Editing Punic language (section)

=== Vowels ===
The [[vowel]]s in Punic and Neo-Punic are: short ''a, i,'' and ''u''; their long counterparts ''ā, ī,'' and ''ū''; and ''ē'' and ''ō'', which had developed out of the [[diphthong]]s ''ay'' and ''aw'', respectively (for example Punic ''mēm'', 'water', corresponds to Hebrew ''mayim'').

Two vowel changes are noteworthy. In many cases a stressed long ''ā'' developed into /''o''/, for example in the third person masculine singular of the suffixing conjugation of the verb, ''baròk'', 'he has blessed' (compare Hebrew ''baràk''). And in some cases that /''o''/ secondarily developed into ''ū'', for example ''mū'', 'what?', < ''mō'' < ''mā'' (cf. Hebrew ''māh'', 'what?').

In late Punic and Neo-Punic the [[glottal stop]] and [[pharyngeal consonant|pharyngeal]] and [[laryngeal consonant]]s were no longer pronounced. The signs’'', ‘, h,'' and ''ḥ'' thus became available to indicate vowels. The ‘ayn (''‘'') came to be regularly used to indicate an /''a''/ sound, and also ''y'' and ''w'' increasingly were used to indicate /''i''/ and /''o, u''/, respectively. But a consistent system to write vowels never developed.<ref>Krahmalkov (2001), pp. 19, 27-37.</ref>