Segol Malei Information
Segol (Hebrew: סֶגּוֹל) is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign that is represented by three dots forming an upside down equilateral triangle "ֶ". As such, it resembles an upside down therefore sign (a because sign) underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, it indicates the phoneme /e/ which is the same as the "e" sound in sell and is transliterated as an "e".
In Modern Hebrew, a segol makes the same sound as a zeire, as does the Hataf Segol (Hebrew: חֲטַף סֶגּוֹל "Reduced Segol"). The reduced (or hataf) niqqud exist for segol, patach, and kamatz which contain a shva next to it.
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Pronunciation
The following table contains the pronunciation and transliteration of the different segols in reconstructed historical forms and dialects using the International Phonetic Alphabet. The transcription in IPA is above and the transliteration is below.
The letters Bet "ב" and Het "ח" used in this table are only for demonstration. Any letter can be used.
| Symbol | Name | Pronunciation | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Israeli | Ashkenazi | Sephardi | Yemenite | Tiberian | Reconstructed | |||
| Mishnaic | Biblical | |||||||
| בֶ | Segol | [e̞] | ? | ? | ? | [ɛ, ɛː] | ? | ? |
| בֶי, בֶה, בֶא | Segol Male | [e̞] | ? | ? | ? | [ɛː] | ? | ? |
| חֱ | Hataf Segol | [e̞] | ? | ? | ? | [ɛ̆] | ? | ? |
In addition, a letter with a segol or zeire with a succeeding yud often makes the "ei" (also spelled "ey") sound such as in they or tape.
Vowel Length comparison
By adding two vertical dots (sh'va) the vowel is made very short. However, these vowels lengths are not manifested in Modern Hebrew.
| Vowel comparison table | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vowel Length | IPA | Transliteration | English example | ||
| Long | Short | Very Short | |||
| ֵ | ֶ | ֱ | [e̞] | e | temp |
| Zeire | Segol | Reduced Segol | |||
Unicode encoding
| Glyph | Unicode | Name |
|---|---|---|
| ֶ | U+05B6 | SEGOL |
| ֱ | U+05B1 | HATEF SEGOL |
See also
Categories:
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