Learning to read Hebrew without the vowel points may not be as hard as you think. \u00a0Here’s an example from English where the vowels are there, but not necessarily in the proper order, and it’s really not that hard to read.<\/p>\n
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.<\/p>\n
Now, which is easier, the above, or the same below, without most of the vowels:<\/p>\n
aCCRDNG T RSRCH aT CMBRDG uNVRSTy, it DSNT MTTR iN WHT oRDR TH LTTRS iN\u00a0 a WRD aR, TH NLY iMPRTNT\u00a0 THNG iS THT TH FRST aND LST LTTR Be aT TH RGHT PLC.\u00a0 TH RST CN Be a TTL MSS aND Yu CN STLL RD iT WiTHoT PRBLM.\u00a0 THS iS BCuS TH HMN MND DSNT RD eVRY LTTR By iTSLF, BT TH WRD aS a WHL.<\/p>\n
In Hebrew, the second paragraph would actually be easy to read, because it’s alphabet is an consonantal alphabet, or “abjad” (see full definition below).\u00a0 English does rely quite heavily on vowels, and doesn’t have a tri-letter root (“shoresh”) like Hebrew does. Thus in the example above, note how many two and three letter words there are that depend on a vowel or two (to, is, it, the, be, can, but, you) and you can thing of many others (by, on, at, I, me, we, us, …).\u00a0 In English “it” and “at” would be the same word if we eliminated the vowel.\u00a0 But in Hebrew, each would be a prefix or a separate three letter consonantal word, which would make it more obvious.<\/p>\n
Now, let’s learn a 10-cent word: “abjad”.\u00a0 According to Wkipedia<\/p>\n
Learning to read Hebrew without the vowel points may not be as hard as you think. \u00a0Here’s an example from English where the vowels are there, but not necessarily in the proper order, and it’s really not that hard to … Continue reading