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Further corrections :-) (Reply to this comment)
by zvize
I suppose that as an English teacher, Talia, you don't like being corrected even when it pertains to another language. I empathize with your discomfort, because I recall one of my aunts was an English and Spanish teacher in the States, she learned once Hebrew and I could tell she didn't feel at ease with my superior knowledge of Hebrew when I wrote her some Hebrew lines in a letter (in response to her own attempt at writing Hebrew).
First off, as far as Hebrew's history as a spoken language, it gradually stopped being spoken over a few dozen years following the Roman defeat of the Bar-Kockhva Revolt in 135 A.D., when almost all the Hebrew speaking population of Judah and some bordering areas, such as the nearby lowlands and coastal plain (the only areas where Hebrew was still being spoken) was wiped out, and the remainder moved up to the Aramaic speaking Galilee. So when these people (who knew Aramaic as their 2nd language) passed away, Hebrew ceased being spoken (except among very few Jews who wanted to make a statement).
Second, starting from the mid 7th century A.D., Jews of distant locations around the globe needed a language to speak with each other whenever they had an encounter, and they almost always resorted to Hebrew, as it was often the only tongue they had in common. The same was true for letters between different Jewish diasporas. So, Hebrew was also being used at times for secular purposes.
The language is definitely spoken by more than 4 million people (though not all have a reasonable command of it. From where did you derive the figure you cited?).
In the course of over 24 years it's become evident to me that spoken Hebrew frequently differs from standard Hebrew. With this in mind I'm correcting some of the mistakes that haven't been pointed out to you:
* Please is "Be-vah-kah-shah", not "Be-vah-keh-shah". This is so both in standard and spoken Hebrew.
* Right/correct is "Nachon", not "na-hone". The same goes for "low na-chone" - incorrect. (The "ch" here has a hard sound and stands for an unstressed Kaf letter. The letter Kaf is thus pronounced by every Hebrew speaker. This is not so with the Letter Het, which is pronounced the same by more than 50% of the populace, but the other people pronounce it as a soft glutteral sound, just like in Arabic. So for the sake of avoiding confusion, the unstressed Kaf should always be transliterated to "ch". Het, on the other hand, can be transliterated to "h" or "ch".).
* When addressing someone without using a name such as when trying to get the attention of a stranger on a bus etc., both the forms Ah- doe-n -/Ah - Doe-knee (Mr./Sir) are equally in use and legitimate. The same goes for g'vair-it / g'vair-tee (Miss/Mrs./Ma'am) (when addressing someone without using a name, when addressing a stranger on the bus.).
* To your health is "La-bree-uut" or "La-bree-ute" (the last syllable sounds exactly like the letter "u" in English), not "La-bree-oat". From my experience, English speakers would say "oat", as in the words oat, oatmeal.
* Milk is "Halav", not "chahl-vah". Chalvah is another food, sweetmeat made from sesame. You obviously heard both during a visit to Israel and confused the two.
* As for wine, it's "ya-in" (the 2nd cyllable most be said in quick succession, immediatetly after the 1st. Only the difference between the 2 vowels is what sets these 2 cyllables apart from each other), not "yi-yin". The difference in the 2 vowels is clearly heard when spoken. Additionally, the 2nd cyllable doesn't begin with a 'y' when spoken, though the word is written with 2 'y' (the letter Yod in Hebrew). My explanation isn't confusing, it's rather elucidating, because our emphasis is on Hebrew as it's contemporarily spoken, not written.
* Everything's okay is usually translates to "Ha- kohl b'say-dur", though some do use the "kohl b'say-dur" form.
* The word for vegetarian as both male and female forms: "Tzim-choe-nee" for male and "tzim-choe-neet" for female, not "sim-choe-neet". Note that "tz" stands for the letter Tzadi which does not sound in contemporary Hebrew like 's'.
'S' has corresponding Hebrew letters of its own, Samech and Seene.
In conclusion, I hope peace will reign on between us regardless of my submitting so many corrections. :-) :-)
Happy Passover - Pessah Same'ah
Zvi
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Apr 14 '03
8:52 am PDT
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You forgot.... (Reply to this comment)
by dransome
When refering to the Western Wall, it's known simply as "Ha-ko-tel" which means the wall.
Dahlia
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Apr 03 '01
12:30 am PDT
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Interesting and useful. (Reply to this comment)
by wovengold
This would be great to have if I were ever lucky enough to travel... thanks! Kristin
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Mar 31 '01
1:23 pm PST
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Re: Interesting (Reply to this comment)
by naphtalia
Yup....sort of skip coding (a linguistics term for what happens when people mix dialects) since clumsy is English and oaf/chicken is Hebrew.
talia
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Mar 30 '01
11:28 pm PST
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Thank Goodness! (Reply to this comment)
by LEDOMAINE
Whew! With English-speaking street signs, at least I'd be able to find my way around. Thanks for trying, anyway, and welcome to my WOT.
Rouchelle (E R)
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Mar 29 '01
4:54 pm PST
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Toe-dah-rah-bah (Reply to this comment)
by ifif1938
and be-vah-ke-shah,are the two things I remember from my trip to Isreal many years ago. Along with Shalom of course. Shalom to you and to all Isreal....
Enjoyed this review very much
:)
Barbara
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Mar 27 '01
11:26 am PST
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This was extremely interesting... (Reply to this comment)
by 42ENGLISH
and will come in handy for many a visitor. Thank you.
Julie
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Mar 27 '01
8:13 am PST
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Interesting (Reply to this comment)
by IShopAlot
So, let me get this straight. If I call someone a clumsy oaf--I'm actually calling them a clumsy chicken? :)
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Mar 26 '01
6:50 pm PST
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Whoops.... (Reply to this comment)
by theeye
"Aht m'dah bare-it eve-reet? Do you speak English? to a woman"
That actually means "Do you speak Hebrew?", as I'm sure you well know. Likewise for the male version. I'll hold off rating this review, so you can fix the typo. (I couldn't really consider the review helpful with such a typo, but rating it not helpful seems awfully churlish.) If I haven't come back to rate, please do email me to remind me.
Also, I'd suggest that the phrase "Baruch Hashem" might be viewed as odd coming from a non-Jew. But that's just my personal opinion.
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Mar 26 '01
8:48 am PST
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My Mom And Brother (Reply to this comment)
by coldsteel7,  in Hotels & Travel
Just got back from Israel. Too bad I couldn't give this to them before they left!
John.
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Mar 26 '01
6:01 am PST
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