Help me spell "Ani LeDodi VeDodi Li" with nikud

September 20, 2007 11:28 AM

Help me spell "Ani LeDodi VeDodi Li", in hebrew, with vowel punctuation (nikud)

I've already got the correct non-punctuated spelling (see here), but I'd like to have it written with the vowel dots (nikud), much like Victoria Beckham's tattoo. I can't quite make out all the dots from this picture and I'm not sure they're all correct. Can any of you help?

posted by AnyGuelmann to Writing & Language (10 answers total)

I'm not sure of the exact punctuation, but for the record you should know that the nikud are omitted from most adult texts, such as books and newspapers. The vowels merely inferred by the reader, and adding them explicitly is sometimes considered childish, so if you're getting a tattoo you may want to get the opinion of an Israeli or other modern hebrew speaker first.
posted by MaxK at 11:43 AM on September 20, 2007

Best answer: Songs 6:3 with nekudot. If you have the unpointed text, you should be able see which portion you want.
posted by felix betachat at 12:23 PM on September 20, 2007

In case you're not familiar w/ Hebrew punctuation: some of the bits in felix betachat's link are trop/cantillation marks rather than nekudot.
posted by needs more cowbell at 12:29 PM on September 20, 2007

Best answer: felix betachat's version also includes the trope markings, which I assume you would want to exclude.

You can get a customized verse-by-verse output from the Tanach on Demand site, which is a really nice resource.

If that doesn't work (if, for example, Tanach on Demand is barfing up hairballs like it is right now), I'd be happy to e-mail or fax you a copy of the pointed text.
posted by AngerBoy at 12:36 PM on September 20, 2007

Best answer: I edited the trope marks out of felix's version, and cut it down to only the words you're looking for. It's not the clearest source you'll find, but it's pretty decent (the marks that look like short vertical lines are actually two dots stacked vertically).
I'm pretty sure it's right, but I'm not a fluent speaker by any stretch, so someone please correct me if I missed something.
posted by Partial Law at 12:46 PM on September 20, 2007

FWIW, looks right to me, Partial Law.
posted by bassjump at 1:27 PM on September 20, 2007

Agreed, Partial Law's version looks correct.
posted by ludwig_van at 2:01 PM on September 20, 2007

thirding partial law's -- though i admit it's weird to give advice on hebrew tattoo - a sort of oxymoron to the traditional mores i'm accustomed.
posted by prophetsearcher at 2:23 PM on September 20, 2007

Partial Law's version is correct. But, like MaxK said, Hebrew is not written with vowels unless it's a children's book.
posted by Flakypastry at 2:35 PM on September 20, 2007

@prophetsearcher:
For the record, it's not at all clear that AnyGuelmann is actually planning on using this as a template for her own tattoo. The original post only mentioned that she was looking for something that looked like Posh's tattoo.

I'm sure this is just some combination of Talmudic hair-splitting and wishful thinking, but there you have it. ;O)
posted by AngerBoy at 4:19 PM on September 20, 2007