Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Paul Zellmer" <zellmer AT digitelone.com>]

Rolf wrote in Re: Re[3]: The "times" of Isaiah:

> There is a convention for transcribing the Hebrew letters, and perhaps
it
> is time for those responsible for the list to repeat this convention

I'm not responsible for the list, but there have been a couple items
that have appeared lately that suggest a rebroadcast of the list
guidelines and suggestions.  Ones that stick out in my mind are the
current question on transcription and the tendency for some to avoid
real signatures on their posts.
--The issue on the first is a recognition that we still have many on the
list who are not working in the HTML environment, who need the posts
limited to ASCII.  (The digests, for example, do not preserve HTML
coding, and we have some that only get the list that way to keep down
connection charges.)
--The issue on the second is a recognition that this is an academic
list, and that its members should take responsibility for their views.
Although this has not happened yet in this case, the anonymity of
"nicks" many times encourages people to abandon this sense of
responsibility.

So, to help the list chairmen, I have copied the pertinent sections from
the list's homepage, http://metalab.unc.edu/bhebrew.

HTH,

Paul Zellmer



Respectful Discourse

B-Hebrew seeks to foster valuable, interesting exchange among people
whose views, backgrounds, and cultures vary widely. We encourage
participants to be at least as willing to listen as they are to speak.
In our experience, certain rules have been valuable for promoting the
kind of exchange we desire.

Although the B-Hebrew forum is willing to entertain a wide range of
discussion topics related to Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible, the staff will
not tolerate personal attack or disrespect. We are careful to administer
this list responsibly. The first two times you post, your message must
be approved by a member of the B-Hebrew staff. This allows us to screen
out spam and off-topic posts by people who are not familiar with the
list. However, it also means that there will be a delay before your
message is posted to the list. After the first two posts, your messages
are sent directly to the list. Please honor the following guidelines in
all your contributions:

* Debate that forces particular faith or doctrinal perspectives onto a
reading of the text is not appropriate subject matter for this forum.
* Proselytizing ("seeking to convert someone to a certain religious
faith") is also not appropriate. Naturally, each of us will share our
own understanding from our own perspective, but this should not be done
with the goal of changing other participants.
* Knowledge of Hebrew is assumed, but belittling someone for their lack
of skill or ridiculing someone for making a mistake--even a basic
one--is unacceptable.
* All list members should be allowed the dignity of being different.
* Discuss passionately, but keep control of your own emotions. Support
your counterpoints with evidence, and remember to focus on people's
ideas and not the people themselves.
* Consider the possibility of responding directly to a person, rather
than to the entire list, if the content might not be of interest to
everyone.
* Each of your posts should be signed by name, so members know from whom
they are hearing and to whom they might respond

A helpful hint: Write your response, save it and sleep on it. After the
emotion of the moment has passed, think about whether your posting will
be helpful and appropriate.

Transcription Guidelines
Officially, the B-Hebrew forum transcribes Hebrew in our posts using the
Michigan-Claremont-Westminster scheme(MCW) as shown below. In practice,
however, the adherence of the list members to the MCW is rather relaxed,
so we also assume that members have Hebrew Bibles handy for reference.
When an alphabetic sequence is particularly critical to a discussion,
members may want to write out the sequence in words, e.g., "The Hebrew
spelling of _Adam_ is aleph-qamets-dalet-qamets-mem."

Consonants
Aleph  ) or '
Beth  B
Gimel  G
Daleth  D
Heh  H
Waw  W
Zayin  Z
Cheth  X
Teth  +
Yod  Y
Kaph  K
Lamedh  L
Mem  M
Nun  N
Samek  S
Pe  P
Ayin  ( or `
Tsade  C
Qoph  Q
Resh  R
Sin  &
Shin  $
Tav  T

Vowels
Patah  A
Qamets  F
Segol  E
Tsere  "
Hireq  I
Holem  O
Qamets Chatuf F
Qibbuts  U
Shureq  W
.  Shewa  :
Hatef Patah  :A
Hatef Segol  :E
Hatef Qamets  :F

Miscellaneous
Ketiv  *
Qere  **
Dagesh  .
Meqqeph  -