Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Hebrew)

This page is an official guideline regarding the transliteration of Hebrew and Israeli names for Wikipedia articles. It serves both as a naming conventions guideline and a manual of style for Hebrew.

Scope
This guideline covers:


 * The conventions for naming an article or section based on a Hebrew word ("article naming").
 * The conventions for including a Hebrew word or phrase in an article ("in-line Hebrew").

The motivation behind having this romanization convention is that the ability to read Hebrew is not a prerequisite for use of the English Wikipedia.

This guideline does not cover transcription and pronunciation guides. For that, see Help:Pronunciation and Help:IPA/Hebrew.

Redirects
Each article must have only a single title. Other plausible titles should redirect to this title.

Standard Anglicized name

 * See also: Naming conventions (use English) and Naming conventions (common names)

If there is a standard Anglicized name for a topic (Moses, Haifa, Gaza, Torah, rabbi, rebbe, Netanyahu, Jerusalem, etc.), then that name should be used in the title and in in-line text, no matter how unlike the modern Hebrew that name is.

Some topics may have several common widely accepted English transliterations (e.g. the name Chaim vs. Haim vs. Hayim), and sometimes it is debated whether there is a standard English transliteration at all (Beersheba vs. Be'er Sheva). In these cases, the context of the article should be taken into account. For example, Beersheba may be used to describe the city in general, while Be'er Sheva may be used for the Be'er Sheva North Railway Station, which pertains only to modern Israel.

Official transliterations into English as used by primary sources should also take precedence in naming articles or sections over the correct transliteration, e.g. Ness Ziona. This does not apply to generic sources however, whose scope is greater than just the subject. For instance, in the case of Ness Ziona, the spelling used by the municipality of Ness Ziona will take precedence, but not the spelling used by the Israeli government, Ministry of the Interior, Central Bureau of Statistics, Hebrew Academy, etc.

In-line transliteration
The rules for article or section naming provided below apply only when there is no standard or official Anglicized name. However, the rules below apply to all cases of direct in-line transliterations which follow the Hebrew spelling, and may be radically different from the main Hebrew name (which could also be a translation), thus:
 * Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, Yerushalayim)
 * Israel Railways (רַכֶּבֶת יִשְרָאֵל‎, Rakevet Yisra'el)
 * Neve Tzedek (נְוֵה צֶדֶק, Neveh Tzedek)

Abbreviations
Most Hebrew abbreviations are treated as regular words for all intents and purposes. Thus, they should not be all-uppercase like English abbreviations, and there should be no apostrophes or quotation marks for separation like in Hebrew (apostrophes are okay for displaying shva however, per below). This applies both to article/section naming, and in-line transliteration. Thus:
 * Zaka (זק"א), not ZAKA
 * Israel Border Police (מִשְׁמַר הַגְּבוּל, Mishmar HaGvul, abbr., Magav), not MAGAV
 * Civil Guard (מִשְׁמָר אֶזְרָחִי, abbr., Mash'az)

Two exceptions to this rule are:
 * Abbreviations which have a different accepted English transliteration – should be written as such, e.g. z"l
 * Abbreviations, mostly 2-letter ones, which are pronounced by letter (like in English) and not as a word, e.g. Lamed-He . These should be italicized, joined by a dash, with each letter transliterated separately.

When a topic pertains primarily to modern Israel
If a topic pertains primarily to modern Israel (e.g., a modern city that did not exist before, say, 1850), the article should be named according to modern Israeli Hebrew. Specifically, the title should be based on a practical modification of the Hebrew Academy's romanization scheme, provided below.

If unsure whether a topic pertains to modern Israel, and there is no standard romanization, the rules below should be used as well.

Matres lectionis and shva
Letters used as vowels (matres lectionis, אִמּוֹת קְרִיאָה imot kri'a), that is, alef, vav and yud without nikud, as well as ayin without nikud, are omitted, with one exception: a yud vowel after a tzeire will be rendered as $⟨i⟩$. Thus: But:
 * kara
 * kara
 * Galil
 * Tavor
 * yadekha
 * Beit She'an
 * tzeireh

A shva will be transliterated as e if both of the following conditions apply: Thus: But: Note that some words' pronunciations may change when he haydi'a or one of the letters bakhlam is appended, and sometimes the pronunciation of a shva is dialect-dependent. In cases such as these, consensus should be reached for individual article and section naming, and it is not possible to introduce a clear guideline.
 * It is a shva na at the beginning of a word
 * It is actually pronounced in Hebrew
 * be'er
 * Rehovot
 * psak

Between a shva and a vowel sound or between nikud and a vowel sound, an apostrophe will be used to indicate a short stop. For that same reason, two vowel sounds in sequence are separated by an apostrophe. Thus:
 * mal'akh
 * be'er

He () at the ends of words
The letter he at the ends of words is not pronounced in Hebrew (in modern Hebrew, even with a mapik), and will be omitted in most cases. Due to practical reasons however, he will be written at the ends of words when it succeeds an e sound (tzeire or segol). Thus:
 * kita
 * Tverya
 * Shilo (modern settlement)
 * moneh
 * mateh

It should be noted that most well-known Hebrew words with a final he are from the ancient period and already have a common Anglicized name (Torah, Mishnah, Hanukkah, etc.) These will keep their common transliteration in accordance with the first part of the guideline and Naming conventions (common names).

Formative letters
In Hebrew, "formative letters" (, Otiyot HaShimush) are 11 letters which are prepended to regular words to introduce a new meaning. This section details the transliteration of those formative letters used as prefixes mainly for nouns (he haydi'a, bakhal letters, vav hahibur, shin and mem)

In all capitalized words, he hayedi'a (ha, he) will be capitalized, as well as the word after it. If the word is not capitalized, neither the he nor the word after it will have a capital letter. For transliterations directly after in-line Hebrew text, all words will generally be capitalized. The rules in the previous section apply. Thus:
 * he hayedi'a
 * beit ha'avot
 * The Elders' Home (, Beit HaAvot)
 * Beit HaKerem

The same rules apply for the other utility letters, with the following additions: Thus: It is important to remember that the utility letters can obtain almost any nikud, depending on the word after them: va'ani, UTverya , BiTverya , etc.
 * In a bakhal or vav hahibur  letter with a shva, the shva will always be transliterated as e.
 * The word will only be capitalized once for bakhal or vav hahibur letters with a hirik preceding a yud (originally with a shva).
 * BeDimona, not BDimona
 * Lirushalayim, not LiRushalayim or LIrushalayim

Dagesh and mapik
Dagesh (both types) and mapik will be ignored, except where applicable per above (e.g. Knesset). The letter he at the ends of words will be written in certain cases, regardless of mapik (see He at the ends of words).

When a topic pertains primarily to a certain subset of diaspora Jewry
When the topic of an article pertains primarily to Eastern European Jewry (e.g., a rebbe from the 1700s), and there is no standard romanization, its title should reflect Ashkenazic pronunciation and tradition. Similarly, if its topic pertains primarily to Oriental Jews (e.g., a Bukharan food), its title should reflect Oriental Sephardic pronunciation and tradition, and so on. Below are the main differences between the modern Israeli transliteration and the transliteration in question. Note that pronunciations in practice may vary greatly, but are not covered in this guideline (see: Manual of Style (pronunciation)).

When a topic originates before the Diaspora
When the topic of an article predates the Diaspora, and there is no standard romanization, the title should reflect ancient pronunciation by using a form of the general-purpose, diacritic-less transliteration scheme described by the Society of Biblical Literature's SBL Handbook of Style. This scheme is flexible, however.

When unsure of the Jewish subset/time period the subject pertains to
When unsure of what subset of the Jewish diaspora, or what time period the subject pertains to, and there is no widely accepted Anglicized version, attempt to find this out by asking other editors first (esp. in Notice board for Israel-related topics, WikiProject Judaism, WikiProject Jewish history and WikiProject Israel), in order to avoid unnecessary moves.

If there is no consensus, refer to When a topic pertains primarily to modern Israel.

Arabic in Hebrew
Many Arabic words are used daily in Hebrew speech and writing, and Arabic location names in Israel are often written in Hebrew. The following guiding rules apply:
 * For words and place names which are common in Hebrew, but not in English, a similar guideline to Naming conventions (use English) should be used, only for Hebrew: if there is a common Hebrew way of writing the word, it should be transliterated into English from the accepted Hebrew writing, ignoring the Arabic version. An Arabic script would still be warranted, but not as the basis for the transliteration.
 * For words which are common in both Hebrew and English (e.g. Kefiyyeh), Naming conventions (use English) will apply.
 * For Israeli place names not common in either Hebrew or English, even if they have official Hebrew transliterations, Arabic transliteration rules will still apply, per Manual of Style (Arabic).

Note that especially for place names, the words are often written in Hebrew and Arabic side by side, which eliminates the need for a Hebrew transliteration, unless radically different from the Arabic.

General in-line rules
Note: None of the following sections apply to article or section namings.

When to use italics
In in-line Hebrew the word should be italicized, per Manual of Style if the following conditions are met: Also:
 * 1) It is not a proper noun (unique place or a person's name).
 * 2) Is not an English word taken from Hebrew.  That is, it is not in an English dictionary (words such as rabbi, bris, etc...).
 * 1) Proper names in in-line transliterations coming directly after Hebrew text will be italicized.

Diacritics
Certain diacritics may be used for regular in-line transliterations which should not be used with article or section names. Notably, the underlined h (ẖ) for ẖet. Note that this usage is discouraged, unless there is a clear need to differentiate between he, ẖet and khaf.

Font

 * For text in the Hebrew language please use.
 * For entire paragraphs in Hebrew, please use.
 * For marking text that is not in the Hebrew language but uses Hebrew script, please use

IPA
For IPA, use the template IPA, (ex., written as ), so as to link to Help:IPA/Hebrew. The introductory wording can be shortened with various switches:
 * for: ,
 * for: ,
 * for: ,
 * for:.

There is also space for a sound file. (See documentation at he.)