When Hebrew Vowels Originated

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In previous lessons, we saw that when Hebrew was first written down, it did not contain any vowel points at all (no nikud, or dots and dashes). To make reading some Hebrew words easier, certain Hebrew letters were used as vowels, as described in the lesson Using Hebrew Letters As Vowels.

From about the 6th to the 10th centuries C.E., several groups of Jewish scholars in Palestine tried to develop a systematic way of adding vowels to the Hebrew text, so that everybody would know how to pronounce it. Since they believed the Hebrew text itself was sacred and could not be altered or added to, they could not add extra letters. The only solution was to make little marks around or inside each letter, without touching the letters themselves.

A number of competing systems were developed in Palestine around this time. The system which became dominant, however, was that developed in Tiberias by the Massoretes. It was the most systematic and complete system, and gained a certain authority by its dominance. In time, it became the official system and manuscripts of this type were the most sought after. The Aleppo Codex is the best example of a Massoretic manuscript. The oldest complete Massoretic manuscript of the entire Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) is the Leningrad Codex.

The word Massorete is perhaps best translated into English as traditionalist. It comes from the Hebrew word massoret which means tradition, from the verb msr to hand over or to hand down. An alternative derivation is from the Hebrew root asar, to bind, because the Massoretes fixed and protected the sacred text. The Massoretes added the vowel points to show how Hebrew should be, or traditionally was, pronounced. The vowel system developed by the Massoretes was a vitally important stage in the development of the Hebrew language and especially the Tanakh. It is exactly the same system used by Modern Hebrew today, more than 1000 years later. In fact, the Tanakh is also referred to as the Massoretic Text, because it contains the vowel points which the Massoretes added, as well as the Hebrew text which they copied faithfully for generations.

Thus, to know how to pronounce Hebrew, and hence how to read the Tanakh, it is necessary to learn these vowel points.

The vowel point associated with each letter is spoken after the letter. The letter is pronounced first, then the vowel. There is only one exception to this rule: if a vowel occurs under a guttural at the end of a word, it is pronounced before the guttural. This rule was discussed in the lesson on the Hebrew letter Chet. An example is the Hebrew word ruach , meaning wind or spirit, which is pronounced ru-ach, not ru-cha, because it has a Chet (a guttural) at the end.


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