Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>]

Your line of logic doesn't make any sense. All it does it show me that you
still haven't understood that there are different levels of psycholinguistic
perception.

We perceive the sounds between vowels and consonants at the level I have
shown yet we don't write them down. In the same way the implementors of the
Hebrew alphabet perceived different syllables at the level of being able to
differentiate meanings but no at the level of 'this is different enough to
make a separate symbol for'. This suggests the symbols represented
perception of syllables but neglected the sounds that connected them (i.e.
the vowels) just as our system represents the consonants and vowels but not
the sounds which connect them (the little bits in between when we segment a
speech signal).

However, these little bits are important to our understanding. They provide
statistical information to our neural pathways which helps us anticipate
which vowel or consonant is coming next. They are instrumental in our
understanding. They are meaningful units of sound.

Can you still not see that there are different levels of perception? How do
you manage to convince yourself that you are a high calibre linguist and yet
show your ignorance of the field of psycholinguists (I am imitating your
style of speech in the hope it will stimulate understanding).

James Christian


2010/1/22 Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>

> JamesC katav
> <Evidently, the implementers of the Hebrew alphabet did perceive, at some
> level, the differences between consonants ba, bi and bu because this helped
> them to discern intended meanings. However, they did not discern these
> differences at the level of 'Make me a different symbol for each sound you
> hear in this speech signal'.
> <
> <I hope this helps to clarify your misunderstanding.
>
> Well, the above paragraph just made mud.
>
> By definition,
> if [ba], [bi], [bu] helped them discern intended meanings,
> they were phonemic. They were part of their linguistic system.
> They were preceived by the users as meaningful signals.
>
> End of story. End of GAGA Hebrew.
>
>
> --
> Randall Buth, PhD
> www.biblicalulpan.org
> randallbuth AT gmail.com
> Biblical Language Center
> Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life
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