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
Yemenite Hebrew the Qamats () and Tseri (). He argues that the pronunciation of Yemenite Hebrew was not only uninfluenced by Arabic, but it influenced the pronunciation of Arabic by those Jews, despite the Jewish presence in Yemen for over a millennium. Among the dialects of Hebrew preserved into modern times, Yemenite Hebrew is regarded as one of the forms that retains very many features of Hebrew as used in ancient times, particularly Tiberian Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew. This perception is motivated in part by the fact that Yemenite Hebrew preserves many consonant sounds represented by individual letters in the Hebrew alphabet