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Hebrew: Alphabet

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{{Infobox_Contents |topic_name =Hebrew Alphabet |subtopics =Introduction=[[Koine Greek: Alphabet]] |opinion_pieces ={{short_opinions}} |}}
The Hebrew alphabet is a set of 22 letters used to write the Hebrew language. Hebrew is read from right to left. Hebrew orthography is highly phonetic, that is, a word's pronunciation is clearly defined by the way it is spelled.
Hebrew has two different systems for pronunciation. The '''Ashkenazi''' version is from eastern Europe. The '''Sephardic''' version is from Spain. The pronunciation given here is the modern Hebrew pronunciation used in Israel, which is based mostly on Sephardic Hebrew.
===Diacritic Punctuation===
Hebrew is written with vowels underneath the consonants. You pronounce the consonant sound first, then the vowel that is underneath it.
In printed material such as newspapers, Hebrew is written without any diacritic marks, including vowels. This may seem daunting at first, but as you learn vocabulary you will be surprised by how easily you can recognize words without vowels.
===Final forms===
Some letters appear differently when at the end of a word. It does not affect their pronounciation.
=== Consonants ===
Here, each consonant is shown in its own box. Each line contains the name of the letter in English, the actual letter, the transliteration used throughout the book and the IPA equivalent.
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=== Vowels ===
In the table below, vowel diacritics are explained in detail. Each line contains the name of the mark, an example of its usage (in combination with a sample consonant, the transliteration used in this wikibook and the IPA equivalent. (Notice that the khataf forms appear only under the gutteral letters א, ה, ח, ע.)
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===Exercises===
Say each line out loud.
 
<font size=6>גָ גַ גֶ גָ גֶ אֲג אֱג אֱבּ בֶּג גְאֲב גָבְּגָ &larr; </font>
===Quotes===
 
===Links===
{{returnto}} [[Biblical Hebrew]]
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