kamatz
Sign in to saveAlso known as U+05B8, HEBREW POINT QAMATS, qamats, qamatz, qameṣ, komets, kamatz gadol, qamats gadol
{| align="right" class="wikitable" | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Qamatz |- | colspan="2" align="center" style="background:white;height:100px"|ָ |- | IPA | style="background:white" | |- | Transliteration | style="background:white" | a |- | English approximation | style="background:white" | spa |- | Similar sound | style="background:white" | |- | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Example |- | colspan="2" align="center" style="background:white;height:50px"| |- | colspan="2" style="width:250px;background:white" | |- | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Other Niqq
Wikidata facts
- Image
- Nikud kamats.svg
Show 5 more facts
- Commons category
- Kamatz
- Unicode code point
- 05B8
- Unicode character
- ָ
- Unicode character name
- HEBREW POINT QAMATS
- HTML entity
- ָ
via Wikidata · CC0
~10 min read
Article
9 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Overview
- Qamatz Qaṭan vs. Qamatz Gadol
- Ḥaṭaf Qamatz
- Pronunciation and transliteration
- Vowel length comparison
- Unicode encoding
- References
- Literature
{| align="right" class="wikitable" | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Qamatz |- | colspan="2" align="center" style="background:white;height:100px"|ָ |- | IPA | style="background:white" | |- | Transliteration | style="background:white" | a |- | English approximation | style="background:white" | spa |- | Similar sound | style="background:white" | |- | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Example |- | colspan="2" align="center" style="background:white;height:50px"| |- | colspan="2" style="width:250px;background:white" | |- | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Other Niqqud |- | colspan="2" style="width:250px;background:white text-align:center;"|ShwaHiriqTzereSegolPataḥKamatzHolamDageshMappiqShurukKubutzRafeSin/Shin Dot |}
Kamatz or qamatz (, ; alternatively ) is a Hebrew niqqud (vowel) sign represented by two perpendicular lines (looking like an uppercase T) underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, it usually indicates the phoneme which is the "a" sound in the word spa and is transliterated as a. In these cases, its sound is identical to the sound of ' in modern Hebrew. In a minority of cases it indicates the phoneme , equal to the sound of '. In traditional Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation, qamatz is pronounced as the phoneme , which becomes in some contexts in southern Ashkenazi dialects. For this reason, the equivalent phoneme in Yiddish ( in some dialects, in others) is spelled with an aleph marked with a kamatz , in Yiddish orthography.