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Hebrew and Arabic: How similar? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4829 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 17 of 21 16 June 2012 at 2:08am | IP Logged | ||
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I had been going to ask a question about the history of Hebrew, but went and had a look
first. I found this which I thought was quite interesting, and may interest some others: A Short History of the Hebrew Language Written in 1973 Edited by montmorency on 16 June 2012 at 2:37am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| shemi Triglot Newbie Australia Joined 4547 days ago 7 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew, Spanish Studies: French, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Gulf), Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 18 of 21 16 June 2012 at 4:47am | IP Logged | ||
Very interesting! Thank you! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rahinalinga Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4545 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Studies: Arabic (classical), Spanish | Message 19 of 21 16 June 2012 at 4:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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there's is definitely similarity, someone once said to me its almost 50%, ive studied Arabic and had a look at Hebrew, and there was huge similarity.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4869 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 20 of 21 16 June 2012 at 9:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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I also think you get a discount. I thought the Hebrew writing system was complex, but once I grasped the concept behind it and became somewhat comfortable with reading it learning the Persian (/Arabic) one was a matter of days. I also think it's a huge help once you start to really digest how the root system works.
Vocabulary-wise I got a discount for Arabic words that entered Persian (not a huge one, but it was noticeable) that bear resemblance to Hebrew words / roots. I know maybe 500 words each of Persian and Hebrew and I was able to understand a few words of Syrian Arabic without ever having tried to study it, so I'm thinking that it'll certainly be easier to study Arabic when you know Hebrew. Of course, as with any language, it will still be a lot of hard work and I guess the discount probably only helps over the initial hurdles. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| decamillisjacob Newbie Canada Joined 4733 days ago 38 posts - 63 votes | Message 21 of 21 26 June 2012 at 6:34am | IP Logged | ||
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Arabic and Biblical Hebrew are closer than Arabic and Modern Hebrew. Modern Hebrew has been heavily influenced by the languages of Israel's earliest European immigrants, the language's fluent speakers---native speakers of Yiddish, German, Russian, Polish, etc. Syntax, lexicon, and phonology (with the exception of the Mezrachi variant) differ to a point that the two languages differ akin to Sicilian and French or English and Frisian. One also has to remember that Arabic has been spoken for centuries as a mother tongue, allowing it to evolve cognitively and fan out into a multitude of dialects. Modern Hebrew, on the other hand, has only been spoken for more or less than a century. It's thus evolved seperately and under different circumstances.
The languages are sisters, yes; and, if you speak Arabic or Hebrew, you can learn the other language relatively quickly---but, you would require formal training. Without such, the two otherwise are almost completely unintelligible. Oddly enough though, and you can ask any Israeli this, a good majority of swear words in Modern Hebrew come from Palestinian Arabic! How about that, eh? Edited by decamillisjacob on 26 June 2012 at 6:12pm 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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