Kamatz

Kamatz or Qamatz (Hebrew: ‫ ָק ַמץ‬, IPA: [kaˈmats]) is a Hebrew niqqud (vowel)

Qamatz
sign represented by two perpendicular lines (looking like an uppercase T) ⟨  ָ   ⟩
underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew (Sephardi/Israeli), it usually indicates the
phoneme /a/ which is close to the "a" sound in the English word far and is
transliterated as a and thus its sound is identical to the sound of pataḥ in modern
Hebrew. In some cases it indicates the phoneme/o/, equal to the sound ofḥolam.
ָ
IPA [a] or [ä]
Transliteration a
Contents English approximation far
1 Qamatz Qaṭan, Qamatz Gadol, Ḥataf Qamatz
Same sound pataḥ
1.1 Qamatz Qaṭan vs. Qamatz Gadol
1.2 Ḥaṭaf Qamatz Example

2 Pronunciation and transliteration

3
4
Vowel Length comparison
Unicode encoding
‫ָדּג‬
5 See also The word for fish in Hebrew, dag. The only
vowel (the two perpendicular lines) is a
qamatz.
Other Niqqud
Qamatz Qaṭan, Qamatz Gadol, Ḥataf Shwa · Hiriq · Zeire · Segol · Pataḥ ·
Qamatz Qamatz · Holam · Dagesh · Mappiq ·
Shuruk · Kubutz · Rafe · Sin/Shin Dot

Qamatz Qaṭan vs. Qamatz Gadol

The Hebrew of the late centuries BCE and early centuries of the Common Era had a system with five phonemic long vowels /aː eː iː
oː uː/ and five short vowels /a e i o u/. In the later dialects of the 1st millennium, phonemic vowel length disappeared, and instead
was automatically determined by the context, with vowels pronounced long in open syllables and short in closed ones. However, the
previous vowel phonemes merged in various ways that differed from dialect to dialect. In Tiberian Hebrew, which underlies the
written system of vowels, short /a/ became [a] (indicated by pataḥ); long /oː/ became [o] (indicated by ḥolam); while /aː/ and /o/
both merged into an in-between sound [ɔ] (similar to the vowel in English "caught"), which was indicated by qamatz. In the
Babylonian vocalization, however, short and long variants simply merged, with /a/ and /aː/ becoming [a], while /o/ and /oː/ became
[o]; and this system underlies the pronunciation ofModern Hebrew.

The result is that the vowel written with qamatz might be pronounced as either [a] or [o], depending on historical origin. It is often
said that the two sounds can be distinguished by context:

The qamatz sound of [o], known as Qamatz Qaṭan (Hebrew: ‫ ָק ַמץ ָק ָטן‬, IPA: [kaˈmats kaˈtan], "small qamatz") occurs
in a "closed syllable", i.e. one which ends in a consonant marked with a
shwa nakh (zero vowel) or with adagesh
ḥazaq (which indicates that the consonant was pronouncedgeminated, i.e. doubled);
The qamatz sound of [a], known as Qamatz Gadol (Hebrew: ‫[ ָק ַמץ גדול‬kaˈmats ɡaˈdol], "big qamatz") occurs in an
"open syllable", i.e. any other circumstance: one which ends in a consonant followed by a normal vowel, a consonant
at the end of a word and with no vowel marking, or a consonant marked with shwa a na (originally pronounced[ǝ]).
Unfortunately, the two varieties of shwa are written identically, and pronounced identically in Modern Hebrew; as a result, there is no
reliable way to distinguish the two varieties of qamatz when followed by a vowel marked with a shwa. (In some cases, Biblical texts
are marked with a metheg or other cantillation mark that helps to indicate which pronunciation is intended, but this usage is not
consistent, and in any case such marks are absent in non-Biblical texts.)

An example of the qamatz qatan is the Modern Hebrew word‫[( ָתּ ְכנִ ית‬toχˈnit], "program").

According to the standard Hebrew spelling rules as published by the Academy of the Hebrew Language, words which have a qamatz
qatan in their base form must be written without a vav, hence the standard vowel-less spelling of ‫ ָתּ ְכנִ ית‬is ‫תכנית‬. In practice,
however, Modern Hebrew words containing a qamatz qatan do add a vav ⟨‫ ⟩ו‬to indicate the [o] pronunciation; hence the
"nonstandard" spelling ‫ תוכנית‬is common in newspapers and is even used in several dictionaries, for example Rav Milim. Words,
which in their base form have a ḥolam that changes to qamatz qaṭan in declination, retain the vav in vowel-less spelling: the noun
‫ˈ[( ח ֶֹפשׁ‬χofeʃ], "freedom") is spelled ‫ חופש‬in vowel-less texts; the adjective ‫[( ָח ְפ ִשׁי‬χofˈʃi], "free") is spelled ‫ חופשי‬in vowel-less
text, despite the use of qamatz qatan, both according to the standard spelling and in common practice.

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

Unicode defines the code pointU+05C7 ‫ ׇ‬HEBREW POINT QAMATS QATAN, although its usage is not required.

Ḥaṭaf Qamatz
Ḥaṭaf Qamatz (Hebrew: ‫ ֲח ַטף ָק ָמץ‬, IPA: [χaˈtaf kaˈmats]) is a "reduced qamatz". Like qamatz qatan, 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 o̞ . This mostly happens with gutturals, for example in ‫[( ֳא ָרנִ ים‬oʁaˈnim], "pines", the plural form of
Hebrew pronunciation: [oraˈnim], [ˈoʁen]), but occasionally also on other letters, for example ‫[( ֳשׁ ָר ִשׁים‬ʃoʁaˈʃim], "roots", the plural of
‫ˈ[ שׁ ֶֹרשׁ‬ʃoʁeʃ]) and ‫[( ִצ ֳפּ ִרים‬tsipoˈʁim], "birds", the plural of[tsiˈpoʁ]).

Pronunciation and transliteration

The following table contains the pronunciation and transliteration of the different qamatzes 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 ⟨‫ ⟩ב‬and heth ⟨‫ ⟩ח‬used in this table are only for demonstration. Any letter can be used.

Pronunciation
Symbol Name English Reconstructed
Modern Ashkenazi Sephardi Yemenite Tiberian
Mishnaic Biblical

[a] [ɔ:~u:] [aː] [ɔ] [ɔː] ? ?

ָ‫ב‬ Qamatz
Gadol
Big
Qamatz
a o,u a o ā ? ?

,‫בָ ה‬ Qamatz Full

[a] [ɔ:~u:] [aː] [ɔ] [ɔː] ? ?

Male Qamatz
‫בָ א‬ a o,u a o â ? ?

[o] [ɔ] [o] [ɔ] [ɔ] ? ?

ָ‫ב‬ Qamatz
Qatan
Small
Qamatz
o o o o o ? ?

[o] [ɔ] [o] [ɔ] [ɔ̆ ] ? ?

‫ח‬
ֳ Hataf
Qamatz
Reduced
Qamatz
o o o o ŏ ? ?
Vowel Length comparison
These vowel lengths are not manifested in Modern Hebrew. The short o (qamatz qaṭan) and long a (qamatz) have the same niqqud.
Because of this, the short o (Qamatz Qaṭan) is usually promoted to a long o (holam male) in Israeli writing, written as a vav ⟨‫⟩ו‬, for
the sake of disambiguation.

By adding two vertical dots (shva) the vowel is made very short.

Vowel comparison table

Vowel length English
IPA Transliteration
Long Short Very Short approximation

ָ ַ ֲ [a] a spa

qamatz Pataḥ Reduced pataḥ

‫וֹ‬ ָ ֳ [o] o core

Ḥolam Qamatz qaṭan Reduced qamatz

Unicode encoding
Glyph Unicode Name

ָ U+05B8 QAMATS

ֳ U+05B3 HATAF QAMATS

‫ׇ‬ U+05C7 QAMATS QATAN

Note: the glyph for QAMATS QATAN may appear empty or incorrect if one applies a font that cannot handle the glyph necessary to
represent Unicode character U+05C7. Usually this Unicode character isn't used and is substituted with the similar looking QAMATS
(U+05B8).

See also
Niqqud
Pataḥ

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This page was last edited on 5 August 2017, at 16:57.

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