dostoyevsky Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 5600 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Japanese
| Message 1 of 11 26 July 2009 at 3:53pm | IP Logged |
I am wondering if anyone has some more information on the similarities between Katakana and Hebrew. I remember seeing a poster at the local Japan Fest that compared the two alphabets and they seemed very similar.
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dostoyevsky Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 5600 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Japanese
| Message 3 of 11 26 July 2009 at 4:05pm | IP Logged |
Here is a picture of said poster
http://imgur.com/3ZFPI.jpg
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Alkeides Senior Member Bhutan Joined 6148 days ago 636 posts - 644 votes
| Message 4 of 11 27 July 2009 at 12:57pm | IP Logged |
It seems to me that they are greatly distorting the Hebrew letters to make them similar to Japanese.
There is a small group of Japanese who believe that they are one of the lost tribes of Israel. They have a sizeable internet presence and several published books, but their claims are unfounded.
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shapd Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6149 days ago 126 posts - 208 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Modern Hebrew, French, Russian
| Message 5 of 11 27 July 2009 at 1:34pm | IP Logged |
They are also happily mixing letters from the ancient Hebrew alphabet pre exile and the later Aramaic alphabet which the current script is based on. They just choose whichever fits their theory regardless of the fact that they are a thousand years apart. Very intellectually dishonest. It's just like all the books that try to prove that all languages are descended from Hebrew (or Arabic, depending on the writer's allegiance).
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cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5838 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian
| Message 7 of 11 27 July 2009 at 3:01pm | IP Logged |
Haha, but seriously, there is not that much similarity. The Hebrew letters are only consonants for starters, as opposed to the Japanese.
This is chance, nothing else. They look a bit similar to a European person perhaps, but I doubt Japanese or Israeli people would agree. Also the Hebrew letters seem mixed between printed and handwritten and some other mysterious form. It looks wrong to me.
Or have the Jews teamed up with the Japanese to take over the world?
(If so we are all doomed!) ;-)
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laban Triglot Groupie Israel Joined 5822 days ago 87 posts - 96 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English, Italian Studies: Norwegian, German
| Message 8 of 11 28 July 2009 at 4:06pm | IP Logged |
to my knowledge - none whatsoever.
and to tell you the truth - some of the, so called, hebrew letters on that poster even I cant get =).
Ohh..and btw, why did you find it interesting on the first place?
Edited by laban on 28 July 2009 at 4:07pm
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