Aramaic Vowels: Hirek

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The first Aramaic vowel is called Hirek, pronounced similar to hear-eck. (Not ear-ache!)

Hirek is represented by a single dot below the letter, in the middle of the letter. Here is what Hirek looks like with an imaginary Aramaic letter:



Hirek is pronounced with a short ee sound, similar to the ea in the English words beat, peat or feat. The ee sound is not as long as the ee in words like bee, pea or see.

Here are some examples of Hirek used in actual words, and how often each word occurs in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible). As you can see, these are very common words. Make sure you memorize them!

      to me, 751 times
  David, 600 times
      who?, 391 times
      in me, 159 times

In the lesson Using Aramaic Letters As Vowels, we saw that the Aramaic letter Yood is often used as an auxiliary vowel. When this happens, Hirek appears below the previous letter. This happens in the word David in some books of the Tanakh:

  David, pronounced Da-veed

The sound of Hirek does not change just because some words add the letter Yood as an aid to reading! Some Biblical Aramaic grammars distinguish between Hirek on its own and Hirek when it is followed by a Yood, often claiming that one is a long vowel and the other short. Among Aramaic speakers today, however, there is no difference (if there ever was). Either way, the sound of Hirek is always a short ee.

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