Hebrew punctuation
Encyclopedia
Hebrew punctuation
is similar to that of English
and other Western
languages, Modern Hebrew
having imported additional punctuation marks from these languages in order to avoid the ambiguities sometimes occasioned by the relative paucity of such symbols in Biblical Hebrew.
| colspan="2" | Example
|-
|Standard
|Alternate
|- style='background:white;height:65px; font-size:325%; line-height:1em' align="center"
|
|
|}>
With most printed Hebrew texts from the early 1970s and before, opening quotation marks are low (as in German
), and closing ones are high, often going above the letters themselves (as opposed to the gershayim
, which is level with the top of letters). An example of this system is .
However, this distinction in Hebrew between opening and closing quotation marks has completely disappeared, and today, quotations are punctuated as they are in English (ex. ), with both quotation marks high. This is due to the advent of the Hebrew keyboard layout
, which lacks the opening quotation mark („), as well as to the lack in Hebrew of "smart quotes
" as found in Microsoft Word
for many other languages.
In addition, the quotation mark is often used for the similar looking but different gershayim
mark (״), as that too is absent from the Hebrew keyboard
.
A Hebrew period in a traditional "Serif" face usually looks like a tiny tilted square (a diamond). This is also true for the dot part of the question mark
, and exclamation mark
.
In Arabic
, which is also written from right to left, the question mark "؟" is mirrored right-to-left from the English question mark. (Some browsers may display the character in the previous sentence as a forward question mark due to font or text directionality issues.) Hebrew
is also written right-to-left, but uses a question mark that appears on the page in the same orientation as the English "?".
, and looks very similar to the colon (:), a colon is often substituted for it.
, a vertical bar
(|) is often used instead. The vertical bar, a standard key on any keyboard, is used in English for such applications as mathematics and computing.
| colspan="2" | Example
|-
|Hebrew Maqaf
|Standard English Hyphen
|- align="center" style="background:white; height:50px; font-size:325%; line-height:1em"
|
|
|-
| colspan="2" style="width:250px" |Notice how the maqaf aligns with the top horizontal strokes whereas the standard English hyphen is in the middle of the letters.
|}>
The maqaf is the Hebrew hyphen
(-), and has virtually the same purpose for connecting two words as in English. It is different from the hyphen in its positioning (a hyphen is in the middle in terms of height, the maqaf is at the top) and it has a biblical origin, unlike many other Modern Hebrew
punctuation symbols, which have simply been imported from European languages.
The maqaf is well-used in Hebrew typography; most books and newspapers use it and have the hyphens higher than one would find in English. In online writing, however, it is rarely used because it is absent from the Hebrew keyboard
layout on Microsoft Windows
. As a result, a standard English hyphen (-) is most often used in online writings. This situation can be compared to that of users writing in Latin alphabets using the easily available hyphen
(-) over Minus (−), en dash (–) and em dash (—).
| colspan="2" | Examples
|-
|With Sheqel Sign
|With Abbreviation
|-
| align="center" style="background:white;height:45px"|₪12,000
| align="center" style="background:white;height:45px"|
|}>
The sheqel sign
(₪) is the currency sign for the Israeli currency (the New Israeli Sheqel), in the way $, £, and €, exist for other currencies.
The sheqel sign, like the dollar sign
("$"), is usually placed to the left of the number (i.e. "₪12,000" and not "12,000₪"), but since Hebrew is written from right to left, the symbol is actually written after the number. It is either not separated
from the preceding number, or is separated only by a thin space.
Unlike the dollar sign, the new sheqel sign is not used that often when handwriting monetary amounts, and is generally replaced by the abbreviation (standing for Sheqel Hadash, lit. New Sheqel).
Punctuation
Punctuation marks are symbols that indicate the structure and organization of written language, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud.In written English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences...
is similar to that of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and other Western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
languages, Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew , also known as Israeli Hebrew or Modern Israeli Hebrew, is the language spoken in Israel and in some Jewish communities worldwide, from the early 20th century to the present....
having imported additional punctuation marks from these languages in order to avoid the ambiguities sometimes occasioned by the relative paucity of such symbols in Biblical Hebrew.
Quotation marks
|-
|
|
|- style='background:white;height:65px; font-size:325%; line-height:1em' align="center"
|
|
|}>
With most printed Hebrew texts from the early 1970s and before, opening quotation marks are low (as in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
), and closing ones are high, often going above the letters themselves (as opposed to the gershayim
Gershayim
Gershayim , also occasionally grashayim , names two distinct typographical marks in the Hebrew language. The name literally means "double geresh".-Punctuation mark:...
, which is level with the top of letters). An example of this system is .
However, this distinction in Hebrew between opening and closing quotation marks has completely disappeared, and today, quotations are punctuated as they are in English (ex. ), with both quotation marks high. This is due to the advent of the Hebrew keyboard layout
Hebrew keyboard
A Hebrew keyboard comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards are bilingual having both Hebrew and English, as English letters are necessary for URLs and Email addresses...
, which lacks the opening quotation mark („), as well as to the lack in Hebrew of "smart quotes
Quotation mark glyphs
Different typefaces, character encodings and computer languages use various encodings and glyphs for quotation marks. This article lists some of these glyphs along with their Unicode code points and HTML entities...
" as found in Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
for many other languages.
In addition, the quotation mark is often used for the similar looking but different gershayim
Gershayim
Gershayim , also occasionally grashayim , names two distinct typographical marks in the Hebrew language. The name literally means "double geresh".-Punctuation mark:...
mark (״), as that too is absent from the Hebrew keyboard
Hebrew keyboard
A Hebrew keyboard comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards are bilingual having both Hebrew and English, as English letters are necessary for URLs and Email addresses...
.
| Standard | Alternative | Names |
|---|---|---|
| “…” | “…„ | merkha'ot — (plural of merkha — ); a similar punctuation mark unique to Hebrew is called gershayim Gershayim Gershayim , also occasionally grashayim , names two distinct typographical marks in the Hebrew language. The name literally means "double geresh".-Punctuation mark:... — |
Period, question mark, exclamation mark, comma
Periods (full stops), question marks, exclamation marks, and commas are used as in English.A Hebrew period in a traditional "Serif" face usually looks like a tiny tilted square (a diamond). This is also true for the dot part of the question mark
Question mark
The question mark , is a punctuation mark that replaces the full stop at the end of an interrogative sentence in English and many other languages. The question mark is not used for indirect questions...
, and exclamation mark
Exclamation mark
The exclamation mark, exclamation point, or bang, or "dembanger" is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or high volume , and often marks the end of a sentence. Example: “Watch out!” The character is encoded in Unicode at...
.
In Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, which is also written from right to left, the question mark "؟" is mirrored right-to-left from the English question mark. (Some browsers may display the character in the previous sentence as a forward question mark due to font or text directionality issues.) Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
is also written right-to-left, but uses a question mark that appears on the page in the same orientation as the English "?".
Colon and sof pasuq
Stemming from Biblical Hebrew, a sof pasuq (׃) is the equivalent of a period, and is used in some writings such as prayer books. Since a sof pasuq is absent from the Hebrew keyboard layoutHebrew keyboard
A Hebrew keyboard comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards are bilingual having both Hebrew and English, as English letters are necessary for URLs and Email addresses...
, and looks very similar to the colon (:), a colon is often substituted for it.
| Glyph | Unicode | Name |
|---|---|---|
| U+05C3 | HEBREW PUNCTUATION SOF PASUQ | |
| : | U+003A | COLON |
Vertical bar and paseq
Also coming from Biblical Hebrew, a paseq (׀) is used as a word separator. Also not on a standard Hebrew keyboardHebrew keyboard
A Hebrew keyboard comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards are bilingual having both Hebrew and English, as English letters are necessary for URLs and Email addresses...
, a vertical bar
Vertical bar
The vertical bar is a character with various uses in mathematics, where it can be used to represent absolute value, among others; in computing and programming and in general typography, as a divider not unlike the interpunct...
(|) is often used instead. The vertical bar, a standard key on any keyboard, is used in English for such applications as mathematics and computing.
| Glyph | Unicode | Name |
|---|---|---|
| U+05C0 | HEBREW PUNCTUATION PASEQ | |
| > | U+007C | VERTICAL LINE |
Hyphen and maqaf
|-
|
|
|- align="center" style="background:white; height:50px; font-size:325%; line-height:1em"
|
|
|-
| colspan="2" style="width:250px" |
|}>
The maqaf is the Hebrew hyphen
Hyphen
The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen should not be confused with dashes , which are longer and have different uses, or with the minus sign which is also longer...
(-), and has virtually the same purpose for connecting two words as in English. It is different from the hyphen in its positioning (a hyphen is in the middle in terms of height, the maqaf is at the top) and it has a biblical origin, unlike many other Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew , also known as Israeli Hebrew or Modern Israeli Hebrew, is the language spoken in Israel and in some Jewish communities worldwide, from the early 20th century to the present....
punctuation symbols, which have simply been imported from European languages.
The maqaf is well-used in Hebrew typography; most books and newspapers use it and have the hyphens higher than one would find in English. In online writing, however, it is rarely used because it is absent from the Hebrew keyboard
Hebrew keyboard
A Hebrew keyboard comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards are bilingual having both Hebrew and English, as English letters are necessary for URLs and Email addresses...
layout on Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. As a result, a standard English hyphen (-) is most often used in online writings. This situation can be compared to that of users writing in Latin alphabets using the easily available hyphen
Hyphen
The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen should not be confused with dashes , which are longer and have different uses, or with the minus sign which is also longer...
(-) over Minus (−), en dash (–) and em dash (—).
| Glyph | Unicode | Name |
|---|---|---|
| U+05be | HEBREW PUNCTUATION MAQAF | |
| - | U+002d | HYPHEN-MINUS |
Brackets/Parentheses
Brackets or Parentheses, "(", and ")" are the same in Hebrew as in English. Since Hebrew is written from right to left) becomes an opening bracket, and ( a closing bracket, the opposite from English (which is written left to right).Israeli currency sign
|-
|
|
|-
| align="center" style="background:white;height:45px"|₪12,000
| align="center" style="background:white;height:45px"|
|}>
The sheqel sign
Sheqel sign
The shekel sign is a currency sign used for the shekel which is the currency of Israel and the Palestinian Territories.- Israeli new shekel :...
(₪) is the currency sign for the Israeli currency (the New Israeli Sheqel), in the way $, £, and €, exist for other currencies.
The sheqel sign, like the dollar sign
Dollar sign
The dollar or peso sign is a symbol primarily used to indicate the various peso and dollar units of currency around the world.- Origin :...
("$"), is usually placed to the left of the number (i.e. "₪12,000" and not "12,000₪"), but since Hebrew is written from right to left, the symbol is actually written after the number. It is either not separated
Space (punctuation)
In writing, a space is a blank area devoid of content, serving to separate words, letters, numbers, and punctuation. Conventions for interword and intersentence spaces vary among languages, and in some cases the spacing rules are quite complex....
from the preceding number, or is separated only by a thin space.
Unlike the dollar sign, the new sheqel sign is not used that often when handwriting monetary amounts, and is generally replaced by the abbreviation (standing for Sheqel Hadash, lit. New Sheqel).
Apostrophe and quotation marks
- For more details on this topic, see GereshGereshGeresh is a sign in Hebrew writing. It has two meanings.#An apostrophe-like sign placed after a letter :...
and GershayimGershayimGershayim , also occasionally grashayim , names two distinct typographical marks in the Hebrew language. The name literally means "double geresh".-Punctuation mark:...
.Geresh GereshGeresh is a sign in Hebrew writing. It has two meanings.#An apostrophe-like sign placed after a letter :...Apostrophe ApostropheThe apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
used as a geresh
| align="center" style="background:white;height:60px"|
| align="center" style="background:white;height:60px"|
|-
|Gershayim >GershayimGershayim , also occasionally grashayim , names two distinct typographical marks in the Hebrew language. The name literally means "double geresh".-Punctuation mark:...Quotation marks used as gershayim
>-
| align="center" style="background:white;height:60px"|
| align="center" style="background:white;height:60px"|
The gereshGereshGeresh is a sign in Hebrew writing. It has two meanings.#An apostrophe-like sign placed after a letter :...
, is the Hebrew equivalent of a period in abbreviations (e.g. abbrev.), in addition to being attached to Hebrew letters to indicate the soft g ([dʒ]) and ch ([tʃ]) sounds in foreign names (ex. Charles, Jake). The gershayimGershayimGershayim , also occasionally grashayim , names two distinct typographical marks in the Hebrew language. The name literally means "double geresh".-Punctuation mark:...
, is a Hebrew symbol symbolizing that a sequence of characters is an acronym, and is placed before the last character of the word. Owing to a Hebrew keyboardHebrew keyboardA Hebrew keyboard comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards are bilingual having both Hebrew and English, as English letters are necessary for URLs and Email addresses...
's having neither a geresh nor gershayim, they are usually replaced online with, respectively, the visually similar apostrophe (') and quotation mark ("). The quotation mark and apostrophe are higher than the geresh and gershayim: where the latter are placed level with the top of Hebrew letters, the apostrophe and quotation marks are above them.
Some Hebrew-specific fontFontIn typography, a font is traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts composing a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface...
s (fonts containing only Hebrew letters), such as "David", do not feature the apostrophe and quotation marks as such but use the geresh and gershayim to substitute for them.Glyph Unicode Name U+05f3 HEBREW PUNCTUATION GERESH U+05f4 HEBREW PUNCTUATION GERSHAYIM ' U+0027 APOSTROPHE " U+0022 QUOTATION MARK
Mathematics
Mathematics in Israel uses all the same symbols as in English, including Western numeralsArabic numeralsArabic numerals or Hindu numerals or Hindu-Arabic numerals or Indo-Arabic numerals are the ten digits . They are descended from the Hindu-Arabic numeral system developed by Indian mathematicians, in which a sequence of digits such as "975" is read as a numeral...
, which are written left to right. The only variant that exists is an alternative plus sign, which is a plus sign which looks like an inverted capital T. UnicodeUnicodeUnicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
has this symbol at position U+FB29 "Hebrew letter alternative plus sign" . However, most books for adults use the international symbol "+".Examples of Mathematics Written in Hebrew General Example With Alternative Plus Sign 6 + ((1 × 2) ÷ 2) = 7 6 ﬩ ((1 × 2) ÷ 2) = 7 Mathematics in Hebrew looks the same as it does in English.
Reversed nun
| colspan="2" |
Examples
|-
| align="center" style="background:white;height:50px"|
| align="center" style="background:white;height:50px"|>Ordinary letter nun Nun (letter)Nun is the fourteenth letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic alphabet . It is the third letter in Thaana , pronounced as "noonu"...| align="center" style="background:white;height:50px"|
| align="center" style="background:white;height:50px"|Reversed nun - horizontal flip
Reversed nun (also called inverted nun, nun hafukha,or nun menuzerret) is a rare character found in two Biblical Hebrew texts. Although in Judaic literature it is known as nun hafukha ("reversed nunNun (letter)Nun is the fourteenth letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic alphabet . It is the third letter in Thaana , pronounced as "noonu"...
"), it does not function as any sort of letter in the text. It is not part of a word, and it is not read aloud in any way. It is simply a mark that is written, and is therefore a punctuation mark, not a letter. Also, it is surrounded by space.
While it depends on the particular manuscript or printed edition, it is found in nine places: twice in the Book of NumbersBook of NumbersThe Book of Numbers is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch....
(prior to and after Numbers 10:34-36), and seven times in Psalm 107. It is uncertain today what it was intended to signify.
In many manuscripts, it does not even resemble a transformed nun at all, and when it does, it sometimes appears reversed (as mentioned above), sometimes inverted, and sometimes turned through 180°. Other times it appears to look like the letter Z.
Glyph Unicode Name ׆ U+05C6 HEBREW PUNCTUATION NUN HAFUKHA
Hebrew points (vowels)
| colspan="2" |
Examples
|-
|With Vowel Points
|Without Vowel Points
|- align="center" style="line-hight:1em;background:white;height:50px;font-size:325%;"
|
|
|- align="center" style="line-hight:1em;background:white;height:50px;font-size:325%;"
|
|
|}>
These signs (points, neqqudot) indicate voweling or some other aspects of the pronunciation of a letter or word. While in Modern Hebrew they are not generally used outside poetry and children's books, a vowel point or other diacritic is occasionally added to resolve ambiguity.
One of these neqqudot, the rafe, is no longer used in Hebrew, even though it is routinely used in Yiddish spelling (as defined by YIVOYIVOYIVO, , established in 1925 in Wilno, Poland as the Yidisher Visnshaftlekher Institut , or Yiddish Scientific Institute, is a source for orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to the Yiddish language...
).
Glyph Unicode Name ְ U+05B0 SHEVA ShvaShva or, in Biblical Hebrew, Sh'wa is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign written as two vertical dots "ְ" underneath a letter. In Modern Hebrew, it indicates either the phoneme or the complete absence of a vowel , whereas in Hebrew prescriptive linguistics, four grammatical entities are differentiated:...ֱ U+05B1 HATEF SEGOL ֲ U+05B2 HATEF PATAH ֳ U+05B3 HATEF QAMATS ִ U+05B4 HIRIQ ֵ U+05B5 TSERE ֶ U+05B6 SEGOL ַ U+05B7 PATAH ָ U+05B8 QAMATS ֹ U+05B9 HOLAM (HASER) ֻ U+05BB QUBUTS ּ U+05BC DAGESH, MAPIQ, OR SHURUQ ֽ U+05BD MATEG MetegMeteg is a punctuation mark used in Biblical Hebrew for stress marking. It is a vertical bar place under the affected syllable....ֿ U+05BF RAFE ׁ U+05C1 SHIN DOT ׂ U+05C2 SIN DOT U+05C4 MARK UPPER DOT
Hebrew cantillation marks
| colspan="2" |
Example (Genesis 1:1-5)
|-
|With Vowel Points and Cantillation Marks >| align="center" style="background:white;height:50px;width:300px"| > | Just Cantillation Marks (For Demonstration) >| align="center" style="background:white;height:50px;width:300px"| >
The cantillation marks (Hebrew: Teamim) have a very specialized use. They are only found in printed Hebrew texts of TanakhTanakhThe Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
to be used as a guide for chanting the text, either from the printed text or, in the case of the public reading of the TorahTorahTorah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
, to be memorized along with vowel marks as the Sefer TorahSefer TorahA Sefer Torah of Torah” or “Torah scroll”) is a handwritten copy of the Torah or Pentateuch, the holiest book within Judaism. It must meet extremely strict standards of production. The Torah scroll is mainly used in the ritual of Torah reading during Jewish services...
includes only the letters of the text without cantillation or vowel marks. Outside the TanakhTanakhThe Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
, the cantillation marks are not used in modern spoken or written Hebrew at all. The cantillation marks provide a structure to sentences of Tanakh similar to that provided by punctuation marks.