Newsgroups: bit.listserv.deaf-l
Date:         Tue, 8 Sep 1992 14:50:47 EDT
From:         "Joseph P. Riolo" <riolo@COR4.PICA.ARMY.MIL>
Subject:      Hebrew langauge

Bryce,

      There are different developments in the Hebrew language.  When one
wants to understand the history of Hebrew language, it is almost always
inevitable that he/she has to understand the history of alphabet.

      In the ancient alphabet, there is no letter that stands for any
vowel.  Since the Hebrew language uses the ancient alphabet, it
naturally does not have any written script that stand for vowels.
However, later on, some of the alphabet were also used for some vowels.
For example, the letter waw (from which we get 'F', 'U', 'V', 'W') is a
consonant but can be used for the vowel 'o' or 'u'.  The letter yod (from
which we get 'I') is a constant for 'y' but can be used as a vowel for 'i'.
And so on for two or three more letters that I do not recall right now.
In other words, these letter have dual role.

      The writers at that time did not have any problem with this
writing system.  They were able to recognize which word that a writer
means.  However, this is not true for those who are not familiar
with the vocabulary in the Hebrew language.

      After the Fall of Jerusalem in the first century, the Hebrew-speaking
Jewish people were being dispersed.  Inevitably, the Hebrew language was
becoming extinct in some areas and were limited to religious services in other
areas.

      The scribes who had responsible for copying Scripture began
to develop their own vowel point systems.  Fearing that people in
later generations would not be able to pronounce the Hebrew language
in the Scripture, they wrote points around the letters.  For example,
two dots below aleph stands for long 'e' (if I remember correctly):

                \  |
                |\ |    <- aleph
                | \|
                |  \
                 ..     <- two dots

This vowel point system took about 300 years for it to be developed
fully.  As far as I can ascertain, there were several systems
that were being developed in different areas.  However, only one
of them become widespread.  Except for some words especially the
tetragrammaton, scholars felt that the vowel points were accurate
enought to reflect the usage at that time in a specific area.
However, there were always cases that these vowel points were not
accurate or changed.

      Like I said previously, the usage of Hebrew language was limited
only to religious services.  I do not know when but I think around
the time when the country of Israel was established in 1948, one man
tried to reintroduce Hebrew language into common language.  But
doing so, he had to develop a system that will allow Hebrew language
to build its own technical vocabulary.  Though he was met with resistance
from people who wanted to keep Hebrew language from being profaned, he
succeeded.  It is now a living language.  It is intersting to note
that though the modern Hebrew language has vowel point system, it
is not being used widely.  Newspapers do not have vowel points.
When new words are introduced into language, very often, they are
accompanied with vowel points for a while.  After that, the vowel
points are not necessary and removed.

     It is Greek people that changed consonant letters 'A' (from
aleph), 'E' (from he), 'I' (from yod), 'O' (from ayin), and 'U'
(from waw) to vowels.

UNLIKEEARLYGREEKLANGUAGEWHICHDONOTSEPARATEWORDSFROMEACHOTHERBYSPACESTH
EREWERESOMEEVIDENCESTHATHEBREWLANGUAGEDOESSEPARATEWORDSBYSPACES

     (Translation:  Unlike early Greek language which do not separate
words from each other by spaces, there were some evidences that
Hebrew language does separate words by spaces.)  (Both Hebrew language
and early Greek language have only capital letters.)

     Let me say that I am not fluent in reading or writing Hebrew
language but I do read a lot about its history.

                                        Joseph P. Riolo
                                        <riolo@pica.army.mil>
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU