Transliteration Standards of the SBL

Transliteration Standards of The SBL Handbook of Style

You will need the SIL Gentium font for the Greek characters on this page, the SBL Hebrew font for the Hebrew characters and the Doulos SIL font for the transliteration. All are Unicode fonts.

Note: 1) Where two forms are provide for the same letter the second is that used when the letter is the last one in a word.

2) The letter ב (bêt) is used to show the placement of Hebrew vowel pointing (but, of course, is not part of the actual pointing itself).

3) See The SBL Handbook of Style for further guidance on transliteration.

[Copy Center (for cut and paste of more difficult characters): ʾ ʿ ḥ ṭ ṣ ś š ā â ă ē ê ĕ ī î ō ô ŏ ū û ]

[Copy center, using SPAtlantis font: ) ( h9 t[ s9 s8 s] a= a4 a6 e4 e6 e= |< |3 o4 o6 o= u4 u= ]

Greek		Hebrew
		Consonants
α	a	א		ʾālep	ʾ
β	b	ב		bêt	b
γ	g (n before γ, κ, ξ, or χ)	ג		gîmel	g
δ	d	ד		dālet	d
ε	e	ה		hê	h
ζ	z	ו		wāw	w
η	ē	ז		zayin	z
θ	th	ח		ḥêt	ḥ
ι	i	ט		ṭêt	ṭ
κ	k	י		yôd	y
λ	l	ך כ		kāp	k
μ	m	ל		lāmed	l
ν	n	ם מ		mêm	m
ξ	x	ן נ		nûn	n
ο	o	ס		sāmek	s
π	p	ע		ʿayin	ʿ
ρ	r	ף פ		pê	p
ῥ	rh	ץ צ		ṣādê	ṣ
σ ς	s	ק		qôp	q
τ	t	ר		rêš	r
υ	y (u in diphthongs: au, eu, ēu, ou, ui)	שׂ		śîn	ś
φ	ph	שׁ		šîn	š
χ	ch	ת		tāw	t
ψ	ps	Vowels
ω	ō	בַ	pataḥ			a
῾	h (with vowel or diphthong)	בַ	furtive pataḥ			a
		בָ	qāmeṣ			ā
		בָה	final qāmeṣ hê			â
		בָיו	3^rd masc. sg. suf.			āyw
		בֶ	sĕgōl			e
		בֵ	ṣērê			ē
		בֵי	ṣērê yôd			ê (בֵיּ = êy)
		בֶי	sĕgōl yôd			ê (בֶיּ = êy)
		בִ	short ḥîreq			i
		בִ	long ḥîreq			ī
		בִי	ḥîreq yôd			î
		בָ	qāmeṣ ḥāṭûp			o
		בֹ	ḥōlem			ō
		וֹ	full ḥōlem			ô
		בֻ	short qibbûṣ			u
		בֻ	long qibbûṣ			ū
		וּ	šûreq			û
		בֳ	ḥāṭēp qāmeṣ			ŏ
		בֲ	ḥāṭēp pataḥ			ă
		בֱ	ḥāṭēp sĕgŏl			ĕ
		בְ	vocal šĕwă			ĕ