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b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] Using an unpointed text

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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

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  • From: "JAMES CHRISTIAN READ" <JCR128 AT student.anglia.ac.uk>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Using an unpointed text
  • Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2007 10:26:01 +0100

KG: This idea might sound silly, but a person could learn to read Biblical
Hebrew without the vowels like a deaf person learns to read and understand a
language without imagining any sounds connected to the words.

You can just see the letters as words, and recognize what the words mean
without any sound connected to the letters. If a person wants to read
Biblical Hebrew, and has no plans to speak the language, then he or she can
look at the letters without the words representing sounds. The meanings of
the words could be understand by each person in his or her own language. If
deaf people can do it, then a hearing person could do it, but it would feel
strange.

Do you have to speak or even hear a language to know how to read a language?


JCR: It doesn't sound strange to me. What you say makes
perfect sense. All reading is is the association of
images on a page with cognitively understood concepts
in the brain. The reason why this could sound strange
to some people is because the Hebrew writing system,
like many other writing systems, is a phonetic attempt
at representing meaning.

But if we were to consider pictoral writing systems
like Egyptian hieroglyphics or Mandarin/Cantonese
pictograms as an example then it may be easier for
people to understand the validity of your suggestion.

I suppose the one place where having an approximate
authentic Hebrew pronunciation actually aids in
comprehending the text is in cases of rhythm and metre.

James Christian Read - BSc Computer Science
http://www.lamie.org/hebrew - thesis1: concept driven machine
translation using the Aleppo codex
http://www.lamie.org/lad-sim.doc - thesis2: language acquisition simulation








































































































ximate
authentic Hebrew pronunciation actually aids in
comprehending the text is in cases of rhythm and metre.

James Christian Read - BSc Computer Science
http://www.lamie.org/hebrew - thesis1: concept driven machine
translation using the Aleppo codex
http://www.lamie.org/lad-sim.doc - thesis2: language acquisition simulation
























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