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Recent Articles
- The Construct State in Biblical Hebrew: Structure and Significance
- The Prefix Conjugation (Imperfect) in Biblical Hebrew: Nuances and Usage
- The Cessation of Hebrew as a Popular Language Among Jews
- Petuchah (פ) and Setumah (ס): The Hidden Structure of the Torah
- The Participle Form of Verbs with Guttural Middle Radicals in Biblical Hebrew
- The Preposition in Biblical Hebrew
- The Plural of the Noun in Biblical Hebrew
- The Verb in Biblical Hebrew
- The Use of the Masculine Plural in Biblical Hebrew
- The Definite and Indefinite Article in Biblical Hebrew
- Plural in Biblical Hebrew
- Gender in Biblical Hebrew
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Category Archives: Grammar
Hebrew Verbs With Gutturals
Verbs which have a guttural for one of the three radicals differ in their inflexion from the ordinary strong verb. These differences do not affect the consonantal part of the stem, and it is, therefore, more correct to regard the … Continue reading
Mater Lectionis
The usage of certain consonants to indicate a vowel in the spelling of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac languages is called matres lectionis (Latin “mothers of reading”, singular form: mater lectionis, Hebrew: אֵם קְרִיאָה mother of reading). The letters that do … Continue reading
Remarks on Pronunciation
א is the “soft breathing” like the h in English hour. ה is the “rough breathing” like the h in English heat. ח is pronounced like ch in the German Buch. ח represents two Arabic letters خ chà (pronounced as … Continue reading
Hebrew Alphabet
The Hebrew character in used at the present day, and in which the oldest existing manuscripts of the Bible are found written, is not only the same that was employed at the time of Jerome, viz. in the fourth century … Continue reading
Hebrew Tenses, Moods, Flexion
(1) While the Hebrew verb, owing to these derivative forms or conjugations, possesses a certain richness and copiousness, it is, on the other hand, poor in the matter of tenses and moods. The verb has only two tense-forms (Perfect and … Continue reading
Forms and Names of Hebrew Consonants
1. The Hebrew letters now in use, in which both the manuscripts of the O.T. are written and our editions of the Bible are printed, commonly called the square character (כְּתָב מְרֻבָּע), also the Assyrian character (כְּ׳ אַשּׁוּרִי), are not … Continue reading
The Hebrew Vowels in General, Vowel Letters and Vowel Signs
1. The original vowels in Hebrew, as in the other Semitic tongues, are a, i, u. E and o always arise from an obscuring or contraction of these three pure sounds, viz. ĕ by modification from ĭ or ă; short … Continue reading
Grammatical Treatment of the Hebrew Language
1. At the time when the old Hebrew language was gradually becoming extinct, and the formation of the O.T. canon was approaching completion, the Jews began to explain and critically revise their sacred text, and sometimes to translate it into … Continue reading
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Changes Of Hebrew Consonants
The changes which take place among consonants, owing to the formation of words, inflexion, euphony, or to influences connected with the progress of the language, are commutation, assimilation, rejection, addition, transposition, softening. 1. Commutation may take place between consonants which … Continue reading
Rāphè
Rāphè (רָפֶה i.e. weak, soft), a horizontal stroke over the letter, is the opposite of both kinds of Dageš and Mappîq, but especially of Dageš lene. In exact manuscripts every בגדכפת letter has either Dageš lene or Rāphè, e.g. מֶלֶךְֿ mèlĕkh, … Continue reading