Thursday, January 28, 2010
Scaling the Language Barrier
5:11 AM | Posted by
Kevin |
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Hebrew is a tough language. Hell, learning most languages are pretty tough to learn. But there's just something about this one in particular which makes me scratch my head and wonder if the guy who formalized modern Hebrew over a hundred years ago got trashed one night and thought to himself, "I'm just going to throw in some crazy shit to screw with people who try to learn Hebrew!" Now, all languages have their exceptions, "i before e, except after c" and all that good stuff but I'm only a few weeks into learning the language and this is getting a bit ridiculous. Here's some strange rules mixed in with some fake ones I made up. See if you can spot the difference.
- There are six pairs of letters which can sound the same.
- The sound of certain letters can change with respect to their position in a word.
- The sound of certain letters can change with respect to their position with respect to other letters.
- One letter can be pronounced two ways regardless of the letters around it.
- Special words and letters are only used on the Sabbath.
- There are two forms of the Hebrew "alefbet", one for speaking with and one for reading.
- In many cases the written letters in Hebrew look nothing like their reading version.
- Letters can be easily identified by "vowel labels" which can complement a letter. These "labels" are never used in common print nor in written Hebrew.
- On Tuesdays in November an entirely different dialect is spoken.
- Sometimes a distinct letter turns into a vowel sound for another letter.
- Some Hebrew words can only be spoken by whales because the frequency is below human hearing.
The Hebrew Alefbet
Notes from the Holy Land is the blog I set up to chronicle my life as an American student studying in the Middle East during the Spring of 2010. Check back often for laughs, curiosities, photos you'll wish you were there for, and hummus. Lots and lots of hummus. Also, check out my more local blog: Notes from the B-Line.
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