On the Orthography of Hebrew Words. 87 



Art. X. — On the Orthography of Hebreio words in the Roman cha- 

 racter; by Prof. J. W. Gibbs, Yale College. 



Every person conversant with Hebrew literature, must have ob- 

 served the inadequate and fluctuating mode of representing Hebrew 

 words in the Roman character generally adopted ; and every one 

 who has occasion to write on that language, must have felt the want 

 of a more perfect and uniform system of notation.* The object of 

 the present essay is to offer some hints towards the attainment of such 

 a system. 



The problem, here proposed for solution, may be rendered more 

 definite by stating, 



1. That it respects the pointed Hebrew text, as it is left us by the 

 Masorites, and as it is exhibited to the eye, modified only by such 

 principles as may be clearly deduced from the Masoretic system 

 itself; 



2. That it aims to exhibit all the leading features of the Masoretic 

 punctuation, and to give to each character of importance a distinct 

 and uniform representation ; and 



3. That the Roman letters chosen to represent the Hebrew, are 

 to give the true sound, with as little ambiguity as possible to those of 

 any nation who use the Roman alphabet. 



General principles of the proposed system. 



I. In IJebrew the consonants only are written on the line, the vow- 

 els being written under, over, or in the consonants. This striking pe- 

 culiarity which extends to all the Shemitish languages, may be exhi- 

 bited by using Roman letters for the Hebrew consonants and Italic let- 

 ters for the Hebrew vowels. 



II. The six aspirates S, :i, 1, s, Q, n, sometime have a D«ghesh 

 inserted in them, in which case they lose their aspiration. Other- 

 wise they are aspirated. This prominent trait in the Masoretic punc- 

 tuation may be uniformly represented, by appending an h to these 



* The evils and embarrassments arising from a varying and imperfect orthography- 

 have been ably described by Sir William Jones in his Dissertation on the Ortho- 

 graphy of Asiatick Words. Compare J. Pickering's Essay on a uniform Orthogra- 

 phy for the Indian Languages in JVorth America. 



