Shva
Shva or, in Biblical Hebrew, shĕwa is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign written as two vertical dots beneath a letter. It indicates either the phoneme or the complete absence of a vowel .
It is transliterated as "e", "ĕ", "ə", "'", or nothing. Note that usage of "ə" for shva is questionable: transliterating Modern Hebrew shva nach with "ə" or "'" is misleading, since it is never actually pronounced – the vowel does not exist in Modern Hebrew. Moreover, the vowel is probably not characteristic of earlier pronunciations such as Tiberian vocalization.
A shva sign in combination with the vowel diacritics patáẖ, segól and kamáts katán produces a "ẖatáf": a diacritic for a "tnuʿá ẖatufá".
Pronunciation in Modern Hebrew
In Modern Hebrew, shva is either pronounced /e/ or is mute, regardless of its traditional classification as shva nacḥ or shva na, see following table for examples. The Israeli standard for its transliteration is only for a pronounced shva na and no representation in transliteration if the shva is mute.In Modern Hebrew, a shva is pronounced under the following conditions:
Counterexamples
One exception to rule 2 seems to be 'inventory'; the absence of a vowel after the מ might be attributable to the high sonority of the subsequent liquid ל, however compare with 'filling'. According to the New User-Friendly Hebrew-English Dictionary, the word is pronounced with an /e/: .Exceptions to rule 6 include , , , several inflections of quinqueliteral roots – e.g.: ; חִנְטְרֵשׁ ; – as well as other, more recent loanwords, e.g. .
In earlier forms of Hebrew, shva na and nach were phonologically and phonetically distinguishable, but the two variants resulting from Modern Hebrew phonology no longer conform to the traditional classification, e.g. while the shva nach in the phrase is correctly pronounced in Modern Hebrew with the "פ" being mute, the shva na in in Modern Hebrew is often pronounced as a mute Shva. In religious contexts, however, scrupulous readers of the prayers and scriptures do still differentiate properly between Shva Nach and Shva Na.
Traditional classification
In traditional Hebrew grammar, shvas are in most cases classified as either "shva na" or as "shva naḥ" ; in a few cases as "shva meraḥef", and when discussing Tiberian pronunciation some shvas are classified as "shva ga'ya".A shva is categorized according to several attributes of its grammatical context. The three categories of shva relevant to standard grammar of Modern Hebrew are "shva na", "shva naḥ" and "shva meraḥef"; the following table summarizes four distinguishing attributes which determine these categories:
- Does the shva supersede a vowel or no vowel in the word's non inflected form?
- Is the preceding letter pointed with a "short" or a "long" niqqud-variant?
- Is the following letter, when בג״ד כפ״ת, pointed with a dagesh qal or not?
- Is the letter which is pointed with shva assigned to the preceding or to the following syllable?
Shva Na
In most cases, traditional Hebrew grammar considers shva na, or the mobile shva, to be an entity that supersedes a vowel that exists in the basic form of a word but not after this word underwent inflection or declension. Additionally, any shva marked under an initial letter is classified shva na.Merely identifying a given shva as being a "shva na" offers no indication as to its pronunciation in Modern Hebrew; it is however relevant to the application of standard niqqud, e.g.: a letter following a letter marked with a shva na may not be marked with a dagesh qal, or: the vowel preceding a letter marked with a shva na must be represented by the "long" niqqud-variant for that vowel: qamats and not pataḥ, tsere and not segol etc.. Furthermore, in standard syllabification, the letter under which a shva na is marked is grouped with the following syllable.
The Academy of the Hebrew Language's transliteration guidelines specify that shva na should be transliterated only if pronounced in Modern Hebrew, in which case "e" be used for general purposes and "ĕ" for precise transliteration. Generally, shva na is sometimes transliterated "ə". Concerning Modern Hebrew pronunciation, however, this symbol is misleading, since it is commonly used in linguistics to denote the vowel Schwa, which does not exist in Modern Hebrew.
A shva na can be identified as such by means of the following criteria:
- when marked under the first letter of a word, as in,, and,
- when marked under the first of two identical letters,
- when it's the second of two shvas marked under two consecutive letters, as in and ,
- when the letter before the one under which it is marked is marked with a "long" niqqud-variant,, such as the long vowel of either yod or ḥiríq, as in , or the long vowel of waw or ḥolam, as in the words, and and , "shōfəṭīm wa-shōṭərīm."
- when marked under a letter with a dagesh ḥazaq, as and .
Shva Naḥ
Traditional Hebrew grammar defines shva naḥ, or shva quiescens, as indicating the absence of a vowel. In Modern Hebrew, some shvas classified as shva naḥ are nonetheless pronounced .In all but a small number of cases, a shva not conforming to the criteria listed [|above] is classified shva naḥ. This offers no conclusive indication as to its pronunciation in Modern Hebrew; it is however relevant to the application of standard niqqud, e.g.: a בג״ד כפ״ת letter following a letter marked with a shva nacḥ must be marked with a dagesh qal, or: the vowel preceding a letter marked with a shva naḥ must be represented by the "short" niqqud-variant for that vowel: pataḥ and not qamats, segol and not tsere etc.. Furthermore, in standard syllabification, the letter under which a shva naḥ is marked is grouped with the preceding syllable.
The Academy of the Hebrew Language's transliteration guidelines specify that shva naḥ should not be represented in transliteration.
Shva Meraḥef
"Shva meraḥef" is the grammatical designation of a shva which does not comply with all criteria characterizing a shva na, but which does, like a shva na, supersede a vowel that exists in the basic form of a word but not after this word underwent inflection or declension.The classification of a shva as "shva meraḥef" is relevant to the application of standard niqqud, e.g.: a בג״ד כפ״ת letter following a letter marked with a shva meraḥef should not be marked with a dagesh qal, although the vowel preceding this letter could be represented by the "short" niqqud-variant for that vowel. This reflects sometimes, but not always, pronunciation in Modern Hebrew, e.g. מַלְכֵי is commonly pronounced in accordance with the standard form, , whereas כַּלְבֵי, whose standard pronunciation is, is commonly pronounced . In standard syllabification, the letter under which a shva meraḥef is marked is grouped with the preceding syllable.
Shva Ga'ya
"Shva Ga'ya" designates a shva marked under a letter that is also marked with the cantillation mark "ga'ya", or "meteg", e.g. the shva under the letter bet in the word בְּהוֹנוֹת would normally be classified a shva na and be transliterated "e": "behonót", however, if marked with the ga'ya cantillation mark,, this shva is classified as shva ga'ya, and the transliteration believed to reflect its historical pronunciation would be bohonót. This "strict application" is found in Yemenite Hebrew.T'nua hatufa
Within niqqud, vowel diacritics are sorted into three groups: "big", "small" and "fleeting" or "furtive", sometimes also referred to as "long", "short" and "very short" or "ultrashort". This grouping might have correlated to different vowel lengths in earlier forms of Hebrew.The vowel diacritics classified as "chatufot" all share the common feature of being a digraph of a "small vowel" diacritic plus a shva sign. Similarly, their names are derived from the respective "small vowel" diacritic's name plus the adjunct "chataf": "chataf patach", "chataf segol" and "chataf kamatz".
As with a shva na, standard syllabification determines that letters pointed with a "fleeting vowel" diacritic be considered part of the subsequent syllable, even if in modern Hebrew pronunciation this diacritic represents a full-fledged syllable, thus e.g. the phonologically trisyllabic word "הֶעֱמִיד", pronounced, should standardly be syllabified into only two syllables, "הֶ—עֱמִיד".