kamatz

{| align="right" class="wikitable" | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Qamatz |- | colspan="2" align="center" style="background:white;height:100px"|ָ |- | IPA | style="background:white" | |- | Transliteration | style="background:white" | a |- | English approximation | style="background:white" | spa |- | Similar sound | style="background:white" | |- | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Example |- | colspan="2" align="center" style="background:white;height:50px"| |- | colspan="2" style="width:250px;background:white" | |- | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Other Niqqud |- | colspan="2" style="width:250px;background:white text-align:center;"|ShwaHiriqTzereSegolPataḥKamatzHolamDageshMappiqShurukKubutzRafeSin/Shin Dot |}

Kamatz or qamatz (, ; alternatively ) is a Hebrew niqqud (vowel) sign represented by two perpendicular lines (looking like an uppercase T) underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, it usually indicates the phoneme which is the "a" sound in the word spa and is transliterated as a. In these cases, its sound is identical to the sound of ' in modern Hebrew. In a minority of cases it indicates the phoneme , equal to the sound of '. In traditional Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation, qamatz is pronounced as the phoneme , which becomes in some contexts in southern Ashkenazi dialects. For this reason, the equivalent phoneme in Yiddish ( in some dialects, in others) is spelled with an aleph marked with a kamatz , in Yiddish orthography.