Holam IPA or Transliteration o English example shore Similar sound Qamatz qaṭan, ḥataf qamatz Example
The word (youth) in Hebrew. The first vowel (over Nun, the dot above) is the . Example
The word in Hebrew. The letter waw with the dot above it is the itself. Other Niqqud ShvaHiriqTzereSegolPatachKamatzHolamDageshMappiqShurukKubutzRafeSin/Shin Dot
Holam or cholam (Israeli Hebrew: חוֹלָם, ; Classical Hebrew: , ) is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign represented by a dot above the upper left corner of the consonant letter. For example, here the holam appears after the letter mem : . In modern Hebrew, it indicates the mid back rounded vowel, , and is transliterated as an o.
The mater lectionis letter which is usually employed with holam is vav, although in a few words, the letters or are used instead of . When it is used with a mater lectionis, the holam is called holam male (, , "full holam"), and without it the holam is called holam haser (, , "deficient holam").
Appearance If a holam is used without a following mater lectionis (vav, alef or he), as in (, "here"), it is written as a dot above at the upper-left corner of the letter after which it is pronounced. Letter-spacing is not supposed to be affected by it, although some buggy computer fonts may add an unneeded space before the next letter.
If vav is used as a mater lectionis, the holam appears above the vav. If the mater lectionis is alef, as in (, "no"), it is supposed to appear above the 's right hand, although this is not implemented in all computer fonts, and does not always appear even in professionally typeset modern books. This means a holam with may, in fact, appear in the same place as a regular holam haser. If the alef itself is not a mater lectionis, but a consonant, the holam appears in its regular place above the upper-left corner of the previous letter, as in (, "epithet").
If a holam haser is written after , as in (, "to agonize"), it may appear above the , or slightly farther to the left; this varies between different fonts. In some fonts, a holam merges with the shin dot (which appears on the upper-right corner of its letter seat), in words such as (ḥṓšeḵ, , 'darkness') or with the sin dot, as in (, 'satiation'). (These dots may or may not appear merged on your screen, as that depends on your device's Hebrew font.)
Usage Holam male is, in general, the most common way to write the sound in modern spelling with niqqud. If a word has Holam male in spelling with niqqud, the mater lectionis letter is without any exception retained in spelling without niqqud, both according to the spelling rules of the Academy of the Hebrew Language and in common practice.
The use of holam haser is restricted to certain word patterns, although many common words appear in them. In most cases the Academy's spelling rules mandate that the will be written even when the spelling with niqqud does not have it. The normative exceptions from this rule are listed below. The Academy's standard is not followed perfectly by all speakers, and common deviations from it are also noted below.
In Biblical Hebrew the above rules are not followed consistently, and sometimes the is omitted or added.Academy Decisions: Grammar, 2nd edition, §1.3;
For further complications involving Kamatz katan and Hataf kamatz, see the article Kamatz.
Holam haser which is written as in text without niqqud
In words in which the penultimate syllable has the vowel and is stressed (sometimes called segolate): ('diameter') ('radiance', Zohar), ('brightness', Nogah), ('mail'), or . Some people tend to spell some of these words without the , e.g. instead of , although the Academy mandates . The tendency is especially strong when the words can be used as personal names. When Kubutz is changed to holam before guttural letters in the passive binyan Pual due to tashlum dagesh (a vowel-change due to the inability of guttural letters to carry a dagesh): ('fancy'), . Without niqqud: . ('was explained'), . Without niqqud: . In words which have the pattern /CaCoC/ in the singular and become /CəCuCCim/ with Kubutz in the plural, especially names of colors: ('orange'), , pl. ('round'), , pl. . When the last letter of the root is guttural, holam haser is preserved due to tashlum dagesh: ('black'), , pl. . Without niqqud: , , , , , . A similar pattern, in which the last letter of the root is not doubled in declension, has holam male in the base form, which is preserved in declension: sg. ('big'), , pl. . In three words, a holam male is changed to a shuruk in declension: ('place of living'), , pl. Rarely used in the singular in Modern Hebrew. ('escape'), , pl. ;Rarely used in the plural in Modern Hebrew. ('sweet'), , pl. .Academy Decisions: Grammar, 2nd edition, §1.3. Similar to the above is the pattern /CəCaCCoC/, with reduplication of the second and third letters of the root: ('crooked'), , pl. . Without niqqud: , . In the future, infinitive and imperative forms of most verbs in binyan Qal: ('I shall close'), , ('to close'), , ('close!'), . Without niqqud: , , . In words, whose roots' second and third letter are the same, in which case in declension the holam changes to Kubutz after which there will be a dagesh: all, , decl. ('all of her'), root This word becomes in construct state, which is very common, so as another exception it is written without in spelling without niqqud: ('all the people'), but ('she knows all'). ('most'), , decl. ('most of him'), root ('drum'), , pl. , root ('stronghold'), , pl. , root The standard spelling without niqqud for all of them except in construct state is with : , , , , , , , . Despite this, some people occasionally omit the in some of those words and spell , etc. Several common words are spelled with a holam haser in the Bible, but the Academy mandates that they be spelled with holam male in modern Hebrew, among them: ('force'), ('brain'), ('a precious stone', in modern Hebrew 'diamond'), ('very'), ('suddenly'), Some people still spell them without , but the standard spelling is with .The full list appears at Academy Decisions: Grammar, 2nd edition, §1.3. The participle of most verbs in binyan Qal is often written with holam haser in the Bible, but always with holam male in modern Hebrew. For example, in the Bible appear both and ('seer'), , but in modern Hebrew only .
Holam with other matres lectionis The most common occasion for not writing the sound as a in text without niqqud is when in text with niqqud the mater lectionis is Alef (א) or He (ה) instead of . In the Bible some words are irregularly and inconsistently spelled with ה as a mater lectionis: alongside , e.g. alongside , etc. but the number of these irregularities was brought to minimum in modern Hebrew. In the future forms of several verbs whose roots' first letter is Alef: ('you shall eat'), , root , without niqqud . The prefix of the first person singular is itself Alef and in spelling with niqqud only one Alef is written: ('I shall say'), , root , and in spelling without niqqud a is added: . This always happens in the roots ('perish'), ('wish'),Rare in modern Hebrew. ('eat'), ('say'), ('bake') and less consistently in the roots ('love'), ('hold'), ('collect'), ('come'). In the root a holam male with is used in the infinitive in Mishnaic and modern Hebrew: .; the Even-Shoshan Dictionary for the modern forms. In the infinitive form of a small number of verbs whose roots' last letter is Alef: ('upon becoming full'), , root .Academy Decisions: Grammar, 2nd edition, §3.5. In the following words the mater lectionis is always Alef (): ('this' fem.), ('no'), This word is written several times in the Bible, but such spelling never occurs in modern Hebrew. With the particle and only when it is used as a synonym of ('here') it may be written both as and as (Academy Decisions: Grammar, 2nd edition, §2.4.4), but this usage is rare in modern Hebrew. ('scales'), , without niqqud ('wineskin'), The word is pronounced identically and means "wandering". It appears in the Bible and is rare in modern Hebrew. The Even-Shoshan dictionary also notes that it is an incorrect spelling for . ('sheep' or 'goats'), ('head'), ('left'), This word is actually spelled as several times in the Bible, but never in modern Hebrew. However, the intentionally wrong spelling is often used as a disparaging term for the political left and is documented in Uri Orbach's lexicon of Religious Zionist slang. In the following words the mater lectionis is always He (): ('such'), ('here'), ('where?'), The Even-Shoshan Dictionary also registers the modern Hebrew word ('somewhere'), , which is based on and , the ending of the indefinite pronouns , , ('some'). The Academy has not decided on a standard spelling of this word. In the absolute infinitive form of verbs which end in He: ( 'to be'). This form is common in the Bible, but in modern Hebrew it is not productive and it is preserved only in fossilized sayings. For example, a common opening for fairy tales, ('there once was'), is written without niqqud.
Holam without vav in personal names Some examples of usage of holam without in personal names: The names Pharaoh (, ), Moshe ()The related participle ('pulling out of water') is written with in modern Hebrew. Modern diminutive forms of Moshe, such as Moshiko () are written with . and Shlomo ()A common modern diminutive version of this name is regularly spelled (Shlomi). are never written with . Shilo () is sometimes written with in the Bible, but always with He in modern Hebrew. The adjectives , are written with and with a nun in the suffix. The name Aharon () is spelled with holam haser in the Bible. In modern Hebrew both and are used. The name Noah () is spelled with holam haser in the Bible, but it is sometimes written with the in the MishnaFor example, in Avot 5:2 in the Kaufmann manuscript. and in modern Hebrew. Several other names of places and people are spelled with holam and Alef in the Bible include Yoshiyahu (, Josiah), Dor (, in modern Hebrew ) and No Amon (, the Hebrew name of Thebes). The word ('priest'), is spelled with holam haser in the Bible. It is a common Jewish last name, Cohen. The Academy mandates holam male for the noun , but allows the omission of for spelling the personal name.Academy Decisions: Grammar, 2nd edition, §1.3 fn. 55. Some personal names, such as Ohad (), Zohar () and Nogah (), are sometimes spelled without in modern writing without niqqud, although this varies from person to person. God's name Adonai () is written with holam haser to distinguish it from the word "Lord" () used for humans.According to The Brown–Driver–Briggs Hebrew Lexicon. When the Tetragrammaton is written with niqqud, it follows that of Adonai, so it is written with holam haser, too. For religious reasons writing Adonai and the Tetragrammaton is avoided in modern religious texts except in direct quotes from the Bible. They rarely appear in secular modern Hebrew texts and their spelling there is inconsistent. The name Elohim () is written with holam haser in the Bible, although its singular form Eloah () is usually written with holam male. In modern Hebrew Elohim is a common word for "God" and it is usually spelled with the , which is also the Academy's recommendation.
Pronunciation The following table contains the pronunciation and transliteration of the different holams in reconstructed historical forms and dialects using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
The letters Pe and Tsade are used in this table only for demonstration. Any letter can be used.
Symbol Name Pronunciation Israeli Ashkenazi Sephardi Yemenite Tiberian Reconstructed Mishnaic Biblical Holam [aw] > [oː] Holam male
Vowel length comparison