Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Trevor Peterson <06PETERSON AT cua.edu>]

>===== Original Message From Peter Kirk <peter.r.kirk AT ntlworld.com> =====
>Of course there are ways to learn to pronounce Hebrew without learning
>the Masoretic vowel points, which (to those of us brought up on western
>languages) are illogical, hard to learn and hard on the eyes. You learn
>the language in transliteration. But I don't expect Trevor to approve of
>that one! And I don't know of any books that teach only in transliteration.

I would approve of it only if the objective were to memorize the 
pronunciation 
and thereby learn to read without any voweling at all. I would prefer 
learning 
the language first in spoken form, but transliteration can be a helpful aid 
in 
this process. For someone who comes to BH already fluent in IH, for instance, 
the text could probably be addressed without any written voweling to start 
out. The Tiberian pointing could be introduced later as one of several 
possible reading traditions. Since most American students probably don't 
begin 
with spoken Hebrew fluency, we look for alternatives.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics