Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ratson Naharadama <yahoo-arch AT heplist.com>]

Let's try applying your idea of the perception of the Hebrew writers to 
the perception of English writers.  How would you explain the perception 
of English writers and the written inventory of 5 basic symbols for the 
vowels (a, e, i, o, u)?  Are you saying English speakers only really 
perceived 5 different vowels?  Maybe we can even extend that to the 
consonants?  English speakers generally only use 21 consonants? Could we 
then say English speakers really only perceived 21 consonants?  If we 
throw in the digraphs (such as th, sh, ch, gh), what then? And, would 
you say each of those only have one perceived phonemic value?

Just as a side note, when I was a child, long before I knew anything 
about consonant only alphabets, I would occasionally write notes to 
myself dropping all the vowels (this was something I had come to on my 
own, it wasn't taught to me, it just seemed quicker to write it that 
way). While it is not to difficult to read a English sentence written 
this way, it is easier to do so with semitic languages.  If you can't 
seem to understand how the semitic root system plays such a large role 
in making writing without vowels so much easier (as others have previous 
tried pointing out) then I would not know where to begin to explain that 
to you (it should be almost self-explanatory to you if you understand 
any semitic language).

Ratson Naharadama
Denver, CO