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Arabic and Hebrew | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Topsiderunner Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6919 days ago 215 posts - 218 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Arabic (Written) | Message 1 of 13 22 January 2006 at 8:52am | IP Logged |
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After reading the recent discussion about the difficulties of Hebrew, I am
curious as to how close it is to Arabic, at least in grammar and vocabulary. Is eiher much more difficult? Also, would studying both at the same time be foolish, or is one a more logical first step? Thanks 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Darobat Diglot Senior Member Joined 7189 days ago 754 posts - 770 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin | Message 2 of 13 22 January 2006 at 10:48am | IP Logged |
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Well both Hebrew and Arabic mark vowels with diacritics, and I believe that both of them leave out the diacritics when ever possible. There are also many different dialects of Arabic, and only Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is ever written (for the most part), and MSA is the dialect most commonly heard in the news. However, in normal speech and conversation, a variety of colloquial Arabic is used, and often these dialects are not mutually intelligible with MSA. You are probably most familiar with the Egyptian dialect, as that seems to be the dialect that most American movies use.
I'd imagine that there would be some transparency between Hebrew and Arabic, as they are both Central Semitic. I have yet to delve into either of these languages, so maybe somebody else could provide some information on transparency. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sumabeast Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6927 days ago 212 posts - 220 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written) | Message 3 of 13 21 March 2006 at 12:25pm | IP Logged |
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I learned Arabic many years ago and have a slight familiarity with Hebrew. From what I know Hebrew is vastly more simplified when compared to Arabic.
and if you already know Arabic you'll find Hebrew is a breeze, but if you got Hebrew first and then try Arabic it's going to harder. Maybe like going from English and then trying to learn German. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6891 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 4 of 13 21 March 2006 at 1:04pm | IP Logged |
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Would it be easier for someone to start with learning Hebrew and then moving onto Arabic, or vice versa?
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| Monox D. I-Fly Senior Member Indonesia monoxdifly.iopc.us Joined 5136 days ago 762 posts - 664 votes Speaks: Indonesian* | Message 5 of 13 10 November 2010 at 5:23am | IP Logged |
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I remember when my lecturer gave me a task to write an opinion that English is the most important language. I wrote that Arabic is the most important because both of us are moslem. Besides, Arabic is the first language that did appear in the world. Reading that, my lecturer simply smiled and commented: "The first language in the world is not Arabic, but Hebrew is.". So, in my opinion, as a "stereotype", Hebrew must be simpler than Arabic.
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| shapd Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6150 days ago 126 posts - 208 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Modern Hebrew, French, Russian | Message 6 of 13 10 November 2010 at 1:49pm | IP Logged |
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Arabic, quite apart from the multitude of different dialects, is significantly more difficult to learn than Hebrew, though the basic structure of words is the same. Pronunciation in Hebrew has been simplified after hundreds of years of being spoken by people who did not know the original sounds. The equivalents of the Arabic emphatic consonants and the ayin have gone except for those speakers born in Arabic speaking countries, and it is not certain that their pronunciation is the same as the original Hebrew. This makes spelling in Hebrew difficult to predict.
The grammar of Modern Hebrew has also become more analytical and Westernised in recent years, probably as a result of European immigration. There are fewer verb conjugations than in Arabic and the noun plurals are mostly regular, unlike the Arabic broken plural, though you do have to learn the construct forms, used in genitive compounds, as well. The nouns also do not have cases. There are fewer similarities in vocabulary than you might think, except for the very basic words and even there there are several false friends. There are well under 50% common roots between the two. It would certainly be easier to learn Hebrew first, but there is less good educational material than in Arabic, because the market is much smaller. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Fazla Hexaglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6263 days ago 166 posts - 255 votes Speaks: Italian, Serbo-Croatian*, English, Russian, Portuguese, French Studies: Arabic (classical), German, Turkish, Mandarin | Message 7 of 13 11 November 2010 at 11:45pm | IP Logged |
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As someone who has tried to learn both of them:
I simply cannot agree in any way with the "If you've learned Arabic you'll learn Hebrew in a breeze" statement. It simply is not true. As the poster above me said, the common words are few and knowing one surely does help you in understanding the grammar and syntax of the other (even if there are quite some differences) but as far as vocabulary is concerned, knowing one doesn't really help you with the other. Unfortunately for us learners, the intelligibility of these 2 semitic languages is nowhere near the mutual intelligibility of slavic or romance languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaisyMaisy Senior Member United States Joined 5381 days ago 115 posts - 178 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish Studies: Swedish, Finnish | Message 8 of 13 15 November 2010 at 5:36am | IP Logged |
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I'm not sure I am understanding Arabic (or Hebrew) being "the first language in the world"? Am I missing something here?
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