Segol

{{Short description|Hebrew niqqud vowel sign}}

{{Unreferenced|date=June 2019|bot=noref (GreenC bot)}}

{{for|the Torah cantillation mark|Segol (trope)}}

align="right" class="wikitable"

| colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Segol

colspan="2" align="center" style="background:white;height:100px"|ֶ
IPA

| style="background:white" | {{IPA link|ɛ}}

Transliteration

| style="background:white" | e

English example

| style="background:white" | bed

Same sound

| style="background:white" | tzere

colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Example
colspan="2" align="center" style="background:white;height:50px;line-height:3.25em"|שֶׁל
colspan="2" style="width:250px;background:white;text-align:center;" | The word for of in Hebrew, shel. The triangular array of three dots under the letter Shin form the segol.
colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Other Niqqud
colspan="2" style="width:250px;background:white;text-align:center;"|Shva{{·}}Hiriq{{·}}Tzere{{·}}Segol{{·}}Patach{{·}}Kamatz{{·}}Holam{{·}}Dagesh{{·}}Mappiq{{·}}Kubutz and Shuruk{{·}}Rafe{{·}}Sin/Shin Dot

Segol (modern {{langx|he|סֶגּוֹל}}, {{IPA|he|seˈɡol|IPA}}; formerly {{Script/Hebrew|סְגוֹל}}, səḡôl) 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 {{IPAslink|e̞|e}} which is similar to "e" in the English word sound in sell and is transliterated as an e.

In Modern Hebrew segol makes the same sound as tzere, as does the Hataf Segol ({{langx|he|חֲטַף סֶגּוֹל}}   {{IPA|he|ħaˈtaf seˈɡol|IPA}}, "Reduced Segol"). The reduced (or ħataf) niqqud exist for segol, patah, and kamatz which contain a shva next to it.

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 letters Bet {{angle bracket|{{Script/Hebrew|ב}}}} and Het {{angle bracket|{{Script/Hebrew|ח}}}} used in this table are only for demonstration; any letter can be used.

class="wikitable"
rowspan=3 | Symbol

! rowspan=3 | Name

colspan=7 | Pronunciation
! rowspan=2 | Modernrowspan=2 | Ashkenazirowspan=2 | Sephardirowspan=2 | Yemeniterowspan=2 | Tiberiancolspan=2 | Reconstructed
MishnaicBiblical
align="center" style="font-family:David, Arial Unicode, SBL Hebrew;font-size:200%"| {{Script/Hebrew|בֶ}}

|Segol

| {{IPAblink|e̞}}

[e̞][e̞][a]{{IPA|[ɛ, ɛː]}}?{{IPA|[ɛ]}}
align="center" style="font-family:David, Arial Unicode, SBL Hebrew;font-size:200%"| {{Script/Hebrew|בֶי}} {{Script/Hebrew|בֶה}} {{Script/Hebrew|בֶא}}

|Segol Male

| {{IPAblink|e̞}}

[e̞][e̞][a]{{IPA|[ɛː]}}?{{IPA|[ɛː, ɛj]}}
align="center" style="font-family:David, Arial Unicode, SBL Hebrew;font-size:200%" | {{Script/Hebrew|חֱ}}

|Hataf Segol

| {{IPAblink|e̞}}

[e̞][e̞][a]{{IPA|[ɛ̆]}}?{{IPA|[ɛ]}}

In addition, a letter with a segol or tzere with a succeeding yod often makes the "ei" (also spelled "ey") sound such as in they or tape.

Vowel length comparison

By adding two vertical dots (shva), the vowel can be made very short. However, the vowels lengths are not manifested in Modern Hebrew.

class="wikitable"
! colspan=6 | Vowel comparison table
align=center

!! colspan=3 | Vowel length

!! rowspan=2 | IPA

!! rowspan=2 | Transliteration

!! rowspan=2 | English
example

Long

! Short

! Very Short

align=center

|style="font-size:26px; padding-bottom:12px"| {{Script/Hebrew|ֵ}}

|style="font-size:26px; padding-bottom:12px"| {{Script/Hebrew|ֶ}}

|style="font-size:26px; padding-bottom:12px"| {{Script/Hebrew|ֱ}}

| rowspan="2" | {{IPAblink|e̞}}

| rowspan="2" |e

| rowspan="2" |temp

Tzere

| Segol

|Reduced Segol

Unicode encoding

class="wikitable"

! Glyph

! Unicode

! Name

ֶ

|U+05B6

|SEGOL

ֱ

|U+05B1

|HATEF SEGOL

{{Hebrew language}}

Category:Niqqud