THE ALPHABET OF BIBLICAL HEBREW 
Four letters, Bet ב, Kaf כ, Peh פ, and Shin ש, vary in pronunciation depending on the presence or position of a dot. For example, Peh without the dot is pronounced as ph (or f) as in phone , whereas the Peh with the dot is hard p, as in peace. The point or dot within a letter, as seen in the above three letters Bet, Kaf, and Peh, is known as a dagesh. Note the pronunciations in the following chart:
VOWELS Vowels in Masoretic Hebrew Scripture are a combination of the historically long vowels, Heh, Vav, and Yod, and the Masoretic or Tiberian Vowel Points. Vowels are long or short both in quality and quantity. Heh ה, Vav ו, and Yod י became known as "matres lectiones," or "mothers of reading," as they assisted in reading Scripture. The individual letter used as a vowel was known as a mater. Yod as a vowel was pronounced as long e or i, whereas vav was pronounced as long o or u. Heh served as a final long a.
Notice in the following chart that the majority of vowel points appear under the letter, except for long o when it occurs over and to the left of the letter. When the vowel points are combined with the matres lectiones, they occur underneath the prior letter with Heh and Yod. The Shewa sign may be vocal or silent; with the guttural letters aleph א, heh ה, het ח, and ayin ע, vocal shewa is combined with three vowel signs to produce three hurried vowels known as the hatep vowels.
Metheg is a symbol written as a short perpendicular stroke placed under the consonant and to the left of the vowel sign (if any). An example of its use is the addition of Metheg to Qames, which renders that vowel point as long a rather than short o.
The following chart summarizes the Masoretic vowel points.
This multiple form of vowel notation accounts for much of the variation in word formation in the Masoretic text. For example, Joshua, the son of Nun, in Judges 2:7, is spelled two different ways in the same sentence! The mater Sureq וּ is utilized for the vowel u in the first spelling, while the short vowel point Qibbus ֻ
is incorporated for the second spelling.
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