וּ

Kubutz or qubbutz (modern ; , formerly , ''qibbūṣ'') and shuruk (, , also known as shuruq) are two Hebrew niqqud vowel signs that represent the sound . In an alternative, Ashkenazi naming, the kubutz (three diagonal dots) is called "shuruk" and shuruk is called "melopum" ().

Appearance

The kubutz sign is represented by three diagonal dots "◌ֻ" underneath a letter.

The shuruk is the letter ''vav'' with a dot in the middle and to the left of it. The dot is identical to the grammatically different signs '' dagesh'' and ''mappiq'', but in a fully vocalized text it is practically impossible to confuse them: ''shuruk'' itself is a vowel sign, so if the letter before the ''vav'' doesn't have its own vowel sign, then the ''vav'' with the dot is a shuruk and otherwise it is a ''vav'' with a ''dagesh'' or a ''mappiq''. Furthermore, the ''mappiq'' only appears at the end of the word and only in the letter '' he'' () in modern Hebrew and in the Bible it sometimes appears in ''aleph'' () and only in some Bible manuscripts it appears in the letter ''vav'', for example in the word ('torso') . Compare for example ''vav'' with dagesh in 'varied' (without ''niqqud'': ) as opposed to ''shuruk'' in 'protection' (without ''niqqud'': ); see also orthographic variants of ''waw''.

Name

In older grammar books the kubbutz is called qibbûṣ pum etc. (), ''compression ''or'' contraction of the mouth''. This was shortened to qibbûṣ (also transliterated as kibbutz etc.) but later all the names of vowel signs were changed to include their own sound in their first syllable. This way kibutz changed to kubutz, and this is the common name today, although the name "kibutz" is still occasionally used, for example by the Academy of the Hebrew Language.''Academy Decisions: Grammar'', §1.3.

Shuruk was earlier called shureq (), but this name is rarely used today.

Usage

Shuruk in modern texts

''For details on the sounds of Hebrew, see Help:IPA/Hebrew and Hebrew phonology''

The shuruk is used to mark at the last syllable of the word and in open syllables in the middle of the word:
* ('they guarded')
* ('cat')
* ('answer', '' Tshuva'')

Regardless of syllable type, shuruk is always written in foreign words and names if they weren't adapted to Hebrew word structure (''mishkal''):
* ('university')
* ('Hamburg')
* ('Ukraine') (closed syllable)

Differently from all other niqqud signs, a shuruk can stand on its own in the beginning of the word and not after a consonant when it is the conjunction ''and''. Hebrew one-letter words are written together with the next word and their pronunciation may change according to the first letters of that word. The basic vocalization of this conjunction is '' shva na'' ( ), but before the labial consonants ''bet'' (), ''vav'' (), ''mem'' () and ''pe'' (), and before any letter with ''shva'' (except ''yodh'') it becomes a shuruk ( ). This is the consistent vocalization in the Bible and in normative modern Hebrew, but in spoken modern Hebrew it is not consistently productive and the conjunction may simply remain in these cases. It is not reflected in writing without niqqud. Examples:
* ('and a letter')
* ('and a rose')
* ('and books')

Kubutz in modern texts

Kubutz is used only in native Hebrew words and in words with foreign roots that were adapted to Hebrew word structure (''mishkal''), for example (' formatted (disk)') (without niqqud ). It is written in closed syllables which do not appear at the end of the word. A closed syllable is one which ends in a consonant with '' shva nakh'' (zero vowel) or in a consonant with '' dagesh khazak'' (essentially two identical consonants, the first of which has ''shva nakh'').

Kubutz in base forms of nouns

Common noun patterns in which kubutz appears in the base form are:
* /CuCCaC/ where the middle CC is a double consonant (with Dagesh): ('scale') , ('saddle') . Without niqqud: , .
* /CuCCa/: ('rat') , without niqqud: . To this pattern belong also the words whose roots' second and third letter are the same and merge into one consonant with dagesh: ('hut', '' Sukkah'') , root , without niqqud: .
* /CəCuCCa/ where the last CC is a double consonant (with dagesh): ('point') . The dagesh is not realized in modern Hebrew, but if the letter with the dagesh is ''bet'' (), ''kaph'' () or ''pe'' (), then it is pronounced as a stop consonant: ('ketubah', ' prenuptial agreement') , (' housewarming', Hanukkah) . changes to on a guttural letter. Without niqqud: , .
* /CuCCan/: ('desk') , without niqqud: .
* /CuCCoCet/ with dagesh in the middle letter of the root: ('coat', 'garment') ; with a four letter root: ('skull') . Without niqqud: , .
* /CuCCeCet/: ('spelt', 'buckwheat') , (' goblet') . Without niqqud: , .

Kubutz in declined forms of nouns

Common noun patterns in which kubutz appears in the declined form are:
* Declined forms of words, whose roots' second and third letter are the same, and which have a '' holam haser'' in the last syllable of their base form: ('bears') , the plural of , root ; ('all of them') , a declined form of , root . All these words are written with ''vav'' in texts without niqqud: , , , .
* Declined forms of words which have the pattern /CaCoC/ in the singular and become /CəCuCCim/ in the plural: ('yellow', ), pl. (), ('round', ), pl. (). Without niqqud: , , , . Exception: ('sweet', ), pl. (), with holam gadol and shuruk and without dagesh.
* Some words, in the base form of which the penultimate syllable has and is stressed (sometimes called ''seggolate''), may be written with kubutz or with '' kamatz katan'' when declined. For example, base form: (''wage'', ); declined: or , both being normative spellings and pronunciations of ''her wage''. Without niqqud, in any case: , .

The plural form of words which end in was in the past written with a kubutz in texts with niqqud: sg. ('shop'), , pl. . In March 2009 the Academy decided to simplify the niqqud of such words by eliminating the dagesh in the letter ''yodh'' and changing the kubutz to shuruk: ‎. This doesn't change the pronunciation, since in modern Hebrew the dagesh is not realized anyway. The spelling without niqqud is also unchanged: .

Kubutz in verbs

Kubutz is common in verbs in the passive binyanim pual and huf'al and in some conjugated forms of verbs whose roots' second and third letters are the same.

=Pual

=
Verbs and participles in the passive binyan pual usually have a kubutz in the first letter of the root: ('was gathered') , ('acceptable') , without niqqud: , .

If the second letter of the root is one of the guttural consonants ''aleph'' (), '' he'' (), '' ayin'' () and ''resh'' () - but not ''heth'' () -, the kubutz changes to ''holam haser'' in a process called ''tashlum dagesh'' (): ('will be described') , ('graded') ; without niqqud: , .

=Huf'al

=
Kubutz is used in the prefixes of verbs and participles in the passive binyan Huf'al: ('was put to sleep') , ('organized') . It is also correct to write words in this binyan with '' kamatz katan'' in the prefix: , (, ). Without niqqud, in any case: , .

The kubutz is used only if the prefix is a closed vowel, which is the majority of cases. With some root patterns, however, it becomes an open vowel, in which case a shuruk is written:
* Roots whose first letter is ''yodh'' (): ('become better') , root ; ('brought down') , root .
* Roots whose middle letter is ''waw'' () or ''yodh'' (): ('erected') , root ; ('understood') , root .
* Roots whose second and third letter are the same: ('protected') , root .

In many roots whose first letter is ''nun'' () and in six roots whose first two letters are ''yodh'' () and ''tsade'' (), this letter is assimilated with the second letter of the root, which in turn takes a complementary dagesh. This makes the syllable of the prefix closed, so accordingly the prefix takes kubutz: ('driven') , root ; ('presented') , root . Without niqqud: , .

=Double roots

=
Kubutz appears in some conjugated forms of verbs with roots whose second and third letter are the same (also called double stems and ). Most of them are rarely used.

Examples with verb ('turn') in the future tense of binyan qal:
* (1 sg. with possessive suffix)
* (3 pl. f.)

In older texts

In the Bible ''shuruk'' and ''kubutz'' are not always used according to the above consistent rules and sometimes quite arbitrarily. For example, in appear the words: ('and your backslidings shall reprove you', ). Kubutz is used in both of them, even though in the first word the syllable is not closed and the ''vav'' is even a part of this word's root, and in the second word the sound is in the last syllable. Contrariwise, a shuruk is used in closed syllables where a kubutz would be expected, for example in - ('naked', , the plural of , ), instead of the more regular (in modern Hebrew without niqqud: ).

The word (''speech'', ) is written with kubutz in the Bible. It was previously frequently used to mark the signature on documents (e.g. - 'so says Yosef Levi'), but this usage is rare in modern Hebrew, where this word usually means "(a delivered) speech" and is regularly spelled with shuruk - . The name ('Joshua', ) is spelled with kubutz in the Bible, but usually in modern Hebrew.

In the first decades of the revival of the Hebrew language it was common in spelling without niqqud not to write the ''vav'' in words which were written with kubutz. For example, in the printed works of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda the word מרבה may mean ('multiplied', ) and ('multiplying', ). This practice disappeared in the middle of twentieth century and now is written and is written .

Pronunciation

In Biblical Hebrew both signs may have indicated the same sound and when the Bible manuscripts were vocalized kubutz was simply used where the letter ''vav'' was not written, although other possibilities were proposed by researchers, most commonly that the vowels had different length (quantity), kubutz being shorter, or that the signs indicated different sounds (quality), kubutz being more rounded, although this is a matter of debate. It is also possible that Biblical Hebrew had several varieties of sounds, which were not consistently represented in writing. Chaim Rabin, 'Short Vowels in Tiberian Hebrew', in ''Ḥiqre Lašon'' 1999 (originally published 1961). .

Shuruk is usually a reflection of reconstructed Proto-Semitic long (ū) sound, although most likely in the Bible kubutz stands for it when the letter ''vav'' is not written. Kubutz is one of the reflections of the short Proto-Semitic short (ŭ) sound. Kamatz katan is a variant of kubutz in the Bible, as they are found in complementary distribution in closely related morphological patterns.

In modern Hebrew, both signs indicate the phoneme , a close back rounded vowel. Its closest equivalent in English is the "oo" sound in tool. It is transliterated as a "u".

In modern Hebrew writing without niqqud the sound is always written as '' waw'', in which case it is considered a ''mater lectionis''.

The following table contains the pronunciation of the kubutz and shuruk in reconstructed historical forms and dialects using the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Vowel length comparison

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

Unicode encoding

See also

* Niqqud

References

{{Hebrew language

Niqqud