Shva

Shva
ְ‎
IPA	Modern Hebrew: /e/ ([e̞]), Ø
	Biblical Hebrew: /a/
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

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Shva or, in Biblical Hebrew, shĕwa (Hebrew: שְׁוָא) is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign written as two vertical dots ( ְ‎ ) beneath a letter. It indicates either the phoneme /ə/ (shva na', mobile shva) or the complete absence of a vowel (/Ø/) (shva naḥ, resting shva).

It is transliterated as ⟨e⟩, ⟨ĕ⟩, ⟨ə⟩, ⟨'⟩ (apostrophe), or nothing. Note that use of ⟨ə⟩ for shva is questionable: transliterating Modern Hebrew shva naḥ with ⟨ə⟩ is misleading, since it is never actually pronounced [ə] – a mid central vowel (IPA [ə]) does not exist in Modern Hebrew. The vowel [ə] was pronounced as a full vowel in earlier Hebrew varieties such as Tiberian vocalization, where it was phonetically usually identical to short [a], in Palestinian vocalization appears as short [e] or [i], and in Babylonian vocalization as [a]. In early Greek and Latin transliterations of Hebrew such as the Hexapla, it appears as [ε] and [e], respectively.^[1]

A shva sign in combination with the vowel diacritics patáḥ, segól, and qamatz produces a ḥatáf: a diacritic for a tnuʿá ḥatufá (a 'reduced vowel' – lit. 'abducted vowel'). In Tiberian Hebrew, these were pronounced identical to the short vowels [a], [ɛ], and [ɔ].^[2]

^ Khan, Geoffrey (2020). The Tiberian Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew, Volume 1. Cambridge, England: Open Book Publishers. pp. 305–7. ISBN 978-1-78374-677-4.
^ Khan, Geoffrey (2020). The Tiberian Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew, Volume 1. Cambridge, England: Open Book Publishers. p. 313. ISBN 978-1-78374-677-4.

[1] Khan, Geoffrey (2020). The Tiberian Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew, Volume 1. Cambridge, England: Open Book Publishers. pp. 305–7. ISBN 978-1-78374-677-4.

[2] Khan, Geoffrey (2020). The Tiberian Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew, Volume 1. Cambridge, England: Open Book Publishers. p. 313. ISBN 978-1-78374-677-4.

[1]

[2]