Incidentally, have I mentioned that my Hebrew school students are cool?

[xiphias]

This post will make no sense to those of you who don't read Hebrew. Fortunately, enough of you do to make it worth posting. I'll try to explain as I go along, anyway.

In passing, I mentioned to them that the Hebrew vowels have names. (In Hebrew, the vowels are just little marks under the actual letters. They're really only used when people are LEARNING how to read, or if you're transcribing something that's not a real Hebrew word -- once you can ACTUALLY read, you don't use 'em.)

They decided that they didn't like the official names of them. And came up with their own for a few of them.

(The vowel sounds described are in the dialect "American Hebrew School Hebrew", a set of vowel sounds which is fundamentally unlike Israeli Hebrew or Ashkenazi Hebrew, and has only limited similarities to Sephardic Hebrew. Its vowel structure is simplified in much the same way that American vowel sounds are often simplified -- but even more so.)

Vowel	Sound	Official name	My students' name for it
ֶ	"eh" -- ɛ	segol	Ted
ֵ	"ei" -- ei	tseirei	Laya
ַ	"ah" -- a	patakh	Bob Jr.
ָ	"ah" -- a	kamatz	Bob
ֳ	"ah" -- a	hatef kamatz	Bob Sr
ְ	as little as possible -- ə	sheva	Disputed: either Professor Ih, or Lieutenant Uh

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I like Bob Jr. for a vowel name.

[anavolena.livejournal.com]

When I was learning Hebrew, one of my roommates was so amused by the consonant names that she'd joke she wanted to name one of her kids "gimmel."

It's amazing how once I learned to read without points, anything with points just SLOWED ME DOWN.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Did you explain that "gimmel" means "camel"?

(In fact, it's the same word. The Phonecian "g" letter turned into the Greek gamma, the Hebrew gimmel -- and managed to turn into the English "c". So the term "gamal", from which the letter "gimmel" in Hebrew gets its name, is, in English, "camel".)

[ron_newman]

I learned "ָ" as "aw". Not correct?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Ashkenaz. Not incorrect, but dialectical.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Entirely correct in Ashkenazi dialect. Like I said, the dialect we're teaching is a simplified version.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

although are you teaching that it says "aw" in certain places even if it usually says "ah"?

I remember learning that it was "bob" except when it would be "Saul",
to make up a new vowel name, in Kaw'dshecha for example. did I learn
yet another special variant?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

In the accents that most kids speak, they wouldn't hear a difference between "Bob" and "Saul".

Me, I do -- but I didn't as a kid.

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

Your Hebrew school students are cool - and very funny! So, when are you going to write your book "The Memoirs of a Bartender-Geek Hebrew School Teacher"? I'd read it. I have the title for my memoirs: "Life and Plenty of It".

[tylik.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask about when he was going to write his book!

But I was thinking of a learning hebrew book, co-authored by his students. (Including their favorite translations of prayers and such.)

I be it would vastly more awesome than most instructional manuals.

[ailbhe]

It made perfect sense to ME and I certainly don't read Hebrew.

[dancing-kiralee.livejournal.com]

Cool!

Kiralee