Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

shalom

I'll add a note to Trevor's:

In comparison to the hundreds of cuneiform signs that were being 
used "out West" in Kana`an for what was a foreign language, 
the alphabet without vowels was a 
tremendous simplification. For the Phoenician crystalization, that 
meant only 22 symbols, something even non-professionals could 
learn.

As for no vowels, we leave out intonation and tone, something that 
drives people crazy in many subSaharan languages. Yet things arent 
so bad in either case--at least not for a fluent speaker. Arabic and 
Hebrew function fine without vowels, though probably not as efficiently
as a latin-type alphabet could have been. 

The real problem of vowelless texts is for the outsider and learner. 
For that, I recommend using vocalized texts, contrary to typical ulpan 
practice in Israel. Learning the thousands of words necessary for full 
communication requires fast, contextualized input, made possible by 
vocalized texts. Learning to read unvocalized texts is no problem at 
all--if the person already knows the language. 

bivraxot
Randall Buth