Tzere (also spelled ''Tsere'', ''Tzeirei'', ''Zere'', ''Zeire'', ''Ṣērê''; modern , , sometimes also written ; formerly ''ṣērê'') is a

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

niqqud In Hebrew orthography, niqqud or nikud ( or ) is a system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Several such diacritical systems were developed in the Ea ...

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

sign represented by two horizontally-aligned dots "◌ֵ" underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, tzere is mostly pronounced the same as

segol Segol (modern , ; formerly , ''səḡôl'') is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign that is represented by three dots forming an upside down equilateral triangle "ֶ ". As such, it resembles an upside down therefore sign (a because sign) underneat ...

and indicates the

phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...

/ɛ/, which is the same as the "e" sound in the vowel segol and is

transliterated Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

as an "e". There was a distinction in

Tiberian Hebrew Tiberian Hebrew is the canonical pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) committed to writing by Masoretic scholars living in the Jewish community of Tiberias in ancient Galilee under the Abbasid Caliphate. They wrote in the form of Tib ...

between

and Tzere.

Name

The name comes from

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

/ Syriac “a tearing asunder, splitting, tearing, bursting” is probably a

loan translation In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language whil ...

from

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

kasrah The Arabic script has numerous diacritics, which include consonant pointing known as (, ), and supplementary diacritics known as (, ). The latter include the vowel marks termed (, ; , ', ). The Arabic script is a modified abjad, where all ...

, the name of the short vowel /i/, literally “a breaking, breach”.

Usage

Tzere is usually written in these cases: * In final stressed closed syllables: (, ''computer''), (, ''he told''; without niqqud ). Also in final syllables closed by guttural letters with an added furtive

patach Pataḥ ( ', , Biblical Hebrew: ') is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign represented by a horizontal line underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, it indicates the phoneme which is close to the " sound in the English word ''far'' and is transliterated ...

: (, ''coin''), (, ''forgetting''). Notable exceptions to this rule are: ** The personal suffixes (, 2 pl. m.), (, 2 pl. f.), (, 2 pl. m.), (, 2 pl. f.), (, 3 pl. m.), (, 3 pl. f.) are written with segol. (But the words (, ''they m.''), (, ''they f.'') are written with Tzere.) ** The words (, ''truth''), (, ''iron''), (, ''axe''), (, '' Carmel'', ''gardenland''), (, ''fog'') are written with segol. ** The word (, ''son, boy'') is written with tzere in the absolute state, but with segol in the

construct state In Afro-Asiatic languages, the first noun in a genitive phrase that consists of a possessed noun followed by a possessor noun often takes on a special morphological form, which is termed the construct state (Latin ''status constructus''). For ex ...

: . In the Bible this rule also applies to other words which end in tzere, when they are written with

maqaf 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 lack of such sy ...

. * In non-final, unstressed open syllables: (, ''grape''), (, ''chest'', ''ark''; without niqqud ). * In the first (stressed) syllable of about 70 segolate words, among them (, ''part''), (, ''book''), (, ''Eden''). In other – much more numerous – segolate words the first sound is a

. * In final open syllables, when the

mater lectionis A ''mater lectionis'' ( , ; , ''matres lectionis'' ; original ) is any consonant letter that is used to indicate a vowel, primarily in the writing of Semitic languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac. The letters that do this in Hebrew are ...

is yod () or

aleph Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first Letter (alphabet), letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician ''ʾālep'' 𐤀, Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew ''ʾālef'' , Aramaic alphabet, Aramaic ''ʾālap'' � ...

(): (, ''sons of''), (, ''finding''). When the mater lectionis is he (), the vowel sign is usually

, but tzere is written in the imperative and absolute infinitive forms of the verb, in nouns in construct state, and in the base form of several other nouns (see below for details). In declension tzere sometimes changes to other vowels or to

shva Shva or, in Biblical Hebrew, shĕwa () is a Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew niqqud vowel sign written as two vertical dots () beneath a letter. It indicates either the phoneme (shva na', mobile shva) or the complete absence of a vowel (/Zero (linguist ...

. The full rules for these changes were formulated the Academy of the Hebrew Language. In modern Hebrew there are words which are

homophone A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, a ...

s and

homograph A homograph (from the , and , ) is a word that shares the same written form as another word but has a different meaning. However, some dictionaries insist that the words must also be pronounced differently, while the Oxford English Dictionar ...

s in spelling without niqqud, but are written differently with niqqud, the difference being segol and tzere. For example, ''evening'' and ''

weft In the manufacture of cloth, warp and weft are the two basic components in weaving to transform thread (yarn), thread and yarn into textile fabrics. The vertical ''warp'' yarns are held stationary in tension on a loom (frame) while the horizo ...

'' are both pronounced and written without niqqud (these words also have different etymology).

Writing tzere with and without matres lectionis

''Tzere'' can be written with and without matres lectionis. The most prominent mater lectionis for tzere is Yod (), and in some cases it is used with the letters

() and he (). Standard spelling rules mandate only one way to spell every word with or without the Yod after tzere. Although in standard modern pronunciation the sound of tzere with or without the Yod is the same, it may change the word's meaning in a written text (see below).

Standard usage without Yod

''Tzere'' can be written by itself without mater lectionis, in which case it is called ''tzere ḥaser'' ("lacking tzere"), for example in the word (, ''wreath''). In this case, in text without niqqud the vowel is usually not written at all: זר. This word can be also vocalized as (, ''stranger'') and the reader has to guess the right pronunciation according to the context. According to the standardized Hebrew spelling the letter Yod is sometimes written in texts without niqqud, when there is a grammatical reason for it; for example, the verb (, ''she will be absent'') is written without Yod in texts with niqqud, but the Yod is written in a text without niqqud: .

Standard usage with Yod

''Tzere'' with Yod is called "full tzere". When a full tzere is written in text with niqqud, the letter Yod must be written in text without niqqud. The main cases for writing the tzere with Yod are these: * Tzere is written with Yod to indicate the plural number of declined words, for example means ''our product'' and means ''our products''; the standard pronunciation is the same: . * Tzere is written with Yod in words in which the Yod is a part of the

root In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...

: ** Nouns, for example (, ''egg''), root ; (, ''olives'', the plural of ), root , (, ''information''), root . Tzere is also traditionally written with Yod in several other words, the roots of which are rarely used productively to form other words, among them (, ''mosaic''), (, ''sliver'') and the word "tzere" itself – ().Academy Decisions: Grammar, 2nd edition, §1.4. ** Verbs, in which the last letter of the root is he (), which is by convention treated as interchangeable with Yod, for example (, ''being built f.''), root (or ). In Arabic the corresponding verbs are written with ʾalif maqṣūra, which represents a similar interchange of the letters

yāʾ Yodh (also spelled jodh, yod, or jod) is the tenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''yōd'' 𐤉, Hebrew ''yod'' , Aramaic ''yod'' 𐡉, Syriac ''yōḏ'' ܝ, and Arabic ''yāʾ'' . It is also related to the Ancient Nort ...

(ي) and

ʾalif Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''ʾālep'' 𐤀, Hebrew ''ʾālef'' , Aramaic ''ʾālap'' 𐡀, Syriac ''ʾālap̄'' ܐ, Arabic ''ʾalif'' , and North Arabian 𐪑 ...

(ا). ** Some verbs in which the first letter of the root is Yod (), for example (, ''he did well''), root . * In standard spelling without niqqud Yod is written to represent the sound in words formed in the pattern heCCeC (), in which the first and the second consonants of the root merge, even though the vowel there is not tzere, but seggol, for example (, ''achievement''; root , without niqqud ).

Nonstandard usage of Yod to represent tzere

In texts with full niqqud – mostly poetry, religious and children books – tzere is usually written in accordance with the rules mandated by the academy. The academy defined some cases in which a Yod is added to texts without niqqud to signify an sound, but in common usage Yod is often written or not written contrary to the standard. Some notable common deviations from the standard in which a Yod is added include: * Some words are often written with Yod in texts without niqqud, even though the Yod is not a part of the root and is not written in a text with niqqud. For example: (, ''dimension''), (, '' Merab'', ''most''), (, ''hair'') are often written , , and , even though the standard spelling without niqqud is , , . This goes further as the Yod is retained in declined forms of the word, which aren't written with tzere at all, but with shva; for example, the word (, ''hairs'') is frequently written , although the vowel of the is shva (the standard spelling is ). * Words in the pattern CəCeCa () are often written with a Yod, even though it is not the standard. Examples include (, ''pool''), (, ''theft''), (, ''burning''), which are often written , , instead of the standard , , . * Yod is often added in texts without niqqud to represent tzere in the future tense of verbs in which Yod is the first letter of the root, for example (, ''he will sit'') is often written , although the standard spelling is . This spelling may also be vocalized (, ''he sat''), but adding a Yod doesn't solve the ambiguity – may be vocalized (, ''he will settle'') and (, ''he settled''). Because of the many potential ambiguities, the academy suggests adding vocalization in such cases. * Several other (non-comprehensive) examples: ** The standard spelling of the plural form of the word (, ''fruit'') is () with niqqud and without niqqud, but it is often written ( may also mean ''cows''). ** The words (, ''zone''), (, ''contrary''; also ), (, ''immediately''; also ) are sometimes spelled , , , although the standard spelling without niqqud is , , . (In the '' Even-Shoshan'' dictionary refers to ; in the ''Rav-Millim'' dictionary it is the main entry.) Some notable common deviations from the standard in which a Yod is not written include: * According to the modern spelling rules, the academy mandates writing a Yod in some cases in which the vowel changes to for grammatical reasons. (Not writing the Yod is correct according to the old ''ktiv haser'' spelling.) For example: ** In the future, imperative and infinitive forms of verbs in

binyan In Hebrew, verbs, which take the form of derived stems, are conjugated to reflect their tense and mood, as well as to agree with their subjects in gender, number, and person. Each verb has an inherent voice, though a verb in one voice typic ...

''nif'al'', the vowel of the prefix is usually , which in standard spelling without niqqud is written with a Yod: (, ''to be cautious''), standard spelling without niqqud: . This vowel changes to before the guttural letters , , , , : (, ''to fall asleep''), standard spelling without niqqud: . Sometimes, however, verbs with both and are written without a Yod in texts without niqqud: , . ** In nouns of the pattern CiCCuC, such as (, ''satisfaction'', without niqqud ) the vowel also changes to before guttural letters: (, ''commentary''), (, ''description''), without niqqud: , , but sometimes , . * The Yod is sometimes omitted from words, the last letter of whose root is . This is a mistake, because in these verbs the Yod is written in texts with niqqud. For example: (, ''I thanked'', root ), (, ''we enjoyed'', root ) are sometimes incorrectly spelled , .

Tzere with aleph and he

The letter aleph () is the mater lectionis after tzere in the middle or the end of the word when it is a part of the root: (, ''finding m.''), (, ''finding f.''). The letter he () is very rarely used as a mater lectionis for in the middle of the word. The notable example for this is the word (, ''pretty''), in which the two last letters of the root () are reduplicated. It can also be spelled (fem.; so in the Bible, ) or . The letter he () is often used as a mater lectionis for the vowel in the end of the word, but the niqqud is usually segol. It is tzere in these cases: * In the

of nouns: absolute state (, ''field''), but construct state (). * In the imperative and absolute infinitive forms of the verb: future form (, ''he will discover''), but (, ''discover!''); future form (, ''she shall increase, make many''), absolute infinitive (, ''many''). * In some words, among them (, ''where?''), (, ''lion''), (, ''here!''), (, ''jasper''; also ), (, ''-teen f.'').

Pronunciation

The following table contains the

pronunciation Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. To This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or all language in a specific dialect—"correct" or "standard" pronunciation—or si ...

and

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...

of the different tzeres in reconstructed historical forms and

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

s using the

International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...

. The letter

Bet Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched ...

used in this table is only for demonstration, any letter can be used. In Modern Hebrew tzere – with or without a following ''yod'' – may be pronounced as and transliterated as "ei or "ey". Such pronunciation and transliteration of ''tzere'' are not correct in the normative pronunciation and not consistent in the spoken language.

Unicode encoding

References

{{Hebrew language Niqqud