Hebrew
punctuation
Punctuation (or sometimes interpunction) is the use of spacing, conventional signs (called punctuation marks), and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of written text, whether read silently or aloud. An ...
is similar to that of
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and other
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
languages,
Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew ( he, עברית חדשה, ''ʿivrít ḥadašá ', , '' lit.'' "Modern Hebrew" or "New Hebrew"), also known as Israeli Hebrew or Israeli, and generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew ( ), is the standard form of the H ...
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.
Punctuation
Quotation marks
![OldHebrewQuotationStyle from1923 translation of RobinsonCrusoe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/OldHebrewQuotationStyle_from1923_translation_of_RobinsonCrusoe.png)
With most printed Hebrew texts from the early 1970s and before, opening quotation marks are low (as in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
), 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 mostly disappeared, and today, quotations are most often punctuated as they are in English (such as ), with both quotation marks high. This is due to the advent of the
Hebrew keyboard layout
A Hebrew keyboard (Hebrew: ''mikledet ivrit'') comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards are bilingual, with Latin characters, usually in a US Qwerty layout. Trilingual keyboard options also exist, with the third script ...
, which lacks the opening quotation mark 〈
„〉, as well as to the lack in Hebrew of “
smart quotes” in certain word processing programs.
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 keyboard (Hebrew: ''mikledet ivrit'') comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards are bilingual, with Latin characters, usually in a US Qwerty layout. Trilingual keyboard options also exist, with the third script ...
.
Period, question mark, exclamation mark, comma
Periods (
full stops),
question mark
The question mark (also known as interrogation point, query, or eroteme in journalism) is a punctuation mark that indicates an interrogative clause or phrase in many languages.
History
In the fifth century, Syriac Bible manuscripts used que ...
s,
exclamation mark
The exclamation mark, , or exclamation point (American English), is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or to show emphasis. The exclamation mark often marks the end of a sentence, f ...
s, and
commas are used as in English.
A Hebrew period in a traditional ''
serif'' face usually looks like a tiny tilted square (a
diamond
Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, ...
; ◊). This is also true for the dot part of the
question mark
The question mark (also known as interrogation point, query, or eroteme in journalism) is a punctuation mark that indicates an interrogative clause or phrase in many languages.
History
In the fifth century, Syriac Bible manuscripts used que ...
, and
exclamation mark
The exclamation mark, , or exclamation point (American English), is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or to show emphasis. The exclamation mark often marks the end of a sentence, f ...
.
In
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
, 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 (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
is also written right-to-left, but uses a question mark that appears on the page in the same orientation as the English 〈?〉. Note that Hebrew commas are not mirrored - although that was once suggested (together with mirrored semi-colons, 'capital' letters, etc.) by a 19th century British minister called William Withers Ewbank.
Colon and '
Stemming from Biblical Hebrew, a ' 〈 〉 is the equivalent of a period, and is used in some writings such as prayer books. Since a ' is absent from the
Hebrew keyboard layout
A Hebrew keyboard (Hebrew: ''mikledet ivrit'') comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards are bilingual, with Latin characters, usually in a US Qwerty layout. Trilingual keyboard options also exist, with the third script ...
, and looks very similar to the
colon 〈:〉, a colon is often substituted for it.
Vertical bar and ''paseq''
![Crop of Hebrew manuscript meant to illustrate Hebrew punctuation paseq](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Crop_of_Hebrew_manuscript_meant_to_illustrate_Hebrew_punctuation_paseq.jpg)
The ''
paseq
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 ...
'' () 〈〉 originates from Biblical Hebrew. As it is not on a standard
Hebrew keyboard
A Hebrew keyboard (Hebrew: ''mikledet ivrit'') comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards are bilingual, with Latin characters, usually in a US Qwerty layout. Trilingual keyboard options also exist, with the third script ...
, a
vertical bar 〈, 〉 is often used instead. However, it is seldom if ever used in modern Israeli Hebrew, and is not mentioned on the
Academy of the Hebrew Language's guide to modern Hebrew punctuation.
The height of the ''paseq'' depends on the font, but it is generally the same as the letter .
Like much Biblical Hebrew punctuation, the meaning of the ''paseq'' is not known, although a number of hypotheses exist. The word itself means "separator", but this name was a medieval innovation by later Jews; the root does not exist in the Biblical Hebrew canon.
James Kennedy, an English
hebraist
A Hebraist is a specialist in Jewish, Hebrew and Hebraic studies. Specifically, British and German scholars of the 18th and 19th centuries who were involved in the study of Hebrew language and literature were commonly known by this designation, a ...
, wrote a book about the ''paseq'' in which he hypothesized that it was an ancient mark serving the same purpose as the modern word
sic
The Latin adverb ''sic'' (; "thus", "just as"; in full: , "thus was it written") inserted after a quoted word or passage indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated exactly as found in the source text, complete with any e ...
(in non-Latin texts).
The
Westminster Leningrad Codex
The Leningrad Codex ( la, Codex Leningradensis [Leningrad Book]; he, כתב יד לנינגרד) is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, using the Masoretic Text and Tiberian vocalization. According to its colopho ...
contains over 500 ''paseq''s; William Wickes, an influential scholar in this area, divide them into nine classes;
Wilhelm Gesenius
Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius (3 February 178623 October 1842) was a German orientalist, lexicographer, Christian Hebraist, Lutheran theologian, Biblical scholar and critic.
Biography
Gesenius was born at Nordhausen. In 1803 he became ...
, drawing on Wickes, divided them into five:
* as a divider between two words which end and begin with the same letters, e.g. (''
Shalom
''Shalom'' ( he, שָׁלוֹם ''šālōm''; also spelled as ''sholom'', ''sholem'', ''sholoim'', ''shulem'') is a Hebrew word meaning ''peace'', ''harmony'', ''wholeness'', ''completeness'', ''prosperity'', ''welfare'' and ''tranquility'' and ...
'',
ma)
* between identical or very similar words, e.g. (the dancer danced)
* between words which are to a high degree contradictory, e.g. (
God, evil)
* between words otherwise liable to be wrongly connected, e.g. , which prevents the somewhat bizarre phrase (,
spoon
A spoon is a utensil consisting of a shallow bowl (also known as a head), oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery (sometimes called flatware in the United States), especially as part of a place setting, it is used primarily f ...
) (,
queue __NOTOC__
Queue () may refer to:
* Queue area, or queue, a line or area where people wait for goods or services
Arts, entertainment, and media
*''ACM Queue'', a computer magazine
* ''The Queue'' (Sorokin novel), a 1983 novel by Russian author ...
) from being wrongly read as (), meaning
button
A button is a fastener that joins two pieces of fabric together by slipping through a loop or by sliding through a buttonhole.
In modern clothing and fashion design, buttons are commonly made of plastic but also may be made of metal, wood, o ...
.
* "and lastly, between heterogeneous terms, as Eleazar the High Priest, and Joshua" (see context in )
An example may be found in in the Westminster Leningrad Codex and many other manuscripts:
Hyphen and ''maqaf''
The ' () 〈〉 is the Hebrew
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. ''Son-in-law'' is an example of a hyphenated word. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes ( figure ...
〈-〉, 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 ' is at the top) and it has a biblical origin, unlike many other
Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew ( he, עברית חדשה, ''ʿivrít ḥadašá ', , '' lit.'' "Modern Hebrew" or "New Hebrew"), also known as Israeli Hebrew or Israeli, and generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew ( ), is the standard form of the H ...
punctuation symbols, which have simply been imported from European languages.
The original purpose of the ''maqaf'' was to show that two words should be considered one for the purpose of
dagesh
The dagesh () is a diacritic used in the Hebrew alphabet. It was added to the Hebrew orthography at the same time as the Masoretic system of niqqud (vowel points). It takes the form of a dot placed inside a Hebrew letter and has the effect of modi ...
placement, vowels, stress (''ṭaʿam'', ), and
cantillation
Cantillation is the ritual chanting of prayers and responses. It often specifically refers to Jewish Hebrew cantillation. Cantillation sometimes refers to diacritics used in texts that are to be chanted in liturgy.
Cantillation includes:
* Chant
...
. This use continues into the present beyond reprintings of Biblical texts;
for example, the
sheet music for modern Hebrew songs, such as , are normally printed with them. The ' is well-used in Hebrew typography; most books and newspapers use it and have the hyphens higher than one would find in English. In typed documents, however, it is frequently not used because before the 2010s it was absent from most keyboards or cumbersome to type. As a consequence, 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-minus 〈-〉 over
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. ''Son-in-law'' is an example of a hyphenated word. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes ( figure ...
〈‐〉,
minus 〈−〉,
en dash 〈–〉, and
em dash 〈—〉.
As of 2010s, it is possible to insert ' using in most common operating systems: AltGr-Minus in desktop Linux and Windows 8 and higher according to the SI 1452 standard,
Option key
The Option key, , is a modifier key present on Apple keyboards. It is located between the Control key and Command key on a typical Mac keyboard. There are two Option keys on modern (as of 2020) Mac desktop and notebook keyboards, one on each sid ...
+
Backslash
The backslash is a typographical mark used mainly in computing and mathematics. It is the mirror image of the common slash . It is a relatively recent mark, first documented in the 1930s.
History
, efforts to identify either the origin of ...
on
MacOS
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
, and
long tap on the minus in the iOS Hebrew keyboard and in
Gboard
Gboard is a virtual keyboard app developed by Google for Android and iOS devices. It was first released on iOS in May 2016, followed by a release on Android in December 2016, debuting as a major update to the already-established Google Keyboa ...
on Android systems.
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
The
shekel sign () is the currency sign for the Israeli currency (the
Israeli new shekel), in the way
$,
£, and
€
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...
exist for other currencies. The shekel sign, like the dollar sign 〈$〉, is usually placed to the left of the number (so ', rather than '), 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
In typography, a thin space is a space character whose width is usually or of an em. It is used to add a narrow space, such as between nested quotation marks or to separate glyphs that interfere with one another. It is not as narrow as the hai ...
.
Unlike the dollar sign, the new shekel sign is not used that often when handwriting monetary amounts, and is generally replaced by the abbreviation (standing for ', lit. "new shekel"). The new shekel sign can be typed on desktop Linux and Windows 8 and higher systems using the combination AltGr-4 according to the SI 1452 standard.
The short-lived
Israeli old shekel
The old Israeli shekel, then known as the shekel ( he, שקל, formally ''sheqel'', . , ''Sheqalim''; ar, شيكل, ''šēkal,'' formerly ar, شيقل'', šēqal'' until 2014; code ) was the currency of the State of Israel between 24 February 1 ...
, on the other hand, which symbol was
![Old Sheqel sign](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Old_Sheqel_sign.svg)
,
[As of April 2019, this symbol does not exist in ]Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...
. is rarely referred to in Israeli texts; both due to its lifespan of only five years and the fact that due to hyperinflation it lost value daily, so that referring to a value in Israeli old shekels, even in retrospective writing, is essentially meaningless without knowing the exact time the figure was quoted. As prices changed so rapidly, advertising of the time predominately used dollars; when the shekel was referred to at all, it was with the letter S or its full Hebrew name—; although certain banks, such as
Bank Leumi, used the letter to refer to it on checks, as well as the Latin letters "I.S."
The
Israeli pound
The pound or lira ( he, לירה ישראלית ''Lira Yisra'elit'', ar, جنيه إسرائيلي ''Junayh ʾIsrāʾīlī''; abbreviation: IL in Latin, ל"י in Hebrew; code ) was the currency of the State of Israel from 9 June 1952 until 23 F ...
was the Israeli Currency until 1980. Its sign is I£, and its abbreviation is .
''Geresh'' and ''gershayim''
The ''
geresh
Geresh ( in Hebrew: or , or medieval ) is a sign in Hebrew writing. It has two meanings.
#An apostrophe-like sign (also known colloquially as a ''chupchik'') placed after a letter:
#* as a diacritic that modifies the pronunciation ...
'' 〈〉, is the Hebrew equivalent of a period in abbreviations (e.g. abbrev.), in addition to being attached to Hebrew letters to indicate sounds like
soft ''g'' and
''ch'' in foreign names such as Charles () and Jake (). The ''
gershayim'' 〈〉, is a Hebrew symbol indicating that a sequence of characters is an acronym, and is placed ''before'' the last character of the word. Owing to a
Hebrew keyboard
A Hebrew keyboard (Hebrew: ''mikledet ivrit'') comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards are bilingual, with Latin characters, usually in a US Qwerty layout. Trilingual keyboard options also exist, with the third script ...
'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
fonts (fonts designed primarily for Hebrew letters), such as
David
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
,
Narkisim and
FrankRuehl, do not feature the apostrophe and quotation marks as such but use the ''geresh'' and ''gershayim'' to substitute for them.
Mathematics
Mathematical expressions are written in Hebrew using the same symbols as in English, including
Western numerals
Arabic numerals are the ten numerical digits: , , , , , , , , and . They are the most commonly used symbols to write decimal numbers. They are also used for writing numbers in other systems such as octal, and for writing identifiers such as ...
, 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.
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, wh ...
has this symbol at position U+FB29 "Hebrew letter alternative plus sign" (﬩).
Unicode U+FB29 reference page
/ref> The reason for this practice is that it avoids the writing of a symbol "+" that looks like a Christian cross.[Christian-Jewish Dialogue: Theological Foundations By Peter von der Osten-Sacken (1986 – Fortress Press)](_blank)
"In Israel the plus sign used in mathematics is represented by a horizontal stroke with a vertical hook instead of the sign otherwise used all over the world, because the latter is reminiscent of a cross." (Page 96)
Reversed ''nun''
Reversed ''nun'' (also called inverted ''nun'', ''nun hafukha'', or ''nun menuzzeret'') is a rare character found in two Biblical Hebrew texts. Although in Judaic literature it is known as ''nun hafukha'' ("reversed ''nun
A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...
''"), 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 Numbers
The book of Numbers (from Greek Ἀριθμοί, ''Arithmoi''; he, בְּמִדְבַּר, ''Bəmīḏbar'', "In the desert f) is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and c ...
(prior to and after Numbers 10:34-36), and seven times in Psalm
The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived f ...
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°.[Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set: International Organization for Standardization](_blank)
/ref> Other times it appears to look like the letter Z.
Hebrew points (vowels)
These signs (points, ') 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 ', the ', is no longer used in Hebrew, even though it is routinely used in Yiddish spelling (as defined by YIVO
YIVO (Yiddish: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. (The word '' ...
).
Hebrew cantillation marks
The cantillation marks ( he, טעמים ') have a very specialized use. They are only found in printed Hebrew texts of Tanakh
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
'' Torah
The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the ...
, to be memorized along with vowel marks as the Sefer Torah includes only the letters of the text without cantillation or vowel marks. Outside the Tanakh
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
'' Hebrew keyboard
A Hebrew keyboard (Hebrew: ''mikledet ivrit'') comes in two different keyboard layouts. Most Hebrew keyboards are bilingual, with Latin characters, usually in a US Qwerty layout. Trilingual keyboard options also exist, with the third script ...
* Hebrew spelling
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hebrew Punctuation
Hebrew alphabet
Modern Hebrew
Punctuation of specific languages