The Hebrew alphabet (2)

The last eleven letters

Last lesson you met א through כ. Today we finish the alphabet. Start with the last two words of Genesis 1:1.

Look at the final word, הָאָרֶץ, "ha'aretz", "the earth". From the right you see ה, א, ר and then ץ, a shape you have not met yet. First, the table.

ע is taught here as silent, like א; both simply give a vowel somewhere to sit, and the panel writes both as ' or leaves them out. פ is p when it has a dot inside (פּ) and f without one, the same pattern as בּ/ב, and we will learn the rule two lessons from now. ש is a single letter whose sound depends on a dot. A dot at the upper right, שׁ, is "sh"; a dot at the upper left, שׂ, is "s". You can see the first in בְּרֵאשִׁית and the second in בָּשָׂר.

In the academic pronunciation used in this course, a few letters sound alike. ט and ת are both t, ק and כּ are both k, and שׂ and ס are both s. Ancient speakers may have kept them apart, but we do not, so learn the spelling by shape rather than trying to hear it. Also be honest about the throaty sound of ח and the soft כ: English has nothing exactly like it, and any spelling is only approximate.

Five letters with a final form

Five letters, כ מ נ פ צ, are written in a different shape when they come at the very end of a word, that is, at the left edge. The name and sound are unchanged; only the shape differs.

Let us read one word for each, from the right.

מֶלֶךְ, "melekh", means "king" and occurs about 2,500 times. It is מ, ל and the final ך. In Genesis 14:18 it describes Melchizedek. מֶלֶךְ

Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine — since he was priest of God Most High —

Genesis 14:18

Exodus 3:1 introduces Moses' father-in-law Jethro as "the priest of Midian", and there you meet כֹּהֵן, "kohen", "priest", about 750 times, ending in the final ן. The dot inside its first letter is explained two lessons from now.

עַם, "am", means "people" and occurs over 1,700 times. Its first letter ע is silent and its last is the final ם. In Exodus 1:9 Pharaoh speaks of the "people of the sons of Israel".

כֶּסֶף, "kesef", means "silver" or "money", about 390 times. In Genesis 23:15 Abraham is offered land worth "four hundred shekels of silver". The last letter is the final ף, an f.

אֶרֶץ, "eretz", is "land" or "earth", about 2,300 times, and ends in ץ. It is the word inside הָאָרֶץ of Genesis 1:1, where the prefix ה means "the".

Telling look-alikes apart

The new look-alikes also take one clue each. ס is a closed round letter, while the final ם has square corners. ע is split like a Y at the top, and צ has a small head and a tail. ר is rounded at the top right and ד has a sharp corner. ת has a little foot on its left leg and ח has two plain legs. Final ן and ך drop below the line; ו stays on it.

Reading the consonants of Genesis 1:1

You now know all twenty-two letters. Here is the whole verse.

Trace the consonants of each word from the right: בראשית, ברא, אלהים, את, השמים, ואת, הארץ. That is 28 consonants, and not one is new to you. Most of the other marks above and below the letters are vowels, which come next lesson. A few dots, such as the one in the first letter of the verse and the one inside שּׁ, are not vowels but a sign called the dagesh, which we meet in the lesson after the vowels.

Summary

Today's letters are ל מ נ ס ע פ צ ק ר ש ת, which completes the alphabet. ך ם ן ף ץ are the forms used only at the end of a word. ש is sh with its dot on the right and s with its dot on the left. ט/ת, ק/כּ and שׂ/ס sound alike here. Next come the vowel points.

Words in this lesson

• מֶ֫לֶךְmelekhking2,512 times in the OT
• עַםampeople1,757 times in the OT
• כֹּהֵןkohenpriest750 times in the OT
• כֶּ֫סֶףkesephsilver: money391 times in the OT
• אֶ֫רֶץeretsland: country/planet2,318 times in the OT

Practice