Tzere


Tzere is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign represented by two horizontally-aligned dots "◌ֵ" underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, tzere is mostly pronounced the same as segol and indicates the phoneme /e̞/, which is the same as the "e" sound in the vowel segol and is transliterated as an "e". There was a distinction in Tiberian Hebrew between segol and Tzere.

Name

The name comes from Aramaic/Syriac “a tearing asunder, splitting, tearing, bursting” is probably a loan translation from Arabic kasrah, the name of the short vowel /i/, literally “a breaking, breach”.

Usage

Tzere is usually written in these cases:
  • In final stressed closed syllables: rtl=yes, rtl=yes. Also in final syllables closed by guttural letters with an added furtive patach: rtl=yes, rtl=yes. Notable exceptions to this rule are:
  • * The personal suffixes rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes are written with segol., rtl=yes
  • * The words rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes are written with segol.
  • * The word rtl=yes is written with tzere in the absolute state, but with segol in the construct state: rtl=yes. 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: rtl=yes, rtl=yes.
  • In the first syllable of about 70 segolate words, among them rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes. 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 : rtl=yes, rtl=yes. 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 declension tzere sometimes changes to other vowels or to shva. The full rules for these changes were formulated the Academy of the Hebrew Language.
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, rtl=yes evening and rtl=yes weft are both pronounced and written rtl=yes 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 rtl=yes, root rtl=yes; rtl=yes, root rtl=yes, rtl=yes, root rtl=yes. 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 rtl=yes, rtl=yes and the word "tzere" itself – rtl=yes.
  • * Verbs, in which the last letter of the root is he, which is by convention treated as interchangeable with Yod, for example rtl=yes, root rtl=yes. 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 rtl=yes, root rtl=yes.
  • 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 rtl=yes.

    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: rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes are often written rtl=yes, rtl=yes, and rtl=yes, even though the standard spelling without niqqud is rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes. 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 rtl=yes is frequently written rtl=yes, although the vowel of the rtl=yes is shva.
  • Words in the pattern CəCeCa are often written with a Yod, even though it is not the standard. Examples include rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes, which are often written rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes instead of the standard rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes.
  • 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 rtl=yes is often written rtl=yes, although the standard spelling is rtl=yes. This spelling may also be vocalized rtl=yes, but adding a Yod doesn't solve the ambiguity – rtl=yes may be vocalized rtl=yes and rtl=yes. 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 rtl=yes is rtl=yes with niqqud and rtl=yes without niqqud, but it is often written rtl=yes.
  • * The words rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes are sometimes spelled rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes, although the standard spelling without niqqud is rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes.
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. 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: rtl=yes, standard spelling without niqqud: rtl=yes. This vowel changes to before the guttural letters א, ה, ח, ע, ר: rtl=yes, standard spelling without niqqud: rtl=yes. Sometimes, however, verbs with both and are written without a Yod in texts without niqqud: rtl=yes, rtl=yes.
  • * In nouns of the pattern CiCCuC, such as rtl=yes the vowel also changes to before guttural letters: rtl=yes, rtl=yes, without niqqud: rtl=yes, rtl=yes, but sometimes rtl=yes, rtl=yes.
  • 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: rtl=yes, rtl=yes are sometimes incorrectly spelled rtl=yes, rtl=yes.

    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: rtl=yes, rtl=yes.
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 rtl=yes, in which the two last letters of the root are reduplicated. It can also be spelled rtl=yes or rtl=yes.
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 rtl=yes, but construct state rtl=yes.
  • In the imperative and absolute infinitive forms of the verb: future form rtl=yes, but rtl=yes ; future form rtl=yes, absolute infinitive rtl=yes.
  • In some words, among them rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes, rtl=yes.

    Pronunciation

The following table contains the pronunciation and transliteration of the different tzeres in reconstructed historical forms and dialects using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
The letter Bet 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.

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