('with us'); nouns preserve */-i/ in forms like יָדֵ֫נוּ‎.[152][nb 39] Construct state nouns lost case vowels at an early period (similar to Akkadian), as shown by the reflexes of */ɬadaju/ (שָֹדֶה in absolute but שְׂדֵה in construct) and the reflexes of */jadu/ (יָד‎ and יַד‎)[153] However forms like יָדֵ֫נוּ show that this was not yet a feature of Proto-Hebrew.[154]

Biblical Hebrew has two genders, masculine and feminine, which are reflected in nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and verbs.[155] Hebrew distinguishes between singular and plural numbers, and plural forms may also be used for collectives and honorifics.[156] Hebrew has a morphological dual form for nouns that naturally occur in pairs, and for units of measurement and time this contrasts with the plural (יום 'day' יומים 'two days' ימים 'days').[157] A widespread misconception is that Hebrew plural denotes three or more objects. In truth, Hebrew plural denotes two or more objects.[158] However adjectives, pronouns, and verbs do not have dual forms, and most nominal dual forms can function as plurals (שש כנפַים 'six wings' from Isaiah 6:2).[157][159] Finite verbs are marked for subject person, number, and gender.[160] Nouns also have a construct form which is used in genitive constructions.[161]

Nouns are marked as definite with the prefix /ha-/ followed by gemination of the initial consonant of the noun.[162] In Tiberian Hebrew the vowel of the article may become /ɛ/ or /ɔ/ in certain phonetic environments, for example החכם /hɛħɔˈxɔm/ ('the wise man'), האיש /hɔˈʔiʃ/ ('the man').[163]

The traditions differ on the form of segolate nouns, nouns stemming from roots with two final consonants. The anaptyctic /ɛ/ of the Tiberian tradition in segolates appears in the Septuagint (3rd century BCE) but not the Hexapla (2nd century CE), e.g. גֶּתֶר /ˈɡɛθɛr/ = Γαθερ versus כֵּסֶל /ˈkesɛl/ = Χεσλ (Psalms 49:14).[164] This may reflect dialectal variation or phonetic versus phonemic transcriptions.[164] Both the Palestinian and Babylonian traditions have an anaptyctic vowel in segolates, /e/ in the Palestinian tradition (e.g. /ʔeresʼ/ 'land' = Tiberian אֶרֶץ Deuteronomy 26:15) and /a/ in Babylonian (e.g. /ħepasʼ/ 'item' = Tiberian חֵפֶץ Jeremiah 22:28).[165] The Qumran tradition sometimes shows some type of back epenthetic vowel when the first vowel is back, e.g. אוהול for Tiberian אֹהֶל /ˈʔohɛl/ ('tent').

Biblical Hebrew has two sets of personal pronouns: the free-standing independent pronouns have a nominative function, while the pronominal suffixes are genitive or accusative.[166] Only the first person suffix has different possessive and objective forms (‎ and -ני‎).[167]


Verbal consonantal roots are placed into verbal conjugations patterns, known as בנינים binyanim in Hebrew; the binyanim mainly serve to indicate grammatical voice.[167] This includes various distinctions of reflexivity, passivity, and causativity.[167] Verbs of all binyanim have three non-finite forms (one participle, two infinitives), three modal forms (cohortative, imperative, jussive), and two major conjugations (prefixing, suffixing).[168][nb 40] The meaning of the prefixing and suffixing conjugations are also affected by the conjugation ו, and their meaning with respect to tense and aspect is a matter of debate.[168]

Word order[edit]

The default word order in Biblical Hebrew is commonly thought to be VSO,[169] though one scholar has argued that this is due to the prevalence of clauses with a wayyiqtol verb form compared to other less marked forms that use SVO either more often or at least to a comparable degree.[170] Attributive adjectives normally follow the noun they modify.[171] In Biblical Hebrew, possession is normally expressed with status constructus, a construction in which the possessed noun occurs in a phonologically reduced, "construct" form and is followed by the possessor noun in its normal, "absolute" form.[172][173] Pronominal direct objects are either suffixed to the verb or alternatively expressed on the object-marking pronoun את‎.[174]

Sample text[edit]


Tiberian Hebrew

29  כִּֽי־אַ֭תָּה תָּאִ֣יר נֵרִ֑י יְהוָ֥ה אֱ֝לֹהַ֗י יַגִּ֥יהַּ חָשְׁכִּֽי׃

30  כִּֽי־בְ֭ךָ אָרֻ֣ץ גְּד֑וּד וּ֝בֵֽאלֹהַ֗י אֲדַלֶּג־שֽׁוּר׃


32  כִּ֤י מִ֣י אֱ֭לֹוהַּ מִבַּלְעֲדֵ֣י יְהוָ֑ה וּמִ֥י צ֝֗וּר זוּלָתִ֥י אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ׃


29. χι αθθα θαειρ νηρι YHWH ελωαι αγι οσχι

30. χι βαχ αρους γεδουδ ουβελωαι εδαλλεγ σουρ



Pronunciation (Secunda)[99] (IPA)


30. [kiː baːk ʔaːruːsʼ ɡəduːd wəbaloːhaj ʔadːalːeɡ ʃuːr]




  9. ^ There are rare-cases of א being used medially as a true vowel letter, e.g. דָּאג for the usual דָּג 'fish'. Most cases, however, of א being used as a vowel letter stem from conservative spelling of words which originally contained /ʔ/, e.g. רֹאשׁ ('head') from original */raʔʃ/. See Blau (2010:86). There are also a number of exceptions to the rule of marking other long vowels, e.g. when the following syllable contains a vowel letters (like in קֹלֹוֹת 'voices' rather than קוֹלוֹת) or when a vowel letter already marks a consonant (so גּוֹיִם 'nations' rather than גּוֹיִים*), and within the Bible there is often little consistency in spelling. See Blau (2010:6)
  21. ^ Long /aː eː oː/ were written as α η ω, while short /a e o/ were written α/ε ε ο. This length distinction is also found in the LXX. See Blau (2010:110–111), Janssens (1982:54), and Dolgopolsky (1999:14)


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  153. ^ Blau (2010:119–120, 268)
  154. ^ Blau (2010:268)
  155. ^ Waltke & O'Connor (1990:95)
  156. ^ Waltke & O'Connor (1990:118)
  157. ^ a b Waltke & O'Connor (1990:117–118)
  159. ^ Blau (2010:164)
  160. ^ Waltke & O'Connor (1990:346)
  161. ^ Waltke & O'Connor (1990:138)
  162. ^ Waltke & O'Connor (1990:237)
  163. ^ Waltke & O'Connor (1990:238)
  164. ^ a b Blau (2010:274–275)
  165. ^ Sperber (1966:445)
  166. ^ Waltke & O'Connor (1990:291)
  167. ^ a b c Waltke & O'Connor (1990:302)
  168. ^ a b Waltke & O'Connor (1990:455–456)
  169. ^ Doron (2005:3)
  171. ^ Waltke & O'Connor (1990:258)
  172. ^ Zuckermann (2006:74)
  173. ^ Rosén (1969)
  174. ^ Glinert (2004:52)


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