niqqud

{| class="infobox wikitable floatright" ! colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" | Niqqud |- | colspan="2" | {| style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border-style:none" |style="border-style:none"| ||style="padding:1px; margin:0px; background:white;line-height:1em; font-size:325%; font-family:SBL Hebrew, David, Narkisim, 'Times New Roman'; border-width:0px"|  ְ   ֱ   ֲ   ֳ   ִ  |- |style="border-style:none"| ||style="padding:1px; margin:0px; background:white;line-height:1em; font-size:325%; font-family:SBL Hebrew, David, Narkisim, 'Times New Roman'; border-width:0px;"|  ֵ   ֶ   ַ   ָ   ֹ  |- |style="border-style:none"| ||style="padding:1px; margin:0px; background:white;line-height:1em; font-size:325%; font-family:SBL Hebrew, David, Narkisim, 'Times New Roman'; border-width:0px;"|  ֻ   ּ   ֿ   ׁ   ׂ  |} |- | Other diacritics | style="background:white" |cantillation, geresh,gershayim |- | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Example |- | colspan="2" align="center" style="background:white;height:50px"|220px |- | colspan="2" style="width:250px;background:white; text-align:center;" | Gen. 1:9, "And God said,Let the waters be collected".Letters in black, niqqud in red, cantillation in blue |- | colspan="2" style="text-align:center;" |Niqqud articles |- | colspan="2" style="width:250px;background:white; text-align:center;"| ShvaHiriqZeireSegolPatachKamatzHolamDageshMappiqShurukKubutzRafeSin/Shin dot |} In Hebrew orthography, niqqud or nikud ( or ) is a system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Several such diacritical systems were developed in the Early Middle Ages. The most widespread system, and the only one still used to a significant degree today, was created by the Masoretes of Tiberias in the second half of the first millennium AD in the Land of Israel (see Masoretic Text, Tiberian Hebrew). Text written with niqqud is called ktiv menuqad.

Niqqud marks are small compared to the letters, so they can be added without retranscribing texts whose writers did not anticipate them.