From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zeire (Hebrew: צֵירֵי tzeirei) is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign represented by two dots "ֵ" underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, it indicates the phoneme /e/ which is the same as the "e" sound in sell and is transliterated as an "e". As well in modern Hebrew, a zeire makes the same sound as a segol.
[edit] Pronounciation
The following table contains the pronunciation and transliteration of the different zeires in reconstructed historical forms and dialects using the International Phonetic Alphabet. The pronunciation in IPA is above and the transliteration is below.
The letters Bet "ב" used in this table are only for demonstration. Any letter can be used.
In addition, a letter with a zeire or segol with a succeeding yud often makes the "ei" (also spelled "ey") sound such as in they or tape.
[edit] Vowel Length comparison
By adding two vertical dots (sh'va) the vowel is made very short. However, these vowels lengths are not manifested in Modern Hebrew.
[edit] Unicode encoding
| Glyph |
Unicode |
Name |
| ֵ |
U+05B5 |
TSERE |
[edit] See also
