37 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
bentzi Bilingual Triglot Groupie Canada Joined 6747 days ago 45 posts - 47 votes 4 sounds Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew*, Russian Studies: German
| Message 33 of 37 26 August 2006 at 11:57pm | IP Logged |
Darobat wrote:
After studying Hebrew for a while, is it possible to become familiar enough with the language that you can accurately guess the vowels in a word when they aren't marked? Can you get the feel for it, or is memorizing vowels with new words as you learn them something you're going to be doing for the rest of your life? |
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yeah, this is the idea, there is no need to memorize vowels. When you hear the word, you can easily manage without the vowels, and get a "feel" fo it. The few hebrew learners that i talked to, said that it was easier than they thought.
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| jazz0009 Triglot Newbie Malta Joined 6292 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: Maltese*, English, Italian
| Message 34 of 37 02 September 2007 at 3:18pm | IP Logged |
Darobat wrote:
After studying Hebrew for a while, is it possible to become familiar enough with the language that you can accurately guess the vowels in a word when they aren't marked? Can you get the feel for it, or is memorizing vowels with new words as you learn them something you're going to be doing for the rest of your life? |
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Yes, I think it is, at least for biblical hebrew (which while not the same as modern, is very similar. It should be noted that verbs have prefixes and suffixes added to them for most changes. For example, while KTL means he killed, you have to write KTLH for she killed, KTLT for you killed, etc. There are a few cases where one word can mean two things, for example TQTLNH could mean you (female) will kill us or She (female) will kill us. in other words, that really makes up for the lack of vowels.
This at first sight seems daunting,and there are ambiguities in some cases, both in modern and even more so in biblical. But at the end of the day, you can infer from the context. Alone, a word might seem ambiguous, but in truth once you put it in a sentence you will most probably understand its meaning. Also, as people have pointed out, there are 4 consonants which in many cases indicate a vowel (& usually you will know when this is the case).
as bentzi has said, you get the feel for it after a while
Edited by jazz0009 on 02 September 2007 at 3:20pm
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| Frakseno Newbie Joined 6309 days ago 23 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto
| Message 35 of 37 04 September 2007 at 10:48am | IP Logged |
I think that contemporary Hebrew is the next language to which I will seriously apply myself. I'm planning on using the FSI course to focus on speaking and listening first.
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| vista Tetraglot Groupie United States Joined 6394 days ago 38 posts - 40 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese, Spanish, French Studies: Modern Hebrew, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Basque
| Message 36 of 37 04 September 2007 at 12:45pm | IP Logged |
You definitely can the feel for it. I think there is another point worth mentioning about the example jazz009 gave. He used as an example the root "katal", the root for "kill". This is a very common model used by Christian grammaticians to illustrate the Hebrew system of "binyanim". Earlier in this thread, someone metioned someting about how Hebrew has very few tenses. In fact, Hebrew only has 5 tenses: imperfect, present, perfect, conditional, and imperative. That is, past, present, future, conditional, and command. The unique thing about Hebrew is its binyanim, which there are 7 of. These five tenses (in theory) exist in each of the 7 binyanim. I say in theory becasue many verbs are only used in specific binyanim. The root katal is given as an example to show the meanings of each of the binyanim ( which mean "buildings"), but it is not really possible to use all 7 binyanim for a single verb.
Once you learn it, you will see that the system is farely straightfoward, with few exceptions. I encourage all with interest tofurther pursue Hebrew, because it is very rewarding!
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| MichaelM204351 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5443 days ago 151 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English*, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Modern Hebrew, German, Spanish
| Message 37 of 37 04 February 2010 at 12:28am | IP Logged |
It's really not hard at all. When I made the switch, I was very pleasantly surprised. I will feel very natural...
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