Kamatz

Qamatz (Hebrew: קָמַץ, IPA: [kaˈmats]) is a Hebrew niqqud (vowel) sign represented by two perpendicular lines (looking like an uppercase T) ⟨ ָ ⟩ underneath a letter. In modern Hebrew (Sephardi/Israeli), it usually indicates the phoneme /a/ which is close to the "a" sound in the English word far and is transliterated as a and thus its sound is identical to the sound of pataḥ in modern Hebrew. In some cases it indicates the phoneme /o/, equal to the sound of ḥolam.