Aramaic Vowels: Kibbuts

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The next Aramaic vowel is called Kibbuts, pronounced kee-boots. It is the same word as kibbutz, the Israeli agricultural community that volunteers work at during their summer vacation.

Kibbuts is represented by three small dots below a letter, lined up in a diagonal line one below the other. Here is what Kibbuts looks like with an imaginary Aramaic letter:



Kibbuts is pronounced with a fairly long oo sound, as in the English words fool or pool. Some Biblical Aramaic grammars suggest there is a difference between the pronunciation of the vowels Kibbuts and Shurek, suggesting that one is a long vowel and the other short. However, there is no difference in these vowels among Hebrew or Aramaic speakers today (if there ever was).

In fact, the difference between these Aramaic Vowels depends only on the spelling of the Aramaic word. As we have seen in the lesson Using Aramaic Letters As Vowels, sometimes Aramaic words use an extra Waw with a dot (Shurek) acting as a vowel to indicate an oo sound, but sometimes this extra Waw is not used. Either way, it is the same word with the same pronunciation, regardless of the spelling. If the spelling includes the Waw, you put a dot inside the Waw to indicate the vowel (Shurek) or, if there is no Waw, you put three dots below the letter (Kibbuts) to indicate the vowel.

Think of the three dots as an abbreviation for the three points of the Waw - the top, the dot in the middle, and the bottom. Thus, there is no difference between the pronunciations of Kibbuts and Shurek - it is simply that one is used with a Waw, and the other is used when there is no Waw.

Here are a few common words from the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) with the vowel Kibbuts:

  uttered, generally used in the phrase ‘thus saith the LORD’. Occurs 372 times.

  thou shalt die, used in the phrase ‘Thou shalt surely die’, referring to eating from the tree of knowledge of good and bad. In this word, both Kibbuts and Shurek occur together. Occurs 3 times.

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