Basic Hebrew

Basic Hebrew
INTRODUCTION Here is an introduction to Hebrew. I am learning it and figured that I'd share (at the request of Qang on CBB). I'll start with the alephbet. Alephbet There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet plus five letters that only appear in the final position of a word. There are also a bunch of vowel markers, but we won’t get too far into those right now. Hebrew is read from right to left. א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ ל מ נ ס ע פ צ ק ר ש ת← א - aleph alEf ב - bet bet ג - gimel gimEl ד - dalet dalEt ה - he he ו - vav vav ז - zayin za-in ח - chet xEt ט - tet tEt י - yod jOd כ - kaf kaf ך - kaf sofit kaf sofit this letter only appears at the end of a word ל - lamed lamEd מ - mem mEm ם - mem sofit mEm sofit this letter only appears at the end of a word נ - nun nun ן - nun sofit nun sofit this letter only appears at the end of a word ס - samekh samEx ע - ayin a-in פ - pe pe ף - pe sofit pe sofit this letter only appears at the end of a word צ – tzadi or tzadik tsadi / tsadik ץ - tzadi sofit tsadi sofitthis letter only appears at the end of a word ק - quf kUf ר - resh reS or ReS ש - shin SIn ת - tav tav Many of the letters have more than one pronunciation and vowels are rarely written, but once you have it down it really isn't hard to read Hebrew at all. BASICS Hello – שלום Salom Please – בבקשה b@vakaSa Thank you – תודה toda Thanks very much – תודה רבה toda raba So long – להתראות l@hItraot Yes – כן ken No – לא lo There is, it gives – יש jeS There is not, it gives not - עין en EXAMPLES I am going to keep the examples short for today. Do not worry if some of the words do not appear in the basics above. יש לי זמן – I have the time. jeS li zman עין לי זמן – I don’t have the time en li zman שם שולחן – A table is there Sam SUlxan לא שם שולחן – A table is not there lo Sam SUlxan יש קפה בכוס – There is coffee in a glass jeS kafE b@kos התלבשי בחדר – Get dressed (female) in the bedroom! hItlabSi baxE”dEr Note: Unless otherwise shown, assume the stress to be on the final syllable

LESSON ONE !שלום Now for our next installment. I am going to go a bit slow so that we can all get a good grasp on the Alephbet. Today we will look at just a few letters and some words that they make. Letter / XSAMPA ש / S ב / b ת / t VOCAB The roots will be in blue שבת - Shabbat or Sabbath Sabat שבתון - Sabbath observance, complete rest Sabaton להשבית - To put a stop to, to lock out l@haSbit השבתה - Lockout, cessation haSbata Points of Interest Ashkenazi pronunciation differs slightly from the standard Modern Hebrew. שבת in Ashkenazi pronunciation is Sa"bOs

LESSON TWO I will introduce two new letters today along with a little quiz. We will tackle the letters ל, מ and ם. The last two are the same letter. LETTER / XSAMPA ל / l מ / m ם / m VOCAB (new letters in blue) שלום - Hello, Goodbye or Pease. Lit: Peace. Salom שלם - complete, whole, perfect Salem שלמות - wholeness, perfection SlemUt שבת שלום - 'Sabbath greeting' Sabat Salom רפואה שלמה - 'a Complete Healing' (something you wish to those who are ill) r@fua Slema TEST I will provide the transliteration for all the letters except for those in question. The transliteration that you must fill in will be in green. Don't worry about letters you haven't learned yet. 1) שבת שלום Sa_at Sa_om 2) להשבית _@ha__it 3) השמר ha_O_er 4) סור מרע ועשה טוב בקש שלום ורדפהו sur _era va-ase tO_ _ake_ _a_om vradfehu (And that is Psalm 34:15 for anyone interested.)

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