Those Little Points: Zero Niqqud as a Linguistic Sign

Modern Hebrew seldom uses the niqqud vocalization system, but for a series of specifically marked genres (dictionaries, poetry, children’s literature, some canonic religious texts). Furthermore, modern speakers usually do not have the ready knowledge which would allow them to employ the system, and even primary school teachers content themselves with cursory, phonetic only usage of some of the diacritical signs just to have their students distinguish between several possible readings of a string of letters. When publishing poetry, journals, newspapers as well as publishing houses employ specialized niqqud technicians (naqdanim) or use unreliable software packages and then correct the result obtained.
Thus, in the everyday life of a Hebrew speaker, niqqud has a partial, yet significant presence. A number of questions arise: What is the relationship between niqqud and present-day speakers? In what way is the system part of Modern Hebrew? What is the status of partial use of niqqud signs, especially when employed only to distinguish between readings? Might we be witnessing an atrophying feature of Hebrew? On the other hand, regarded as a layer over the default (niqqud-less) text, niqqud can also be used creatively – enabling a desired, intentional ambiguity in the text -, both in its deployment as in the refraining from deploying it, thus revealing a genre-signaling typographical linguistic sign. This would be a zero-niqqud linguistic sign in need of analysis and description both for its formal features as for its functionality and creative possibilities, with intertextuality signified by the functional paradigm [zero/non-zero niqqud].