Pataḥ (Hebrew: פַּתַח‎‎ pataḥ, Biblical: pathaḥ) is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign represented by a horizontal line "‏ ַ‏" underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew, it indicates the phoneme /a/ which is the same as the "a" sound in far and is transliterated as an "a".

In Modern Hebrew, a pataḥ makes the same sound as a qamatz, as does the Hataf Pataḥ (Hebrew: חֲטַף פַּתַח‎ "Reduced Pataḥ"). The reduced (or hataf) niqqud exist for pataḥ, qamatz, and segol which contain a shwa next to it.

Pronunciation[link]

The following table contains the pronunciation and transliteration of the different pataḥs in reconstructed historical forms and dialects using the International Phonetic Alphabet. The pronunciation in IPA is above and the transliteration is below.

The letters Bet "ב" and Het "ח" used in this table are only for demonstration. Any letter can be used.

A pataḥ on a letter ח at the end of a word is sounded before the letter, and not behind. Thus, נֹחַ (Noah) is pronounced /no-aḥ/. This only occurs at the ends of words and only with pataḥ and ח, ע, and הּ (that is, ה with a dot (mappiq) in it). This is sometimes called a pataḥ g'nuvah, or "stolen" pataḥ (more formally, "furtive pataḥ"), since the sound "steals" an imaginary epenthetic consonant to make the extra syllable.

In addition, a letter with a pataḥ or qamatz with a succeeding, articulated yud makes the "ai" sound such as in fine or why.

Vowel Length comparison[link]

By adding two vertical dots (shwa) the vowel is made very short. However, these vowels lengths are not manifested in Modern Hebrew.

Unicode encoding[link]

See also[link]

• Niqqud
• Qamatz