Modern Hebrew languages that it is genealogically a hybrid with Indo-European. These theories have not been met with general acceptance, and the consensus among a majority of scholars is that Modern Hebrew, despite non-Semitic influences, can correctly be classified as a Semitic language. Modern Hebrew is written from right to left using the Hebrew alphabet, which is an abjad, or consonant-only script of 22 letters based on the "square" letter form, known as "Ashurit" (Assyrian), which was developed from the Aramaic script. A cursive script is used in handwriting. When necessary, vowels are indicated by diacritic marks above or below the letters
Hebrew alphabet with a niqqud symbol – a vowel diacritic (whether or not the diacritic is marked), whereas and ע are considered to be mute, their role being purely indicative of the non-marked vowel. "Niqqud" is the system of dots that help determine vowels and consonants. In Hebrew, all forms of "niqqud" are often omitted in writing, except for children's books, prayer books, poetry, foreign words, and words which would be ambiguous to pronounce. Israeli Hebrew has five vowel phonemes, , but many more written symbols for them: By adding a vertical line (called "Meteg") underneath the letter and to the left