High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Shva or, in Biblical Hebrew, Sh'wa (Hebrew: ??????) is a Hebrew niqqud vowel sign written as two vertical dots "?" underneath a letter. In Modern Hebrew, it indicates either the phoneme /e/ or the complete absence of a vowel (O), whereas in Hebrew prescriptive linguistics, four grammatical entities are differentiated: resting (na? / ???), moving (na / ???), floating (mera?ef / ???????) and "bleating" or "bellowing" (ga'ya / ????????). In earlier forms of Hebrew, these entities were phonologically and phonetically distinguishable, but the two variants resulting from Modern Hebrew phonology no longer conform to the traditional classification, e.g. the (first) Shva Nach in the word ?????????? (fem. "you crumpled") is pronounced in Modern Hebrew /e/ (/ki?matet/) instead of being mute, whereas the Shva Na in ????? ("time") in Modern Hebrew is mute (/zman/). In religious contexts, however, careful readers of the prayers and scriptures do still...