Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl M. Bunday" <kmbunday AT ms29.hinet.net>]

Hi, everyone, I wrote to the list some months ago with questions about
teaching Biblical Hebrew to a class of Chinese-speaking students, and
got some helpful off-line replies. As I wrap up my first semester as a
Biblical Hebrew teacher, I want to review some knowledge of MODERN,
spoken Hebrew for classroom use that I learned from my own teacher (a
Yemeni Israeli sabra) many years ago. I'm particularly interested in
standard (pointed) SPELLINGS of the following phrases, which I'll
write in various crude fashions. From a public message by Jim West on
the B-Hebrew list I'm adopting the transliteration scheme shown below,
which has some currency on the Internet.

> aleph  )
> beth   b
> gimel  g
> daleth d
> he     h
> waw    w
> zayin  z
> heth   x
> teth   t
> yod    y
> kaph   k
> lamed  l
> mem    m
> nun    n
> samekh s
> ayin   (
> pe     p
> tsade  ts
> qoph   q
> resh   r
> sin    S
> shin   $
> tau    X

1) One term that occurs all the way back in Biblical Hebrew is

twb m)d ["tov me'od"]

in which I think the first word is well attested in both plene and
defective spelling in the Bible, but the second word is attested only
in defective spelling, according to a quick check of one reference
book I have at hand. What would be the preferred spelling of the
phrase in MODERN Hebrew,

a) written as unpointed text

or

b) written as pointed text?

2) A term my teacher back in the 1970s frequently used was "yofi,"
presumably

ypy

for the undisputable part of the spelling. I see a dictionary of
Biblical Hebrew (Holladay's) notes both a "theoretical form" and a few
actual spellings from the Bible in the entry for that word. Again,
what would be the preferred spelling of that word in MODERN Hebrew,

a) written as unpointed text

or

b) written as pointed text?

3) At the end of class every day, my teacher would usually say to the
class "lehitra'ot" to mean "see you again." Presumably that spelling
is

lhxr)wt

and the word is the hitpa`el infinitive construct of the root r)h. I
cannot find that word attested as a Biblical Hebrew word, so I am
forced to ask the dumb question: what is the preferred spelling of
that word in Modern Hebrew,

a) written as unpointed text

or

b) written as pointed text?

I realize this is a dumb question because I ought to instantly know,
by verb conjugation rules, what the unattested form is for that root.
But because r)h is doubly irregular, and because my teacher's Israeli
pronunciation did not distinguish most instances of qamets from most
instances of patakh, I want to double-check before I put this on a
handout for my students.

4) What other phrases, especially phrases that are attested in the
Bible, would be good for oral use (during class discussion) or written
use (for example, in grading papers) in a Biblical Hebrew class? As
above, you can assume I am quite ignorant but willing to learn in
order to improve my teaching. Thanks for any help you can provide
on-list or off-list.


Karl M. Bunday  "pray for us" 2 Thessalonians 3:1
P.O. Box 674, Panchiao 220, TAIWAN
http://learninfreedom.org