Zeena's notebook.

Tishri1 said:

הי

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LamorakDesGalis said:

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.

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LamorakDesGalis said:

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...

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Tishri1 said:

we havent learned vowels yet so I fudged hoping you will put the best vowel that fits

Hey and Yod

the "hhhh" sound and the "yyy" sound

h+y

What was I trying to say?
this is a clue too

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LamorakDesGalis said:

Yes! Sounding out the letters is important, and I think I kind of overlooked that - so I appreciate the question. Here are a couple of links that would be helpful.

This first link lists all the Hebrew letters. When you click on the link to each letter, it provides additional information and a sound file for that letter. Here is dalet for example.

This second link:

Hebrew alph-bet video is a youtube video that sings the Hebrew letters. Its both cute and semi-annoying, but its very effective in its repetitiveness.


LDG

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