The Hebrew alphabet was derived from the Phoenician alphabet from which the Greek alphabet also had its origin. Hebrew is read from right to left; the alphabet consists of 22 letters, all consonants and no vowels:
You will notice that five of the letters have two forms. The forms on the right of the pair are used only at the beginning or middle of a word. The forms on the left appears only at the end of a word.
Though there are no vowels in the Hebrew alphabet, native users have no difficulty with it just as modern users of Whatsapp or Twitter do not. Nonetheless, getting to grips with the "vowel" sounds, especially in biblical Hebrew, is one of the most difficult parts for beginning students of the language.
Very early on, three letters—he, waw and yod— were used as helping letters to represent the long a, u and i sounds; these letters are thus called "matres lectionis, 'mother of reading.' These were, of course, insufficient to represent the full range of vowels needed in the language. In order to preserve the integrity of the pronunciation, however, scribles over several centuries have developed a system of dots and dashes, called 'pointings.' These appear usually along the bottom of the consonents, but sometimes within them or beside them. They, therefore, form something like a transparent overlay on the text of Scriptures; this overlay, however, is never considered part of the sacred text, whose sanctity has always to be protected.
View a modern printed page of the Hebrew Bible to see how this works ☰
This system of vowel signs in effect produces not only more than a dozen different 'long,' 'short,' and 'reduced' vowel equivalents, but also signs to double a consonant or to read it as a stop or a spirant (i.e., with the friction of air through the lips, as in English f or v). Because Hebrew is an inflected language, the vowels do not remain static (i.e., the same word always having the same vowels). The basic meaning of any word is indicated by the root (e.g., mlk, 'reign,') which is made up of three consonents (called radicals). The specific meaning one wishes to say is then formed (inflected) by adding consonents to the beginning or/and the end of the root, and changing the vowels in between. E.g., malak is 'he reigned,' mamlaka(h) is 'kingdom,' and molek is 'reigning,' or 'one who reigns'.
Because the Hebrew alphabet is so different from the English, transliterating Hebrew properly requires an entire new set of fonts and you learning a new set of phonology (i.e., how each character sounds). Because ALBERITH is designed for lay-preachers, we have resorted to a simplified scheme of transliteration that adequately conveys a "sense" of the way the Hebrew word is pronounced but not with true integrity. We hope you will accept this as an adequate measure. There are also a great deal of material in ALBERITH to help those who wish to study Biblical Hebrew (and NT Greek), in which case, learning both the Hebrew alphabet as well as their transliteration is a necessity. If you will to use these materials you will have to download the various fonts and install them on you PC, if you have not done so already under First Things First (#3).
RESOURCES:
Hebrew Alphabet. Part 1, Blackboard Hebrew. This is this is the first of five lessons (about 6 mins each; the subsequent lectures open automatically at the end of one lecture). Tim McNinch is one of the best teachers to publish their teachings on Youtube. Blackboard Hebrew uses the same Hebrew font (SBLHebrew) that is used as default in Alberith.
Youtube N (Open on Phone)
Hebrew Vowels and Sheva Blackboard Hebrew.
Youtube N (Open on Phone
Easy Hebrew Alphabet Song Note: the letter waw, though pronounced properly, is mistakenly rendered van.
Youtube N (Open on Phone)
©ALBERITH
251022lch