Checked for validity and accuracy – January 2020 ROMANIZATION OF HEBREW BGN/PCGN 2018 AGREEMENT This system, adopted jointly by the BGN and the PCGN in 2018, is based on the 2006 and 2011 Academy of the Hebrew Language’s transliteration systems. It differs in only a few details from the Academy’s 1957 system as used by the Survey of Israel over a period of many years and as published in Transliteration of Geographical Names in the Topographic Maps of Israel (Cartographic Papers No. 4), Survey of Israel, Tel Aviv, 1969. The 1957 Academy system was adopted as a BGN/PCGN agreement in 1962; the significant differences in the system presented here are the representation of row 7 as ‘v’ instead of ‘w’ and row 21 as ‘ts’ instead of ẕ. These and other more minor modifications are intended to better reflect the modern Hebrew language. Hebrew script is written from right to left, has no letter case, and, in modern orthography, seldom uses diacritics. Five Hebrew letters have different forms when the last letter of a word. The first two tables and notes 1 through 6 provide for the romanization of Hebrew names. Notes 7 and 8 provide for the romanization of non-Hebrew names of two types: commemorative names – most commonly of European origin – and Arabic names written in Hebrew script. CONSONANT CHARACTERS Hebrew Written Unicode Romanization Roman Unicode Remarks Hebrew Value Value (Lower Case) 05D0 2019 See note 1 א 1 ’ 2 בּ FB31 b 0062 See note 2 05D1 v 0076 ב 3 05D2/ FB32 g 0067 See note 2 גּ ג 4 05D3/ FB33 d 0064 See note 2 דּ ד 5 Not romanized in word-final position unless written with a dot (mappiq), i.e., הּ 05D4 h 0068 ה 6 05D5 v 0076 ו 7 05D6 z 007A ז 8 05D7 ẖ 1E96 ח 9 Hebrew Written Unicode Romanization Roman Unicode Remarks Value (Lower Case) Hebrew Value 05D8 t 0074 ט 10 05D9 y 0079 י 11 כּ FB3B See note 2 12 k 006B ךּ (final) FB3A 05DB כ kh 006B+0068 ךְ or ך 13 (final) 05DA 05DC l 006C ל 14 05DE מ 15 m 006D final) 05DD) ם 05E0 נ 16 n 006E final) 05DF) ן 05E1 s 0073 ס 17 05E2 ‘ 2018 ע 18 19 פּ 05E4 p 0070 See note 2 05E4 פ 20 f 0066 final) 05E3) ף 05E6 צ 21 ts 0074+0073 final) 05E5) ץ 05E7 q 0071 ק 22 05E8 r 0072 ר 23 24 שׁ FB2A sh 0073+0068 2 Hebrew Written Unicode Romanization Roman Unicode Remarks Hebrew Value Value (Lower Case) 25 שׂ FB2B s 0073 05EA/FB4A t 0074 See note 2 תּ ת 26 Written Unicode Value Hebrew Romanization Remarks Hebrew Hebrew/Roman 05D2+05F3/01E7 These three Hebrew characters and certain other ג׳ 27 ǧ modified characters not included in this system are used on Israeli maps to render Arabic and other non- 05D6+05F3/017E ž Hebrew names. Names in which these characters ז׳ 28 occur should be romanized in accordance with notes 29 05E6+05F3/010D .č 7 and 8 צ׳ VOWEL CHARACTERS Hebrew Romanization Remarks ַ 1 a 2 aa ַ a .a, o Usually a; very rarely o ַ 3 4 ַ 5 ַ e 6 ַ 7 ַי 3 Hebrew Romanization Remarks e, or not See note 3 ַ 8 romanized ַ 9 i ַי 10 ַ 11 o ַ 12 וֹ 13 ַ 14 u uu וּ 15 NOTES → גַּלְאוֹן ,.bearing a vowel character or shva ַ should be romanized; e.g א Every medial .1 should not be romanized when א .Ne’dar →נֶׁאְדָּּר ,‘Be’er Sheva →בְּאֵר ש ֶׁבַע ,Gal’on ,Ela →אֵילָּה ,.initial or when used as a consonant to indicate a vowel (mater lectionis); e.g .Sasa →סָּאסָּא when they occur ,ת and פ ,כ ,ד , ג , ב The dot placed within the body of the consonant characters .2 at the beginning of a name or after an unvoweled consonant character in the middle of a name, , בּ is known as the “weak” dagesh. The addition of the dot forms the consonant characters has now been תּ and ת and , דּ and ד , גּ and ג The phonetic distinction between . פּ and , כּ lost and these pairs of characters should be romanized identically. The same dot may also be placed within the body of any consonant character (including the to indicate the “strong” dagesh. This is (ר and , ע , ח , ה , א six mentioned above but excluding rendered in romanization by doubling the letter; the digraphs sh and ts are not doubled. The 4 “strong” dagesh can be distinguished from the “weak” dagesh, since the former is always .Karkom. See note 4 → כַּרְכֹּם Akko but‘ → עַכּוֹ ,.preceded by a vowel character; e.g ”The vowel sign shva ַ has two forms: shva na‘ (“moving” shva) and shva naẖ (“resting .3 shva). Shva on the first consonant of a word is always shva na‘, which is a short neutral ,Ge’ullim → ג ְּאֻלִּּים ,.vowel that should be romanized by e where it is sounded; e.g .(Shmurat (reserve → ש ְּמוּרַת ,)Kfar (village → כ ְּ פָּר ,(Brekha (pool →ב ְּ רֵיכָּה but When in doubt, romanize shva na‘ as e. Shva on the last consonant of a word is always shva naẖ, which marks the end of a closed syllable, and is not romanized. Determining shva form in the middle of a word requires changing the word to its elementary form; for nouns the singular form with no prefixes or suffixes, and for verbs the singular form in the tense of the original verb. If the elementary form retains a shva it is . בכַּ ֵּד → כַּב ְּדוּ .Otherwise it is shva na‘; e.g . מִּבְּ חָּן → מִּבְּחָּנִּים .shva naẖ; e.g 4. Hebrew prefixes should be capitalized in romanization and written together with their ,HaAgudda LeQiddum HaH̱ innuk BeYafo → האגודה לקידום החינך ביפו ,.following word; e.g .Bet WITSO LeTippul BeEm UVeYeled, etc → בית ויצ''ו לטיפול באם ובילד If the initial Hebrew letter of the word following the prefix bears the dagesh, the corresponding HaYogev. If the → היוגב .Roman character should also be capitalized but not doubled; e.g ;the Roman-script equivalent of its Hebrew vowel letter should be capitalized ע initial letter is .Ha‘Ogen → העגן ,.e.g but pronounced before ,ע and , ח , הּ Furtive” pattah, which is written under final he mappiq“ .5 and not after those three consonant characters, should be romanized before the character .Roqeaẖ → רוֹקֵחַ :under which it is written in Hebrew script 6. Hebrew abbreviations are most often marked with the geresh ' and gershayim '' and adhere to these romanization guidelines: שכון ,Deganya Bet → דגניה ב' .a. Hebrew letters written as numerals are written in full, e.g .Reẖov Nun H̱ et → רחוב נ''ח ,Shikhun Lamed → ל' GEMATRIA NUMERICAL VALUES FOR HEBREW LETTERS כ י ט ח ז ו ה ד ג ב א 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 20 ת ש ר ק צ פ ע ס נ מ ל 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 200 300 400 5 b. Commemorative names containing gershayim treat the commemorative acronym as a ,(Rambam) רמב''ם word. Commemorative acronyms can include well-known acronyms Giv‘at Koaẖ). The) גבעת כ''ח Pa‘ame Tashaz), and gematria numerals) פעמי תש''ז dates exception to this rule is commemorative gematria acronyms that use a definite article. Giv‘at → גבעת הנ''ד .These numbers should then be written as the written letters; e.g .Netiv HaLamed He → נתיב הל''הֵּ,HaNun Dalet c. Romanization for common Hebrew cartographic abbreviations without gershayim: Hebrew Roman Romanized Full Abbreviation Full Text Hebrew Abbreviation Text H̱ . H̱ orbat חרבת ח. N. Naẖal נחל נ. En‘ עין ע. ‘Shem. Shmurat Teva שמורת שמ. 7. The elements of commemorative names derived from Roman-alphabet languages should be spelled as in the original language; e.g. as with the surnames Kfar Masaryk (not Masariq), Balfouriyya (not Balfuriyya), Kfar Szold (not Sold). The elements of commemorative names derived from non-Roman-alphabet languages other than Arabic conform to the romanization of Hebrew names guidelines; e.g. as with the Russian .H̱ atser Sergey → חצר סרגיי ,Akhsanyat Niqolay → אכסניית ניקולאי commemorative names 8. In Israel (excluding the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights), Arabic names written in the Hebrew alphabet should be romanized according to the following special rules: a. Hebrew consonant characters should be romanized according to the table above with the following amendments and additions: not romanized א 1 j ג׳ 2 dh ד׳ 3 ḍ דֹ 4 a- ָָּ ה ֶָׁ ה 5 ḥ ַָ ה ח) final( 6 6 dh זֹ 7 kh ח׳ 8 t ט 9 gh ע׳ 10 11 ṣ צ th ת׳ 12 b. Hebrew vowel characters should be romanized as follows: not romanized ַ 1 a (ā before ( א word- final ַ 2 i ַ 3 u ַ 4 ā ַ 5 ī ַ י 6 וּ ū 7 See note (c.) ei ֵָ י 8 aiy ַָ יּ 9 īy ִָּ יּ 10 וֹ au 11 7 represent Arabic consonants with a shaddah, a כּ and בּ c. Except for some cases where consonant character containing a dot should be romanized by doubling the equivalent should be romanized ū, unless a vowel character is ו ֵּ letter or digraph. The character .Ḥuwwāra חֻוָּּרַה ,.shown beneath it, in which case it should be romanized ww; e.g .and should be romanized el, not al אֶׁל or אַל d.