Tiberian vocalization

The Tiberian vocalization, Tiberian pointing, or Tiberian niqqud (Hebrew: נִיקוּד טְבֵרִיָנִי‎ Nikkud Tveriyani) is a system of diacritics (niqqud) devised by the Masoretes of Tiberias to add to the consonantal text of the Hebrew Bible to produce the Masoretic Text. The system soon became used to vocalize other Hebrew texts as well.

The Tiberian vocalization marks vowels and stress, makes fine distinctions of consonant quality and length, and serves as punctuation. While the Tiberian system was devised for Tiberian Hebrew, it has become the dominant system for vocalizing all forms of Hebrew; it has long since eclipsed the Babylonian and Palestinian vocalization systems.

The sin dot distinguishes between the two values of ש‎. A dagesh indicates a consonant is geminate or unspirantized, and a raphe indicates spirantization. The mappiq indicates that ה‎ is consonantal, not silent, in syllable-coda position.

The seven vowel qualities of Tiberian Hebrew are indicated straightforwardly by distinct diacritics:

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