Tzere
Tzere is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign represented by two horizontally-aligned dots "◌ֵ" underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, tzere is pronounced the same as and indicates the phoneme /e/ which is the same as the "e" sound in sell and is transliterated as an "e". There was a distinction in Tiberian Hebrew between segol and Tzere.
Usage
Tzere is usually written in these cases:- In final stressed closed syllables: מַחְשֵׁב, סִפֵּר. Also in final syllables closed by guttural letters with an added furtive patach: מַטְבֵּעַ, שוֹכֵחַ. Notable exceptions to this rule are:
- * The personal suffixes ־תֶם, ־תֶן, ־כֶם, ־כֶן, ־הֶם, ־הֶן are written with segol., הֵן
- * The words אֱמֶת, בַּרְזֶל, גַּרְזֶן, כַּרְמֶל, עֲרָפֶל are written with segol.
- * The word בֵּן is written with tzere in the absolute state, but with segol in the construct state: בֶּן־. In the Bible this rule also applies to other words which end in tzere, when they are written with maqaf.
- In non-final, unstressed open syllables: עֵנָב, תֵּבָה.
- In the first syllable of about 70 segolate words, among them חֵלֶק, סֵפֶר, עֵדֶן. In other – much more numerous – segolate words the first sound is a segol.
- In final open syllables, when the mater lectionis is yod or aleph : בְּנֵי־, מוֹצֵא. When the mater lectionis is he, the vowel sign is usually segol, 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.
In modern Hebrew there are words which are homophones and homographs in spelling without niqqud, but are written differently with niqqud, the difference being segol and tzere. For example, עֶרֶב evening and עֵרֶב weft are both pronounced and written ערב without niqqud.
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 aleph 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.
Standard usage without Yod
Tzere can be written by itself without mater lectionis, in which case it is called tzere ḥaser, for example in the word . In this case, in text without niqqud the vowel is usually not written at all: זר. This word can be also vocalized as 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 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:
- * Nouns, for example בֵּיצָה, root ב־י־צ; זֵיתִים, root ז־י־ת, מֵידָע, root י־ד־ע. 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 פְּסֵיפָס, קֵיסָם and the word "tzere" itself – צֵירֵי.
- * Verbs, in which the last letter of the root is he, which is by convention treated as interchangeable with Yod, for example נִבְנֵית, root ב־נ־ה. In Arabic the corresponding verbs are written with ʾalif maqṣūra, which represents a similar interchange of the letters yāʾ and ʾalif.
- * Some verbs in which the first letter of the root is Yod, for example הֵיטִיב, root י־ט־ב.
- 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 הֶשֵּׂג.
Nonstandard usage of Yod to represent tzere
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: מֵמַד, מֵרַב, שֵׂעָר are often written מימד, מירב and שיער, even though the standard spelling without niqqud is ממד, מרב, שער. 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 שְׂעָרוֹת is frequently written שיערות, although the vowel of the ש is shva.
- Words in the pattern CəCeCa are often written with a Yod, even though it is not the standard. Examples include בְּרֵכָה, גְּנֵבָה, שְׂרֵפָה, which are often written בריכה, גניבה, שריפה instead of the standard ברכה, גנבה, שרפה.
- 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 יֵשֵׁב is often written יישב, although the standard spelling is ישב. This spelling may also be vocalized יָשַׁב, but adding a Yod doesn't solve the ambiguity – יישב may be vocalized יְיַשֵׁב and יִשֵׁב. Because of the many potential ambiguities, the Academy suggests adding vocalization in such cases.
- Several other examples:
- * The standard spelling of the plural form of the word פְּרִי is פֵּרוֹת with niqqud and פרות without niqqud, but it is often written פירות.
- * The words אֵזוֹר, הֵפֶךְ, תֵּכֶף are sometimes spelled איזור, היפך, תיכף, although the standard spelling without niqqud is אזור, הפך, תכף.
- According to the modern spelling rules, the Academy mandates writing a Yod in some cases in which the vowel changes to for grammatical reasons. For example:
- * In the future, imperative and infinitive forms of verbs in binyan nif'al, the vowel of the prefix is usually, which in standard spelling without niqqud is written with a Yod: לְהִזָּהֵר, standard spelling without niqqud: להיזהר. This vowel changes to before the guttural letters א, ה, ח, ע, ר: לְהֵרָדֵם, standard spelling without niqqud: להירדם. Sometimes, however, verbs with both and are written without a Yod in texts without niqqud: להזהר, להרדם.
- * In nouns of the pattern CiCCuC, such as סִפּוּק the vowel also changes to before guttural letters: פֵּרוּשׁ, תֵּאוּר, without niqqud: פירוש, תיאור, but sometimes פרוש, תאור.
- The Yod is sometimes omitted from words, the last letter of whose root is ה. This is a mistake, because in these verbs the Yod is written in texts with niqqud. For example: הוֹדֵיתִי, נֶהֱנֵינוּ are sometimes incorrectly spelled הודתי, נהננו.
Tzere with aleph and he
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 יְפֵהפִיָּה, in which the two last letters of the root are reduplicated. It can also be spelled יפה־פיה or יפיפיה.
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 construct state of nouns: absolute state שָׂדֶה, but construct state שְׂדֵה־.
- In the imperative and absolute infinitive forms of the verb: future form יְגַלֶּה, but גַּלֵּה ; future form תַּרְבֶּה, absolute infinitive הַרְבֵּה.
- In some words, among them אַיֵּה, אַרְיֵה, הִנֵּה, יָשְׁפֵה, ־עֶשְׂרֵה.
Pronunciation
The letters Bet "ב" used in this table are 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.