Arabic and Hebrew are languages that are largely written without vowels, but how do you know which vowel to use where in a word or phrase? Are there any fixed combinations?
Answer
Dear William,
I can only answer your question regarding the Hebrew.
Hebrew was originally written only with consonants; only later were signs for vowels developed, which can be placed with the letters. It is not about full letters, but about small dots and dashes.
Before that, the system of so-called reading mothers was devised to make reading easier; ‘reading mothers’ are consonants denoting vowels. For example, the letter ‘w’ can be used for the vowels ‘o’ and ‘oe’. If these letters are reading mother, they are therefore not pronounced as a consonant, but as a vowel. They therefore only have an auxiliary function for the correct pronunciation.
In Modern Hebrew, the vowel marks are only used in Hebrew textbooks for children and immigrants. In the newspaper, for example, you only see letters for consonants, no vowel signs. But they put a lot of ‘reading mothers’ everywhere where you would easily mispronounce a word.
Obviously, you need to master Hebrew as a language for this system to work. In practice, few mistakes are made.
N’r jk hwp, hb jk zw iuu vr’g b’ntwwrd.
Professor Klaas Smelik
Answered by
Prof. Dr. Klaas Smelik
Hebrew and Judaism
http://www.ugent.be
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