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This article describes transliteration from Hebrew. For transliteration to Hebrew, see International Phonetic Alphabet for Hebrew.

Hebrew uses the Hebrew alphabet with optional vowel points. The romanization of Hebrew is the use of the Latin alphabet to transliterate Hebrew words.

For example, the Hebrew name spelled ישראל ("Israel") in the Hebrew alphabet can be romanized as Yisrael or Yīsrā’ēl in the Latin alphabet.

Romanization includes any use of the Latin alphabet to transliterate Hebrew words. Usually it is to identify a Hebrew word in a non-Hebrew language that uses the Latin alphabet, such as German, Spanish, Turkish, and so on. The term transliteration means using an alphabet to represent the letters and sounds of a word spelled in another alphabet, whereas the term transcription means using an alphabet to represent the sounds only. Romanization can do both.

Contents 1 Inconsistency in Hebrew transliteration 2 Historic instances 3 Modern uses 4 Standards 4.1 Comparative table 4.1.1 Notes 5 Transcription vs. transliteration 6 Use of Tiberian principles 6.1 Vowels 6.2 Consonants 7 Additional transliteration principles 8 References 9 See also 10 External links

There are no hard and fast rules in Hebrew-to-English transliteration, and many transliterations are an approximation due to lack of equivalence between the English and Hebrew alphabets.

Early romanization of Hebrew occurred with the contact between the Romans and the Jews. It was influenced by earlier transliteration into the Greek language. For example, the name of the Roman province of Iudaea (63 BCE) was apparently derived the Greek words Ἰούδα (Iouda) and Ἰουδαία (Ioudaia). These words can be seen in Chapter 1 of Esdras (Ezra) in the Septuagint, a Hellenistic translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. The Greek words in turn are transliterations of the Hebrew word יהודה (Y'huda) that we now know in English as Judah.

In the 1st century, Satire 14 of Juvenal uses the Hebraic words sabbata, Iudaicum, and Moyses, apparently adopted from the Greek.

The 4th century and 5th century Latin translations of the Hebrew Bible romanize its proper names. The familiar Biblical names in English are derived from these romanizations. The Vulgate, of the early 5th century, is considered the first direct Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible. Apart from names, another term that the Vulgate romanizes is the technical term mamzer (Hebrew ממזר).

With the rise of Zionism, some Jews promoted the use of romanization instead of Hebrew script in hopes of helping more people learn Hebrew. One such promoter was Ithamar Ben-Avi, or Ittamar Ben Avi as he styled himself. His father Eliezer Ben Yehuda raised him to be the first modern native speaker of Hebrew. In 1927 Ben-Avi published the biography Avi in romanized Hebrew (now listed in the online catalog of the Jewish National and University Library). However, the innovation did not catch on.

Romanized Hebrew can be used to present Hebrew terminology or text to anyone who is not familiar with the Hebrew script. Many Jewish prayer books include supplementary romanization for some or all of the Hebrew-language congregational prayers.

Romanized Hebrew is also used for Hebrew-language items in library catalogs and Hebrew-language place names on maps. In Israel, most catalogs and maps use the Hebrew script, but romanized maps are easily available and road signs include romanized names. Some Hebrew speakers use romanization to communicate when using internet systems that have poor support for the Hebrew alphabet.

Standard romanizations exist for these various purposes. However, non-standard romanization is widely seen, even on some Israeli street signs. The standards are not generally taught outside of their specific organizations and disciplines.

• Traditional, scholarly: ISO 259:1984; ISO 259-2:1994 (simplified); Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) Handbook of Style
• National: Rules of Transcription: Romanization of Hebrew. Academy of the Hebrew Language, 1957. Updated and augmented with a simplified version, 2000.
• Artscroll transliteration
• Bibliographic data: ANSI Z39.25-1975; ALA/LC Romanization Tables (1991) and their book Hebraica Cataloging (1987), with Encyclopaedia Judaica (1972-1993) as an authority on names and common terms. Library of Congress Authorities is an online database that records and sources the forms of subjects, names, and titles that the Library of Congress uses.
• Geographic names: BGN/PCGN 1962 (US and UK), approximately equivalent to UNGEGN 1977 (United Nations), as both are based on the Academy of the Hebrew Language recommendations. However, BGN provides more and somewhat different specific recommendations. The GEONet Names Server is an authoritative online database that lists BGN names and assists with font character availability and conventional forms of names.
• Phonemic: ISO/FDIS 259-3:1999 (not an adopted standard)

The following table is a breakdown of each letter in the Hebrew alphabet, describing its name or names, and its Latin script transliteration values used in academic work. If two glyphs are shown for a letter, then the left-most glyph is the Final form of the letter (or right-most glyph if your browser doesn't support right-to-left text layout).

Symbol	Name				Transliteration
	Israeli	Unicode	Font- friendly	ISO- friendly	Israeli	Unicode	Font- friendly	ISO- friendly
א	alef	ʾā́lep̄	’āleph	'àleph	- (1)	ʾ	’	'
ב	bet, vet	bêṯ, ḇêṯ	bêth, bhêth	bêth, bhêth	b, v	b, ḇ	b, bh	b, bh
ג	gimel	gímmel, ḡímel	gímel, ghímel	gímel, ghímel	g	g, ḡ	g, gh	g, gh
ד	dalet	dā́leṯ, ḏā́leṯ	dāleth, dhāleth	dàleth, dhàleth	d	d, ḏ	d, dh	d, dh
ה	he	?	hê	hê	h (2)	h, Ḏ	?	?
ו	vav	wāw	wāw	wàw	v	?	w	w
ז	zayin	?	záyin	záyin	z	?	z	z
ח	khet	ḥêṯ, (3) ḫêṯ	ħêth, (3) xêth	h`êth, (3) xêth	kh (or ch/h) (4)	ḥ, (3) ḫ	ħ, (3) x	h`, (3) x
ט	tet	ṭêṯ	ţêth	t`êth	t	ṭ	ţ	t`
י	yod	yôḏ	yôdh	yôdh	y (5)	?	y	y
ך כ	kaf, khaf	kāp̄, ḵāp̄	kāph, khāph	kàph, khàph	k, kh (or ch)	k, ḵ	k, kh	k, kh
ל	lamed	lā́meḏ	lāmedh	làmedh	l	?	l	l
ם מ	mem	mēm	mēm	mèm	m	?	m	m
ן נ	nun	?	nûn	nûn	n	?	n	n
ס	samekh	sā́meḵ	sāmekh	sàmekh	s	?	s	s
ע	ayin	ʿáyin, (3) ġáyin	‘áyin, (3) ġáyin	`áyin, (3) 3áyin	- (6)	ʿ, (3) ġ	‘, (3) ġ	`, (3) 3
ף פ	pe, fe	pê, p̄ê	pê, phê	pê, phê	p, f	p, p̄	p, ph	p, ph
ץ צ	tsadi	ṣāḏê	şādhê	s`àdhê	ts (or tz/z)	ṣ	ş	s`
ק	kuf	qōp̄	qôph	qôph	k (or q)	?	k	k
ר	resh	rêš	rêš	rêsh	r	?	r	r
ש	shin, sin	šîn, śîn	šîn, śîn	shîn, lhîn	sh, s	š, ś	š, ś	sh, lh
ת	tav	tāw, ṯāw	tāw, thāw	tàw, thàw	t	t, ṯ	t, th	t, th

1. unwritten in initial and final positions, though often not written at all
2. unwritten in final positions
3. archaic
4. h initial or after consonants, ch everywhere else
5. i in final positions or before consonants
6. often not written at all

Different purposes call for different choices of romanization. One extreme is to make a phonetic transcription of one person's speech on one occasion.

In Israel, a pronunciation known as General Israeli Hebrew or Standard Hebrew is widely used and documented. For Israeli speech and text where linguistic groups are not at issue, romanization can use a phonetic transcription according to Standard Hebrew pronunciation. However, there are many Israeli groups with differing pronunciations of Hebrew and differing social priorities.

An attempt to devise a more general system of romanization is complicated by the long and varied history of the Hebrew language. Most Hebrew texts can be appropriately pronounced according to several different systems of pronunciation, both traditional and modern. Even today, it is customary to write Hebrew using only consonants and matres lectionis. There was no way to indicate vowels clearly in Hebrew writing until the time of the Second Temple. Since an earlier time, multiple geographically separated communities have used Hebrew as a language of literature rather than conversation.

One system of assigning and indicating pronunciation in Hebrew, the Tiberian vocalization, is broadly authoritative for Hebrew text since the end of the Second Temple period (Sáenz-Badillos, page xi). It is possible to accommodate the pronunciations of different communities by transliterating the Tiberian vocalization without attempting to transcribe a specific phonetic pronunciation.

Notable varieties of Hebrew for which Tiberian vocalization is not suitable are the Hebrew of the Qumran community (as known from the Dead Sea Scrolls) and of the Samaritans. For romanizations of Samaritan pronunciation, it is advisable to take quotations directly from a Samaritan edition of the Hebrew Bible, which has approximately 6,000 textual variations from Jewish editions.

It is appropriate to focus only on the consonantal spelling when discussing unusually structured words from ancient or medieval works.

Main article: Tiberian vocalization

The Tiberian vocalization was devised in order to add indications of pronunciation to the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible, without changing the consonantal text. It was intended for experts in Biblical Hebrew grammar and morphology.

Transliterations usually avoid the typographically complex marks that are used in Tiberian vocalization. They also attempt to indicate vowels and syllables more explicitly than Tiberian vocalization does. Therefore a technical transliteration requires the use of Tiberian principles, as mentioned below, rather than simply representing the Tiberian symbols. Many transliteration standards require a thorough knowledge of these principles, yet they usually do not provide practical details.

• There are seven basic vowels.
• A vowel may be long, short, or ultrashort.
• The vowel "shva" may be sounded (shva na) or silent (shva nach).
• Consonants that have been used historically to indicate vowels, the "matres lectionis", are no substitute for proper vowel marks.
• The vowel "kamets" may have its usual sound (kamets gadol - long "a") or a different sound (kamets katan - short "o").

• Six consonants (beth, gimel, daleth, kaph, pe, and tav) can be hard or soft. To be specific, they are pronounced either as stops or fricatives ("spirantized"). For example, the letter bet can be pronounced as "b" or "v". Tiberian vocalization marks a hard consonant with a dagesh kal (in the Hebrew term) or lene (Latin). A soft consonant lacks a dagesh kal, and is sometimes explicitly marked using rafe, an overbar. Transliterations sometimes also use an overbar or underbar to mark a soft consonant. (In Modern Sephardic Hebrew, however, only three consonants -- bet, kaph, and pe -- retain the hard-soft distinction. In the Ashkenazic style of pronunciation, the soft tav is sounded as "s".)
• A letter that looks like shin may be that letter (when marked with a shin dot) or the letter sin (when marked with a sin dot).
• Most consonants can undergo gemination. Tiberian vocalization marks gemination with a dagesh hazak (in the Hebrew term) or forte (Latin), which looks the same as dagesh kal.
• A consonant that is normally silent (most often he) may be sounded if it is a root consonant or possessive ending. Tiberian vocalization marks such a consonant using a mapiq, which looks like a dagesh.
• A silent vav may be used to hold a holem vowel, but sometimes a vav with holem has consonant value.

A further complication is that the Roman alphabet does not have as many letters for certain sounds found in the Hebrew alphabet, and sometimes no letter at all. Some romanizations resolve this problem using additional non-Tiberian principles:

• The two letters that represent a stop may be written using the forward and backward quote marks, or similar marks.
• Certain consonants are considered "emphatic" (the consonants ח ט צ), due to being pronounced traditionally toward the back of the mouth. They may be transliterated distinctively by using an underdot.
• It is theorized that the letter "vav" (ו) was once pronounced like English "w", in contrast to its current pronunciation identical to the letter "vet" (the soft letter ב).
• The Karmeli transcription (see link at bottom of page) creates additional letters based on similar Hebrew or Cyrillic letters to represent the sounds which lack Roman letters.

Finally, for ease of reading it is common to apply certain principles foreign to Hebrew:

• Use a hyphen between common prefixes or suffixes and a romanized word.
• Capitalize the first letter of a proper name, but not its prefixes.

• Angel Sáenz-Badillos, A History of the Hebrew Language. Cambridge University Press, 1993. Reprinted in paperback 2000, ISBN 0-521-55634-1.
• "The Jewish diaspora: Rome" at livius.org. Retrieved August 9, 2005.
• Parallel texts of Ezra in various languages at Unbound Bible. Retrieved August 16, 2005.
• Juvenal, Satire 14 at The Latin Library. Retrieved August 9, 2005.
• "Transliteration" at nostradamus.net. Retrieved August 9, 2005. Excellent, lively summary of issues and options for transliteration of Hebrew.

• Arabic transliteration
• International Phonetic Alphabet for Hebrew

• "Hebrish or Engbrew", Talya Halkin in Jerusalem Post (July 6, 2006).
• "Rules of Transcription from Hebrew Script to Latin Script" (in Hebrew) of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, 2000.
• United Nations romanization of Hebrew
• GEONet Names Server
• ALA/LC romanization of Hebrew
• Library of Congress Authorities
• Society of Biblical Literature, SBL Handbook of Style.
• Transliterated text of the Torah and all Haftarot are available from http://bible.ort.org/ based on Sephardi pronunciation.
• The Karmeli Alphabet; a Romanization developed in Israel which uses extra invented letters
• Auto-Transliterate; a script that automatically transliterates pointed Unicode Hebrew text into Roman letters.