A New Transliteration of Hebrew into Standard Characters

Abstract

EKTB is a new transliteration scheme for Hebrew based on the historical development of the alphabet. Latin characters are identified by the early Hebrew letters from which they developed. Nineteen Hebrew letters find natural representatives among the Latin characters. The three others are assigned arbitrarily. EKTB treats the Latin characters as graphic variants of the Hebrew letters and permits Hebrew to be used with standard equipment while maintaining its traditional writing methodology. EKT+B is an extension to include ‘pointing’. EKT+B is compared to proposals of European-style writing reform. The merits of the traditional way of writing Hebrew, which EKTB and EKT+B preserve, are explored.