Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hey, what do you know, this forum is here and I should start paying attention to the fact. I'll start moving the lessons I had in the Hebrew GD here and later start moving my lazy arse and write more of those.

I'll just start with a short intro, and give some rough explanations regarding the structure and writing of the Hebrew language.
Hebrew is a Semitic language, just like Arabic and Aramaic. Just like the other two, it is of the Afro Asiatic language family. It is spoken by 7 million people, 6 of the 7 speak Israeli Hebrew. 3 millions of them are native speakers.
Hebrew doesn't have dialects, though one might notice differences in phonetics among different ethnicities (I will clear that out later). It was and still is influenced by many other languages. Today, the languages that influence it the most are English, Arabic and Russian. Languages like Yiddish, Ladino, German and many more have left their mark on the Modern Hebrew as well.

Hebrew has only 22 letters and is written from the right to the left. It has two "writing systems", one of them, the more familiar one, is based on the square letter form. The second system is used for handwriting, and has a more circular form.

Hebrew vowelization is very different from the English type. Those who are familiar with Arabic and even Quenya* (Tolkienian Elvish) might find it much easier to understand. Usually, the vowels are presented as different marks under, inside or above the letters. I will give examples for this matter later, so do not panic just yet!
Hebrew verbs and some words are based on "roots" (just like in Arabic, by the way). For example, the words "lamad" (he learned), "limud" (teaching [n]), "melamed" (educator), "lelamed" (to teach), etc. all have to do with learning and share the basic root letters l, m, d.
Hebrew's got 4 tenses: Past, present, future and imperative. The root is almost always kept (the other cases should not be discussed at the moment), but the structure of the verb changes according to the tense.
Just like many European languages (and again, like Arabic), Hebrew distinguishes between masculine and feminine nouns. Usually, the feminine nouns are similar to the masculine nouns, added "a" or "t" at the end of the word, for example, "ish" (man) and "isha" (woman).

If anyone is going to be reading this, well, I'd like to know what you have to say. I can focus on Modern Hebrew or Biblical Hebrew, teach some "slang" or avoid it completely. You are more than welcome to tell me your thoughts, comments and such on this thread or via the Personal Messages system.


*I was, of course, referring to the Omatehtar. But notice, Quenya speakers! Unlike Quenya, here the vowels are on the "vowelled" letter and not on the letter that comes before it.


Helpful links:
My Hebrew Dictionary: http://www.dictionary.co.il/index.php


By the way, although I am explaining about modern-Hebrew, I can still help with Biblical and hopefully Medieval Hebrew as well. If you want me to teach something that's a bit different or explain about it - just say so.

Still on the writing issue, the last thing to cover up is Vocalisation. Those who are familiar with Arabic or Quenya know what that is.
Fot those who aren'r familiar with those, well, the vocalisation is actually the vowels, yet, unlike in English, the vowels are presented as symbols on top, under or inside the letters. It isn't as difficult as it sounds; yet it takes a while to get used to.
Hebrew has quite a large number of vocalisation symbols, yet many of them represent really similar vowels. Vocalisation has complicated, strict rules, and you don't have to learn them; the most important thing is learning how to read. Telling you the truth, a vast majority of Hebrew speakers does not know how to use vocalisation correctly, and honestly, that still includes me...
Books for adults, newspapers and, well, most written text in Hebrew appears without it, because once you know the words you really don't need the vocalisation. You could notice vocalisation mostly on children's books, and I will, of course, use it (don't worry, I may don't know the rules but I'm using a dictionary) on here.

So, the vocalisation, right? Since I'm a huge table fan with a huge keyboard issue, I stole this table from this wonderful page.


I will mention some unusual cases later, since this is already confusing enough.

Here are some words, well, some vocabulary and reading practice. smile

(Notice! Read from the right to the left! smile )

Hello (Shalom)
See you later (Lehitraot)
Thank you(Toda)
You're welcome / please(bevakasha)
Sorry / excuse me(Slicha)
Yes(Ken)
No (Lo)
Welcome (Baruch Haba)

Wow! So many vowels! eek
*reads on*

I got most of the alphabet down... I think one of my big challenges is the pronounciations. I can pronounce all the letters correctly, but I need to get used to the vowels.

I have a long way to go... sweatdrop

Pronouns.

I read somewhere that Hebrew is the most pure language, I do not know what that means.

That might be, but I meant it is linguistically pure, but I do not know what that means.

Kind of random but I want to meet more people that have Hebrew ancestors.

There's also the story where some King ordered a mute/deaf couple to raise so babies, and they after a few years, they automatically spoke Hebrew.

You know this isn't a true story right?