Biblical Hebrew Forum

["T. L. Phillips" <tiphillips AT infoave.net>]

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• From: "T. L. Phillips" <tiphillips AT infoave.net>
• To: Paul Zellmer <zellmer AT cag.pworld.net.ph>
• Cc: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
• Subject: Re: Biblical Hebrew Transcription (was: Jeremiah 23:2)
• Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 11:30:10 -0400

I like it except for tet, "Chet", and "Tsade".

Elsewhere, and occassionally on this list, I see X for Xet.
Considering newcomers, this would guarantee that the Hebrew
letter and the guy that used to anchor the news would not be
confused :-).

I would rather see + used for "tet". I see the look-a-like
factor but also a U vowel.

"Tsade" is a stumper, but why use diagraphs at all? Some
suggestions (including 2 digraphs):
S,
S.
?
5 (looks like S and T together)

+"yt
xet or is it x"t
5@d"y

5edek, 5addiyq

Would the consonants have to be capitalized?


Tim Phillips




Paul Zellmer wrote:

> B-Haverim,
>
> (Note: I sent this out almost 24 hours ago, but it still
> hasn't shown up on the list. I guess it's lost in
> cyber-space! So my apologies for a repeat message.
> Paul.)
>
> After the short discussion this past weekend about the
> transcription
> scheme for the list, I would like to propose the
> following. Because it
> is based on Ben's scheme, perhaps we can call what results
> after all the
> comments end and the dust settles a "Modified Crick
> Transcription
> Scheme".
>
> I do have some problems with Ben's scheme in an unmodified
> form, because
> it has some ambiguities built into it and because it
> assumes that the
> transcriber is familiar with pronunciation rules (e.g.,
> which shewa is
> voice and which is silent, which dagesh is lene and which
> is forte).
> Especially this last concern causes the scheme to be
> somewhat unfriendly
> to newcomers to Biblical Hebrew. We don't want them to
> keep from asking
> a question because they are afraid that they will not
> identify a dagesh
> or shewa correctly, do we? So here's my proposal. I'll
> try to explain
> some of the rationale afterwards.
>
> Consonants Vowels
> (Capitalized) (lower case)
>
> Aleph ' Patah a
> Beth B Qamets @
> Gimel G Segol e
> Daleth D Tsere " or "Y [plene]
> Heh H Hireq i or iY [plene]
> Vav(waw) W Holem o or oW [plene]
> Zayin Z Qamets Hatuf @
> Cheth Ch Qibbuts u
> Teth U Shureq W.
> Yod Y Shewa :
> Kaph K Hatef Patah :a
> Lamedh L Hatef Segol :e
> Mem M Hatef Qamets :@
> Nun N
> Samek S
> Peh P Miscellaneous
> Ayin `
> Tsade Ts Ketiv *
> Qoph Q Qere **
> Resh R Dagesh .
> Sin & Meqqeph -
> Shin $
> Tav T
>
> I personally see no problem with the use of digraphs for
> some of the
> consonants as long as the second letter is lower case.
> Even those of us
> who want to build macros to return these texts to Hebrew
> characters
> should be able to deal with them. I suggested U for Teth
> because it's a
> "look-alike". Several posters in the past seem to have
> used the & and $
> comfortably, and they do allow the distinguishing of the
> sibilants. For
> qamets, I'm suggesting @, since it sort of looks like both
> an "a" and an
> "o". The " was retained for sere, since it sort of looks
> like two dots.
>
> Since almost none of our postings need to have the pauses
> marked, I'm
> suggesting that we retain the colon as the mark of the
> shewa. This
> allows even the newcomers to the language to post with
> confidence. For
> a similar reason, I am suggesting we retain the period as
> the mark of
> the dagesh. The closer we keep the transcription to what
> is explicitly
> found in the text, the less we will have problems with
> different
> pronunciation schemes. Also, I realize most of us would
> not have any
> problem with soft BGDKPT being indicated by a lower-case h
> as the second
> part of a digraph, but a neophyte might not know that an
> extra letter is
> needed. Also, "h" to me is a sign of breathiness, and, if
> my
> understanding of the soft forms is correct, they are
> actually
> fricatives, right?
>
> I think that Ben's basic structure is more intuitive, at
> least to the
> English speaker. I propose this scheme with modifications
> because I
> feel it keeps the intuitiveness while allowing for better
> specification. Please send all responses to the list so
> that all of us
> are involved in the hoped-for agreement.
>
> Paul
>
>
>
>
> --
> Paul and Dee Zellmer, Jimmy Guingab, Geoffrey Beltran
> Ibanag Translation Project
> Cabagan, Philippines
>
> zellmer AT faith.edu.ph
>




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