Hebrew Romanization Table

This table compares four systems used for transliterating the Hebrew script into the Latin script. There are three systems recognized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), but only the most comprehensive of the three is listed here. For more information about all three systems, please see the ISO 259 page on Wikipedia. The Hebrew Academy initially created its standard in 1953, then updated it in 2006. The 2006 version was officially adopted by the United Nations in 2007. The conventions commonly used to transliterate informal texts in Israel are slightly less detailed than the ISO or the Hebrew Academy standards, most notably in that the dagesh is not usually indicated. The fourth column in the table below contains the system used by the American Library Association - Library of Congress (ALA-LC). This system also does not normally distinguish between Hebrew letters which have or do not have a dagesh. It does, however, distinguish in a few cases between Hebrew and Yiddish pronunciation. Where a different letter is used for Yiddish transliterations, this is given in brackets in the table below. A copy of the ALA-LC standard, with some explanatory notes, is available from the Library of Congress.

More information about Hebrew Romanization in general is available from Wikipedia.

Hebrew	ISO 259:1984	Hebrew Academy 2006	Common Informal (Israel)	ALA-LC
א	ʾ / ˀ	’ 1	’ 1	’ 1
ב	ḇ	v	v	v (b)
בּ2	b / bb	b / bb	b
ג	g	g	g	g
גּ2	g / gg	g / gg	g
ד	ḏ	d	d	d
דּ2	d / dd	d / dd	d
ה	h	h	h	h
הּ	h	h	h
ו	w	v	v	ṿ
וּ	ww	vv	v
ז	z	z	z	ẓ
זּ	zz	zz	z
ח	ḥ	ẖ	h	ḥ
ט	ṭ	t	t	ṭ
טּ2	ṭ / ṭṭ	t / tt	t
י	y	y	y, i	y
יּ	yy	yy	y, i
כ	ḵ	kh	ch, kh	kh
נּ2	k /kk	k / kk	k	k
ל	l	l	l	l
לּ	ll	ll	l
מ	m	m	m	m
מּ	mm	mm	m
נ	n	n	n	n
נּ	nn	nn	n
ס	s	s	s	s
סּ	ss	ss	s
ע	ʿ / ˁ	’ 1	’ 1	ʿ
פ	p̄	f	f	f
פּ2	p / pp	p / pp	p	p
צ	ṣ	ts	tz	ts
צּ	ṣṣ	ts	tz
ק	q	k	k	ḳ
קּ	qq	kk	k
ר	r	r	r	r
רּ	rr	rr	r
ש	š	sh	sh	sh
שּ	šš	sh	sh
ש	ś	s	s	ś
שּׂ	śś	ss	s
ת	t	t	t	t (s)
תּ2	t / tt	t / tt	t	t
ת׳		ṯ3	th
ג׳		ǧ3	j
ז׳		ž3	zh
צ׳		č3	tsh, ch

This article formerly appeared on ScriptSource.

Footnotes

1. Functions only as a syllable break in Israeli Hebrew. So, when transcribed, is omitted everywhere except in circumstances where omission would be ambiguous, such as immediately after consonants or between vowels. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. The letters בּ גּ דּ כּ פּ תּ with dagesh are transcribed in ISO 259 Classical Hebrew and by the Hebrew Academy standard single graphemes (b g d k p t) at the beginnings of words, after other consonants, and after shva ְ or hatafim ֱ ֲ ֳ . Elsewhere, they are transcribed as double letters (bb gg dd kk pp tt). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. From the 1953 standard. No longer officially in use, but still seen in some documents and signs. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴