On Letters
The alphabets used for Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic are consonantal, i. e. every letter represents a consonant while vowels, if they are noted, are marked by additional signs. Notwithstanding, some letters may be used as so-called matres lectiones, as representations for certain vowels. But what exactly this looks like, will be shown in the further sections.
To ‘decipher’ texts in Arabic that are written in Hebrew letters, one needs to know two things: the Hebrew alphabet and the Arabic language. Since both languages (Hebrew and Arabic) are consonantal scripts, the recognition of letters alone is not enough to read texts. Imagine, we find in a ‘Judeo-Arabic’ text a group of three letters which we identify Kāf, Taw, Lamed. We could transliterate them (transliterating means here: noting the corresponding consonants) them: KTB. We could read it by adding vowels as kataba (he wrote), but we could read/vocalise it, depending on the context, also differently, namely kutiba which is passive voice (it was written) or as kattaba which is a different verbal stem (he made [someone] write [something]; as vowels, the gemination of consonants may be marked with an additional sign).
In the following, we offer a table of correspondences of Hebrew and Arabic letters, their ‘transliteration’ (by this we refer to the consonantal value of each letter) and their ‘transcription’ (the value a given letter has in a word in which we add vowels; some consonants may be used as representatives for long vowels). But again, this table alone is useless if someone wants to read an Arabic text written in Hebrew characters, in this case the study of Arabic is indispensable.
Table of Transliteration (based on ‘Classical Judeo-Arabic’)
| name (Hebrew) | Hebrew | Arabic | name (Arabic) | Transliteration | Transcription |
| Aleph | א | ا | Alif | ʾ | ʾ/ ā |
| Beth | ב | ب | Bāʾ | B | b |
| Taw | ת | ت | Tāʾ | T | t |
| (Taw)* | ת֗ | ث | Ṯaʾ | Ṯ | ṯ |
| Gimel | ג | ج | Ǧīm | Ǧ | ǧ |
| Ḥet | ח | ح | Ḥāʾ | Ḥ | ḥ |
| (Kaf)* | כ֗ ך֗ | خ | Ḫāʾ | Ḫ | ḫ |
| Daleth | ד | د | Dāl | D | d |
| (Daleth)* | ד֗ | ذ | Ḏāl | Ḏ | ḏ |
| Reš | ר | ر | Rāʾ | R | r |
| Zayn | ז | ز | Zāʾ | Z | z |
| Sameḵ | ס | س | Sīn | S | s |
| Šin | ש | ش | Šīn | Š | š |
| Ṣade | צ ץ | ص | Ṣād | Ṣ | ṣ |
| (Ṣade)* | צ֗ ץ֗ | ض | Ḍād | Ḍ | ḍ |
| Ṭet | ט | ط | Ṭāʾ | Ṭ | ṭ |
| (Ṭet)* | ט֗ | ظ | Ẓāʾ | Ẓ | ẓ |
| ʿAyn | ע | ع | ʿAyn | ʿ | ʿ |
| (Gimel)* | ג֗ | غ | Ġayn | Ġ | ġ |
| Pe | פ ף | ف | Fāʾ | F | f |
| Qof | ק | ق | Qāf | Q | q |
| Kaf | כ ך | ك | Kāf | K | k |
| Lamed | ל | ل | Lām | L | l |
| Mem | מ | م | Mīm | M | m |
| Nun | נ ן | ن | Nūn | N | n |
| He | ה | ه | Hāʾ | H | h |
| Vav | ו | و | Waw | W | w / ū |
| Yod | י | ي | Yāʾ | Y | y / ī |
Hebrew letters marked with * are used for two letters in Arabic.
Some Hebrew letters have two forms: one in the beginning and the middle of a word and one at the end of a word.
Arabic letters vary in shape, depending on their position (initial, medial, final, isolated). For the sake of simplicity, this table reproduces only the isolated forms.
Three further signs should be mentioned at this point, even though they are not considered as part of the Arabic alphabeth:
- Hamza: an additional sign denoting a glottal stop. It can appear in its isolated form (ء), but it is often carried by an alif (أ/إ), a Waw (ؤ) or a Yāʾ (ئ).
- Alif maqṣūra bi-ṣura al-yāʾ: ‘the Alif, that can be shorted, with the shape of Yāʾ’ is used at the end of a word, representing a long ā. For it has is shape from the letter Yāʾ, it is sometimes rendered with Aleph and sometimes with Yod in Judeo-Arabic (in the transcription, Alif maqṣūra will be denoted with ‘à’).
- Tāʾ marbūṭa (ة): the ‘connected Tāʾ’ appears at the end of a word, representing a short a and mostly denoting the female form of a noun, adjective or participe. Although its shapes resembles the letter Hāʾ, it is pronounced in some cases (the so-called construct state) and sometimes even written (construct state + suffix) like Tāʾ from which it has its designation.