Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryan Rocine" <brocine AT earthlink.net>]

Dear Jason,

You have transliterated B."N correctly.  The "official"
transliteration scheme for B-Hebrew is not primarily
phonetic.  It is designed to provide a different graphic
representation for each of the Hebrew consonants, vowels,
etc.  It is only secondarily phonetic, making it a bit
counter-intuitive in some cases.  It is also a scheme into
which the entire Hebrew Bible has been transliterated (some
of our list members work in the Michigan-Claremenont text
daily), so it has some sense of the "official" to it.  Every
system will have its disadvantages.  We have discussed the
transliteration scheme rather thoroughly in the past, so you
can check out our archives on the matter.  The bottom line
is that we are not likely to discuss it all over again or
change the official scheme for the list.

In actual practice, the list is quite relaxed as to how they
transliterate Hebrew.  Many members opt for something a tad
more phonetic, a tad more intuitively obvious.  That's
acceptable practice on the list.  It is important for
posters to give clear references in the Hebrew text when
possible, so we can all crack open our Hebrew Bibles and
confirm our suspicions about what our list-mates are trying
to represent.

Shalom,
Bryan Rocine
B-Hebrew Co-chair