Kamatz

Kamatz (Hebrew: קָמַץ‎) is a Hebrew niqqud (vowel) sign represented by two perpendicular lines (looking like an uppercase T) "ָ" underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew (Sephardi/Israeli), it indicates the phoneme /a/ which is the same as the "a" sound in far and is transliterated as an "a".

In modern Hebrew, a kamatz makes the same sound as a patach.

Kamatz Katan and Hataf Kamatz

A Kamatz Katan (Hebrew: קָמַץ קָטָן‎, "Small Kamatz"), is a kamatz in a closed syllable, for example in the word תָּכְנִית (program, pronounced [ˈtoxnit]). It is identical in appearance to the standard kamatz, but is pronounced as [o], rather than [a]. According to the standard Hebrew spelling rules as published by The Academy of the Hebrew Language, words which have a kamatz katan in their base form must be written without a waw, thus the standard vowel-less spelling of תָּכְנִית is תכנית, although in practice many Hebrew speakers do add a waw and spell it תוכנית. This nonstandard spelling is common in newspapers and is even used in several dictionaries, for example Rav Milim. Words, which in their base form have a holam that changes to kamatz katan in declination, retain the waw in vowel-less spelling: the noun חֹפֶשׁ (freedom, pronounced [ˈħofeʃ]) is spelled חופש in vowel-less texts; the adjective חָפְשִׁי (free, pronounced [ħofˈʃi]) is spelled חופשי in vowel-less text, despite the use of kamatz katan, both according to the standard spelling and in common practice.

Some books print the kamatz katan differently, although it is not consistent and not standard in any way. For example, in siddur Rinat Yisrael the vertical line of kamatz katan is longer. In a book of Psalms used by some Breslov hassidim the kamatz katan is bolder. In the popular niqqud textbook Niqqud halakha le-maase by Nisan Netser, the kamatz katan is printed as an encircled kamatz for didactic purposes.

Also, it is not to be confused with Hataf Kamatz (Hebrew: חֲטַף קָמָץ‎ "Reduced Kamatz"). Like kamatz katan, it is pronounced [o], but the rationale for its usage is different: it replaces the shva on letters which require a shva according to the grammar, but where the traditional pronunciation is [o]. This mostly happens with gutturals, for example in אֳרָנִים (pines, [oraˈnim], the plural form of אֹרֶן, [ˈoren]), but occasionally also on other letters, for example שֳׁרָשִׁים (roots, [ʃoraˈʃim], the plural of שֹׁרֶשׁ [ˈʃoreʃ]) and צִפֳּרִים (birds, [tsipoˈrim], the plural of [tsiˈpor]).

Pronounciation and transliteration

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

Vowel Length comparison

These vowels lengths are not manifested in Modern Hebrew. The short o (Kamatz Katan) and long a (Kamatz) have the same niqqud. Because of this, the short o (Kamatz Katan) is usually promoted to a long o (Holam) in Israeli writing for the sake of disambiguation.

By adding two vertical dots (sh'va) the vowel is made very short.

Unicode encoding

See also

• Niqqud
• Patach

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