Biblical Hebrew Forum

[dwashbur AT nyx.net]

Amir,

On 21 May 2007 at 21:17, particle wave wrote:

> I'm not particularly learning it to help with my Biblical Hebrew. I'd
> like to eventually read through things like the Baal Cycle and other
> related bits in the original and it seems like a relatively
> straightforward introduction to cuneiform and a good starting
> challenge on the linguistics front in general. The whole linguistics
> education process for me is purely for my own edification and I find
> myself very enthusiastic about this as a starting point so I'm going
> to go with it. When I actually get the formal schooling rolling
> sometime next year I'll likely dig into Aramaic or Akkadian. For now
> I'm just warming up my brain, so to speak.

By all means, go for it then.  I've heard good things about Segert, and 
wouldn't recommend 
Gordon.  For one thing, you need to decide if you're going to read the texts 
in cuneiform or 
transcription; most folks read them in transcription.  I remember about a 
third of the 
cuneiform letters.  And as someone else pointed out, since Ugaritic's 
cuneiform is 
alphabetic rather than syllabic it's not going to do much for you as far as 
other cuneiform 
languages.  But it's definitely a way to get your feet wet, so to speak.
 
> And yes, I like obscure languages.

I thought you sounded like a kindred spirit :-)
 
> Amir Rosemblatt
> Seattle, WA
> 
> On 5/21/07, dwashbur AT nyx.net <dwashbur AT nyx.net> wrote:
> > To be brutally honest, unless you just enjoy learning obscure languages, 
> > Ugaritic probably
> > isn't going to help you with Hebrew that much.  I learned it in seminary, 
> > in fact took an extra
> > independent study course in it after the basics just because I'm crazy 
> > :-) but in the 25 years
> > since I finished seminary, I have used my Ugaritic tools for my Hebrew 
> > research maybe 10
> > times, and all those times it really didn't help me any.  I used Gordon's 
> > book set, but I
> > wouldn't recommend it mainly because of his proprietary way of numbering 
> > the texts.
> > Segert wasn't out at the time so resources were limited (1982-83), and I 
> > did enjoy playing
> > with the language and figuring out what it said.  But again, I've never 
> > claimed to be
> > completely sane...
> >
> > On 21 May 2007 at 17:45, particle wave wrote:
> >
> > > Greetings all,
> > >
> > > First, since I'm fairly new to the list, a little bit of introduction.
> > > I grew up a moderately religious Jew and while I studied the Tanakh
> > > and Talmud in their Hebrew and Aramaic forms, respectively, I was
> > > never really taught anything about the grammar of Biblical Hebrew or
> > > Talmudic Aramaic. I did learn Modern Hebrew grammar, though it took a
> > > semester and a half of Classical Arabic in college to make the Hebrew
> > > grammar gel (thank you Arabic pronunciations of ayin, tet and qof).
> > > My interest in semitic linguistics started when I spent a semester
> > > simultaneously taking classes on Modern Hebrew Grammar, Classical
> > > Arabic and some text study of both the Talmud and some Dead Sea
> > > Scrolls material. This interest has been largely dormant for the last
> > > dozen plus years but was recently rekindled by a debate with a friend
> > > over Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation that led to binge-reading on
> > > linguistics in general. I'm now looking at applying to school to
> > > formally study linguistics with a focus on Semitic languages.
> > >
> > > So, in the meantime, I'm taking a stab at Ugaritic. I just got my copy
> > > of Segert's book and have been digging in.  My Hebrew is pretty much
> > > shot at this point (though more use of it will bring a lot back pretty
> > > quickly) and what little Arabic and Aramaic I learned in school is
> > > long gone now. I'm meeting later this week with a friend who's a
> > > speech pathologist to walk through the phonology as described in the
> > > book. I'm wondering what other resources people on the list might be
> > > able to recommend. I've poked around on the net a bit and found an
> > > online course at the Quartz Hill School of Theology
> > > [http://www.theology.edu/ugraintr.htm] but it doesn't seem to add much
> > > other than lists of words to memorize and some reading comprehension
> > > tests. These both seem like good ideas and I'll use them but I'm
> > > wondering what other books and resources people might recommend.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >      Amir Rosenblatt
> > >      Seattle, WA
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > b-hebrew mailing list
> > > b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
> > >
> >
> >
> > Dave Washburn
> > But I can't say Sylvester, George!
> > _______________________________________________
> > b-hebrew mailing list
> > b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
> >
> _______________________________________________
> b-hebrew mailing list
> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
> 


Dave Washburn
But I can't say Sylvester, George!