Dori's notebook

[dorig59]

Okay, is this how I do it, the notebook thing?

This is going to be a lot of fun!

Learning Biblical Hebrew: Alphabet
Learning the alphabet is a critical first step in learning Biblical Hebrew. Its as simple as this: if you can't distinguish between the letters, then you simply cannot read or pronounce the words! Fortunately there are some similarities between the English and Hebrew alphabets that help to bridge the gap a bit. "Mem" is one of those - it has an "m" sound and it kind of, sort of looks roughly like an M.

Here is the alphabet:
Aleph א
Bet בּ ב The dot in the middle of a consonant is called a dagesh. The meaning of which will be covered in a later lesson.
Gimel גּ ג another dagesh
Dalet דּ דanother dagesh
He ה
Waw ו
Zayin ז
Het ח
Tet ט
Yod י
Kaph כּ כ and ך is kaph final letter. Final letters occur at the end of a word.
Lamed ל
Mem מ and ם is Mem final letter
Nun נ and ן is Nun final letter
Samek ס
Ayin ע
Pe פּ פ and ף is Pe final letter
Sade צ and ץ is Sade final letter
Qoph ק
Res ר
Sinשׂ notice a small dot above to the left
S(h)in שׁ notice a small dot above to the right
Taw תּ ת

You may notice the dots within the letters. Later we will see that there will be dots above and below the letters that matter also, which are basically vowels.

There are letters that look very similar, such as a Bet ב and a Kaph כ. Spend some time comparing the similar ones, as that is going to help you distinguish these letters in the future. Next lesson we will go over the sounds for most letters.

 

[Tishri1]

perfect and now you can ask the teacher to quiz you or answer questions in here, or go to other students notebooks and quiz them.....of course you can do this as well in the class thread, but this one you can keep your study notes in too, did you see mine I set up a quiz for myself in there to help me memorize the letters, and the teacher came in to encourage me too.....anyway Im adding your link to our class directory k? great notebook!

 

[Tishri1]

הי

 

[dorig59]

Sorry I didn't see this sooner, Yes please, of course! Thank you! I'd like to see your quiz to help you memorize.

 

[Tishri1]

here ya go I just kept quoting it and trying to name all the letters till I finally got them all right


בּ ב The dot in the middle of a consonant is called a dagesh. The meaning of which will be covered in a later lesson.
גּ ג another dagesh
דּ דanother dagesh
ה
ו
ז
ח
ט
י
כּ כ and ך is final letter. Final letters occur at the end of a word.
ל
מ and ם is final letter
נ and ן is final letter
ס
ע
פּ פ and ף is final letter
צ and ץ is final letter
ק
ר
שׂ notice a small dot above to the left
שׁ notice a small dot above to the right
תּ ת

answers here
http://www.christianforums.com/t7422753/#post53663297

 

[Tishri1]

Hi sound it out (the ו makes a "o" sound I think...we have learned vowels yet so Im guessing)

דּורי

 

[dorig59]

I'm sorry, friend, I haven't had the time to put into this. Been busy with work, yuck. I'm going to try to bone up over this weekend.

 

[dorig59]

Learning Biblical Hebrew: Alphabet Sounds
Here is the alphabet with the associated sounds. These are the consonantal sounds, although we will see next time that some of these letters do function as vowels.

Aleph א has a short “throaty” sound similar to the “h” in “heir” and “honest” - and sometimes its silent. Its pronounced with a vowel and the later examples will be helpful...
Bet ב has a “v” sound while בּ has a “b” sound
Gimel ג has a soft “g” sound like the g in George whileגּ has a harder “g” sound like go
Dalet ד has a "th" sound while דּ has a “d” sound
He ה has an “h” sound
Waw ו has a “w” sound – modern Hebrew has the “v” sound
Zayin ז has a “z” sound
Het ח has a “ch” sound, back in the throat like Bach or Scottish loch
Tet ט has a “t” sound
Yod י has a “y” sound
Kaph כ has a “ch” sound as in Scottish loch or Bach while כּ has a hard "k" sound
Lamed ל has an “l” sound
Mem מ ם has an “m” sound
Nun ן נ has an “n” sound
Samek ס has an “s” sound
Ayin ע is similar in sound to Aleph, but a little more “throaty.” Like with Aleph, the examples will be helpful.
Pe פ has an “ f ” sound whileפּ has an “p” sound
Sade ץ צ has a “ ts ” sound as in jets
Qophק has a “q” sound
Res ר has an “r” sound
Sin שׂ has an “s” sound
S(h)in שׁ has an “sh” sound as in Shalom
Taw ת has a “th” sound while תּ has a “t” sound

Notice that some letters have the same sounds - such as tet ט and taw תּ, both with “t”. A word may sound the same as another word but be spelled differently. Therefore one needs to pay careful to how a word is spelled and how it sounds. Next up: the vowels...

 

[dorig59]

Learning Biblical Hebrew: Vowels
Basic Hebrew vowels (or vowel points) are small signs that appear below or above a consonant.


Hebrew Vowel points:

ָ Qames – looks like a small "t" under the consonant.ָ Its pronunciation is a as in “father” (most of the time). Sometimes the pronunciation is “o” as in “hop.” Then its referred to as a qames hatuph. Later we will go over the rules for when it has the "o" sound. A word with a qames is דָּוִד
David. The Dalet has a qames underneath it - and its an "a" father pronunciation.
ַ Patach – looks like a small underline under the consonant.ַ Its pronunciation is a as in “father.” A word with a patach is אַבְרָהָם
Abraham. Underneath the Aleph there is a patach.
ִ Hireq (hear-eq) – looks like a small dot under the consonant.ִ Its pronunciation is “i” as in “pin.” A word with a hireq is דָּוִד David - under the second letter, a vav, is a hireq.


ֵSere (say-ray) – looks like two small dots under the consonant. ֵ Its pronunciation is a long “e” as in “they.” A word with a sere is לֵוִי

Levi. Under the lamed is a sere - pronounced as a long e as in "they."

ֶSegol – looks like three small dots under the consonant. ֶ Its pronunciation is short “e” as in “pet.” A word with a segol is מֶלֶךְ king. The mem has a segol under it, and so does the lamed.

ֻ Qibbus – looks like three small descending dots under the consonant. ֻ Its pronunciation is “u” as in “rule.” A word with a qibbus is יְהוֹשֻׁעַ
Joshua. The shin has a qibbus under it.
ֺֹֺֹ Holem – looks like one small dot at the top left of the consonant.ֺֹֺֹIts pronunciation is “o” as in “role.” An example of a word with a holem is בֹּעַז


This is the name Boaz. The bet has a dot at the top left - that is a holem.


Most of the time Hebrew vowel points are distinguished from the consonants. At times, however a vowel point is combined with a consonant - either yod י or waw ו - and together they constitute a single long vowel. In those cases the consonant is not sounded. These vowels will be covered in the next lesson. There are also "half" vowels called shewas, for example the two "stacked" dots under the yod יְ . Shewas are a bit more complicated than simple vowels at this point. At times they are silent and other times they are pronounced. Shewas will also be covered later.