Shva

Shva, also called shĕwa in Biblical Hebrew, is a special sign in Hebrew writing. It looks like two tiny dots under a letter. This sign helps show how a word should sound. Sometimes, it means there is a very short, soft sound, like a quiet "uh". Other times, it means there is no vowel sound at that spot in the word.

People write shva in different ways when they use Hebrew words in other languages. They might use a small "e", an apostrophe, or sometimes they write nothing at all. The way shva sounded has changed over time. In older Hebrew, it made a clear vowel sound, but in modern Hebrew, it usually shows there is no vowel.

Shva can work with other vowel signs to make special short sounds. These sounds were similar to short vowels like "a" or "e" in older Hebrew. Knowing about shva helps people read and say Hebrew words correctly.

Shva
ְ‎
IPA	Modern Hebrew: /e/ ([e̞]), Ø
	Biblical Hebrew: /a/, /i/
Transliteration	e, ' (apostrophe), nothing
English example	men, menorah
Example
The word shva in Hebrew. The first vowel (under Shin, marked with red) is itself a shva.
Other Niqqud
Shva · Hiriq · Tzere · Segol · Patach · Kamatz · Holam · Dagesh · Mappiq · Shuruk · Kubutz · Rafe · Sin/Shin Dot

Pronunciation in Modern Hebrew

In Modern Hebrew, shva can be said as the sound /e/ or it can be silent. This is true whether it is called shva nach (שְׁוָא נָח) or shva na (שְׁוָא נָע). When it is said as /e/, it is written as ⟨e⟩ in English letters. If it is silent, it is not written at all.

There are a few special cases where the usual rules do not apply exactly. For example, the word מְלַאי /mlaj/ means "inventory" and is sometimes said differently than expected. Other words like פְּסַנְתְּרָן /psantˈran/ ("pianist") and אַנְגְּלִית /aŋˈɡlit/ ("English") also have their own special ways of being said.

Counterexamples

One exception to the rules is the word מְלַאי /mlaj/ "inventory". The absence of a vowel after מ‎ (/m/) may be because the next letter ל‎ (/l/) is a liquid sound that is easy to say.

Other exceptions include פְּסַנְתְּרָן (/psantˈran/, not */psanteˈran/ – "pianist"), אַנְגְּלִית (/aŋˈɡlit/, not */aŋɡeˈlit/ – "English"), נַשְׁפְּרִיץ (/naʃˈprit͡s/, not */naʃpeˈrit͡s/ – "we will sprinkle"), and some words with five-letter roots like סִנְכְּרֵן (/sinˈkren/, not */sinkeˈren/ – "he synchronized"). There are also newer words from other languages, such as מַנְטְרַה (/ˈmantra/, not */mantera/ – "mantra").

In older forms of Hebrew, the two types of shva could be told apart, but in Modern Hebrew they do not always follow the old rules. For example, the first shva in סִפְרֵי תורה ("books of the Law") is correctly said as /sifrei torah/ with the פ‎ (or /f/ sound) being silent, but the shva in זְמַן ("time") is often said as silent (/zman/). However, when reading prayers or religious texts, careful readers still follow the traditional rules for shva.

Traditional classification

In traditional Hebrew grammar, a shva is a special sign that shows how a word sounds. It can mean a very short vowel sound or that there is no vowel at all. There are different kinds of shva depending on where it appears in a word.

There are four main types of shva:

• shva naʻ, which usually replaces a hidden vowel when a word changes form.
• shva naḥ, which shows there is no vowel at all.
• shva meraḥef, which acts like a mobile shva but appears in a different spot.
• shva gaʻya, which appears under a letter with a special musical mark.

These types help decide how the word is written and spoken, especially in older forms of Hebrew.

T'nua hatufa

Vowel marks in Hebrew writing are divided into three groups: big, small, and fleeting. These groups may have shown different sounds in old Hebrew, but modern Hebrew does not change sounds based on them.

The fleeting vowel marks are made by adding a shva sign to a small vowel mark. Their names come from the small vowel mark they use plus the word “chataf.”

Comparison table

Name	Symbol	Israeli Hebrew
		IPA	Transliteration	English approximate
Reduced Segol (ẖatáf segól)		[e̞]	e	men
Reduced Patach ("ẖatáf patáẖ")		[ä]	a	spa
Reduced Kamatz ("ẖatáf kamáts")		[o̞]	o	cone
Reduced Hiriq ("ẖatáf ẖiríq") – not in current use, appears rarely in the Aleppo Codex		[i]	i	it

Unicode encoding

In 2016, people asked to add a special symbol for the shva na in Unicode. But it has not been added yet.