Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George Athas" <gathas AT hotkey.net.au>]

| Vocabulary is best learned in an real communication context. It sticks much
| better and allows a student to reach fluency where vocab and morphology
| are automatic and non-conscious.

|I can only recommend that someone serious in Hebrew learns it fluently,
| from someone who speaks it fluently. I don't know any for the above
| suggestion. On the other hand, a very nice compromise is the mizraHi
| Israeli.


Randall, I would agree with you if I were in Israel where modern Hebrew rules 
the day. However, in
Australia, modern Hebrew has little bearing on people who want to learn 
Biblical Hebrew. As such, I
encourage my students to attempt pronunciations that are more in keeping with 
the ancient
pronunciation than the modern. After all, most want to learn how to pronounce 
Hebrew the way it was
spoken in ancient times. Although this is a difficult quest, I encourage 
those who want to pursue
it -- me included.

My rule: When in Israel, do as Israelis do. When not, do as the ancients did.

Best regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
(Sydney, Australia)