Come chat LIVE with Beth and Andrew *here* on the polýMATHY pódCAST this Saturday at 12pm US Eastern Time / 6pm Central European Time (Rome) ! kzread.info/dash/bejne/YmSJmaiEhpaZoLA.html Follow this link and hit the Reminder bell to make sure you catch the show! 😃

I am a priest in Brazil and I have followed your videos on Latin I say Mass in Latin, and today the videos were interesting on the Hebrew language that I also studied when I did Theology. Thank you, God bless you.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! 😃

@pedroivobatiston2408

3 жыл бұрын

Very satisfying to see a Brazilian priest here. Greetings from São Paulo's State and God bless you.

@meusisto

3 жыл бұрын

Where are you from in Brazil, your Grace?

@gregorflopinski9016

3 жыл бұрын

God bless you Pater

@laelvieira7730

3 жыл бұрын

@@pedroivobatiston2408 GOD BLESS YOU TOO, Thanks you.

As a hebrew speaker, I was able to understand 98% of the Bible perfectly as a little child, with a lil bit of common sense - the idiomatic expressions are also pretty understandable.

I'm an Israeli and a Hebrew speaker. I'm currently studying Ancient Hebrew history and the Biblical pronunciation. First thing that is important to note is that Biblical Hebrew reflects the language spoken around 400 BCE in Jerusalem, rather than 1000 BCE or even earlier, as most scholars who study the historical basis of the Bible agree upon. There were some significant changes that happened between roughly 1000 BCE and 400 BCE, both phonological and grammatical. Listening to the Bible read with the original pronunciation is majestic and mesmerizing. It's also incomprebensible even for those who have mastered reading the Bible due to how numerous the sound changes are. The short and long vowel distinction and the variable stress patterns hide away much of the familiar words. Beged kephet letters (BGDKPT) were always pronounced as hard sounds, the soft versions only appear in the Mishnaic era (200 CE). Glottal consoants and glottal stops are plenty. Some parts of speech, such as the aspirated final vowel is quite difficult to articulate, for me at least. In 1000 BCE, before the Bible was written, there were also several additional aspirated and glottal consonants and there was no "o" vowel (only four a e i u vowels with length distinction). In the pre-Biblical to Biblical stage, morphology went through changes, with some dentals turning into sibilants. Grammar was greatly simplified, with noun cases dropping almost entirely, verb conjugations fusings into a smaller inventory and the dual number starting to be used infrequently in those places in which you ought to use it.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Fascinating! Todah!

@haroldgoodman130

3 жыл бұрын

I have studied Biblical Hebrew both in classes ( major Hebraic Studies) and almost daily for most of my adult life. I lived in Israel and went to school there, in Hebrew. I am currently under contract to produce a course for Modern Hebrew. I hear the Torah read in the synagogue weekly and study it almost daily. Your points about pronunciation. changes are fascinating but no one I know or have ever met has any problem following the original text read orally even if they only know Modern Hebrew. Best of luck with your studies.

@ShayPatrickCormacTHEHUNTER

Жыл бұрын

could you link a resource concerning the 1000 BC pronunciation ?

Î’m sure he ´s a roman who has taken a time machine

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Haha 😂

I must say that as a native Hebrew speaker I can understand that must of Bible perfectly, there are some hard parts, pertically the songs but with a little help I can understand them as well, not to mention the Mishna and the many other text we have in Hebrew

@petermsiegel573

3 жыл бұрын

Native speakers often have a lot of training in the Tanakh, so that they are reading stories they know well with grammar they have been trained on. So culturally what you say is true, but perhaps not through linguistic mastery. Gil'ad Zuckermann גלעד צוקרמן‎ has written extensively about the disconnect between "Israeli" (Modern Hebrew) and Ivrit (Biblical Hebrew). He has some fun anecdotes about sharing idiomatic expressions from the Bible with today's Israelis, who guess wildly wrong on what the expressions mean. In English we have a similar situation with English speakers and Shakespearean English (circa 1600) or the English of the King James Bible (ca 1611); we often feel we know exactly what something means, but are often wildly incorrect. There are tons of examples of the latter, and the same pride, given how much influence the KJV and Shakespeare had on Modern English.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Peter M Siegel fascinating!

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Intriguing!

@petermsiegel573

3 жыл бұрын

@@haroldgoodman130 Zuckermann is Chair of Linguistics and Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide, Australia. I'd suggest folks take a look at Zuckermann's pioneering work-- books, articles, and lectures-- which speaks for itself. He is very well known for amazing work on helping revitalize Australian aboriginal languages. I haven't read Revivalistics (published by that wild fringe publisher, Oxford University Press), but have read his earlier books and articles and heard his lectures recorded in Australia and Israel (some in English and some Hebrew). Take a look at his citations and judge for yourself. (They may require background in Linguistics). scholar.google.com/citations?user=Tl9Lg2AAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra

@comandanteej

3 жыл бұрын

@@petermsiegel573 I think you"ve got a point and also I am not a Hebrew speaker. However... I don't think that the non-organic development of Hebrew plays a huge role in this distance. Poetry is never easy to understand for the untrained. One also has to realize that the term "biblical Hebrew" covers an incredible timespan that actually ended long time ago (which matters even if it hasn't been an everyday spoken language in the past millennium) .Shakespeare's English was just the poetic version of middle English, "only" half a millennium ago, that developed relatively organically into modern English, yet it is nearly impossible to get the essence without prior studies...

I found them - Aleth and Beth - on youtube and Iearn old Hebrew with them! It's a great pleasure! Thank you too for your amazing channel!

@polyMATHY_Luke

7 ай бұрын

They are indeed the best!

@lietuviukalbospamokos8674

7 ай бұрын

@@polyMATHY_Luke ❤

As a Jew that speaks Hebrew, I am very happy with this video. It also gives me hope for humanity since it shows that some people actually do research. Well done sir. Very well done.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks very much! 🇮🇱 ♥️

Shalom Luke. I am a rabbi with background in Classics. Just discovered your channels. Amazing work. Kol tuv vehatzlacha.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Todah rabbah, Rabbi! Thank you so much for your generous comment! 😃 I’m very exciting to be learning Hebrew. The language has completely charmed me.

@toraparatodos

3 жыл бұрын

@@polyMATHY_Luke Have you printed books for your natural immersion Latin method? Would love to get them. Immersion is the way to go. I learned more Hebrew on a summer in Jerusalem than after many years of textual work with grammars and dictionaries.

I'm sure this man lived 1000 years to bring back the Roman Empire.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

😂

Aww, she is great, I like her channel so much! Shalom!

They actually turned me unto your material. I’m a seminarian and my MDiv Program requires both Greek and Hebrew. Originally I was going to hold off from learning Latin, but your recommendation of Lingua Latina changed that. Latin is now a side project of mine.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

How lovely to hear! Thanks!

Reached Lesson 120 and going well. You very aptly described the feeling. It's also a great incentive to work on one's own in parallel with the lessons

I think it's worth noting that learning modern Hebrew would be extremely helpful in learning the biblical version. It's similar to learning modern English in order to understand Shakespearean English. Biblical Hebrew is similar enough to be understandable to modern speakers to a good degree. It's also worth noting that the Hebrew in the bible is in its literary form, written by scribes, and would probably be hard for a common Israelite to understand.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Indeed!

@broz1488

Жыл бұрын

As a L2 speaker of modern Hebrew, I can pick up a Torah scroll and understand what is written there, so I'm sure it would be very easy for an L1 speaker to do the same thing. Reading biblical Hebrew is not the same as a modern English speaker trying to read Shakespeare, unlike Shakespeare, in biblical Hebrew the words are the same and the spelling is the same as in modern Hebrew. It reminds me more of reading a terse news broadcast or a concise telegram message. Torah Hebrew lacks the emotive fluff and added filler words that would be found in a casual conversational language to aid in sentence flow, like one finds in English or modern Hebrew, and that really is the only difference.

@Abilliph

Жыл бұрын

@@broz1488 There are some words that changed meaning.. And some grammar differences that might be a bit difficult for some Modern speakers. But I guess it's true that I find it even easier than Shakespearean English.

I’m currently going through Aleph with Beth having started on 22 May this year. It’s a lot of fun and also a little challenging in particular pronouncing some of the Arabic-like guttural “ayin” and subtle differences between the soft “qof” vs stronger “kh” sounds. Having learned some French a few years ago in high school was helpful due to having some understanding of masculine and feminine differences which is also apparent in Biblical Hebrew. However Beth and Andrew or “Avram” make learning this beautiful ancient language so enjoyable that you don’t realise how much you have learned until you complete the reviews or find yourself shouting out “ha ish gadol aul ha hamor katoun ba midbar!” whilst watching a biblical movie lol. I can’t wait to gain more understanding of the alphabet, written language to be able to read the Hebrew Scriptures in their original language to gain the fullest meaning which can often be “lost in translation” in English versions. I highly recommend Aleph with Beth to anyone who wants to learn Biblical Hebrew but felt intimidated to do so or like me are audio /visual learners. PS I’m also going Alpha with Angela a Koine Greek (New Testament 1st Century AD ) CI course on KZread made in the same style and in partnership with Beth and Andrew, I recommend this course too for the same reasons as above. Soon you will be “Tiesti tuto?” and pointing to your dog replying “Kuwon megas” lol. Love your channel by the way, Latin is such a beautiful language it really should be in more regular use again. I notice the Roman Italians faces seem to light up when they use their noble ancestral language. 🙏🏼

Your pronunciation of long vowels in classical Hebrew is outstanding. It's not easy!

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

That's very nice of you! Thanks. I speak Latin and Ancient Greek with phonemic vowel length so I prefer to do this for Classical Hebrew, at least as an exercise. 😊

100% the MOST influential text for learning hebrew for me was “Sefer Yetzirah: In theory and practice” by Rabbi Aryah Kaplan. The alphabet is broken down into “3 mothers, 7 doubles, & 12 elementals”, “Mem hums, Shin hisses, and Aleph the breath of decree between them both”

If Luke ever learns decent Hebrew he'd have the whole trio of the West's classical languages up his sleeve.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

One day I shall!

I swear I squeled when you said comprehensible input! That's my absolute favourite way to learn languages

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

I feel the same way! 😃

I love the work of Andrew and Beth. It comes the closest I've seen to how a child actually learns how to speak and read. Thank you.

Really enjoyed stumbling across this video 🙂. I've recently started following Aleph with Beth. It was also a jolt to see the mention of "French in Action" (I actually bought the whole package) and "Destinos" (I used this extensively). I always thought they were both brilliant - you confirmed my suspicion that the CI connection was important.

In the Latin chat, we spoke a little Hebrew. Someone showed a Hebrew Bible, of which I read two words (all I had time to read before he pulled it off the camera), and we quoted verses of Genesis in Hebrew and Latin. In Ezekiel's day, the usual word for "wheel" was אופן, and גלגל, which the angel used, was a neologism. In Modern Hebrew, the usual word is גלגל, and אופן is archaic, but still used in the dual for "bicycle". The translations I've seen completely miss this.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Delightful!

@user-dv7xd2pb6n

2 жыл бұрын

In fact the Hebrew language is so anciet and its root are so profoundly deep that you can aquire almost any word by logic and that is if you already got to a native speaker level. As a native speaker of Hebrew Arabic (MSA and the Palestinian dialect) speaker (Not a native) and as a one who understands Aramiac I'll point on several words with a very interesting connection between them. "עגלה"- a wagon "עגל"-a culf or a cow (masculine) "מעגל" or "עיגול"-a circule "עגלון"-a wagoner and etc.. the root which connects all of them is ע.ג.ל and this word does not make any sense in Modern Hebrew (In classic Hebrew it is, which is higly inflected by the Aramiac language.) but when we look at the Jewish prayer the "Kadish"' קדיש it's being said-"בעגלא ובזמן קריב ואמרו אמן" in Aramiac -swiftly and soon and say Amen. the root ע.ג.ל appears again! but yet we cannot understand it in Aramiac as well. Maybe in Arabic? the root ע.ג.ל actually apears in Arabic and is being used today in a daily basis by the Arabic speakers. One may say "اسف انا مستعجل شوي"-Sorry I am in a hurry. the root here appears to be عجل or ع.ج.ل which can be rewriten (ע.ג'.ל) (the letter ג' was one the letters which were being used in the Proto-Semitic language and Arabic in contrary to Hebrew and Aramiac did not lost them. them-(ج ح ق ض ط ظ غ and others which were lost in Arabic as well) I am not going to go down deeply in the Arabic letters but take it as an example. However when we look at this root suddenly, we can understand it's meaning (in Arabic) and to derive it's meaning to the two other languages. עגלה-a thing which takes you faster to your destination. עגלון the man which drives the עגלה.and עגל the animal which pulls the עגלה. and גלגל-a wheel of the עגלה. and מעגל is it's shape. You see? everything can be explained in these WONDERFUL languages but in order to do so you have to dig really really deep in order to find these connections between them (Which is related to the all of the Semitic languages not only these three). Have a nice day..

@Wowccraft

2 жыл бұрын

The word אופן is also preserved in the neologism אופנוע meaning "motorcycle", itself a blend of אופן "wheel" and מנוע "engine", which I always thought was interesting.

I love Aleph with Bet

@polyMATHY_Luke

2 жыл бұрын

Me too

Ken! Ani ma’vine kitzat ivreat! Ma’Shlom cha! 🎉

Nice video! The differences between understanding Biblical Hebrew and Modern Hebrew are MUCH less than the differences between Old English and Modern English, despite the much smaller time span involved with the latter. In part, this is because for about 1600 years Hebrew became a literary and liturgical language which did not change a great deal.

I would like to have all the time of the world to learn all those langagues! 🤩

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Me too!

Loved that Reading Rainbow reference

I met Andrew a few years in Israel, and immediately I felt his passion for languages.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Andrew is a Hebrew hero!

Just what I was looking for! I want to learn Biblical Hebrew and Koine Greek. Thanks for the resources.

1:49 so true, as a native Hebrew speaker, biblical Hebrew is closer to Phoenician/Punic than it is to modern Hebrew (the difference between modern and biblical Hebrew is perhaps like Shakespeare's English and modern English, unfamiliar words, and uncomfortable, but you should get the general idea.) In fact Phoenician and Hebrew are so similar, if Phoenician is written in the modern Hebrew alphabet, it might take some time until you realize it's not hebrew.

@mtblp7459

3 жыл бұрын

Well, it`s not for nothing that linguists often consider Phoenician and Hebrew not to be seperate language, but only different dialects belonging to the same language (that is canaanite)

I like early ancient Hebrew the most, before begadkefat spirantization and when the letters that represent two sounds were still two sounds like ח and ע etc‎, but then again I like to be very conservative with languages :)) I use the UnfoldingWord Hebrew grammar for most of my biblical Hebrew grammar but I will check this channel out too

It's not at all true that a modern Hebrew speaker has difficulty understanding the Bible, its similar to a modern English speaker reading Shakespeare. Tanakh Hebrew comes across as old fashioned and quaint but is comprehensible. A modern Hebrew speaker can also largely understand Aramaic which is roughly like a modern English speaker reading something in Scots. A modern Hebrew speaker can also largely understand a Phoenician text (provided they are familiar with the archaic forms of the letters which are not recognizable if one only knows the modern square script). Someone who knows only Biblical Hebrew will obviously not understand modern Hebrew words for the many modern age things we deal with like email, computers, cars, buses, latest styles of music etc etc of which there are a significant amount of words, and it is in that sense that a Biblical Hebrew speaker can't understand modern Hebrew.

@M.athematech

3 жыл бұрын

I would add that if a modern Hebrew speaker is made familiar with the cuneiform version of the alphabet used by Ugaritic, they can understand a fair amount of Ugaritic, especially if they transliterate it into modern script - its roughly like a modern English speaker trying to read Chaucer. When it comes to something like Eblaitic, then a modern Hebrew speaker looking at a transliterated text would struggle in the manner of a modern English speaker trying to read Beowulf.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Outstanding! That sounds fair. Thanks!

@atbing2425

3 жыл бұрын

Mathematech, exactly. And for a modern Hebrew speaker trying to understand Arabic, it's like English and German. Definitely uncomprehensible, but every now and then a familiar phrase or word might creep up, definitely different languages but the vocabulary is very similar.

@tFighterPilot

Жыл бұрын

I disagree about Aramaic. While I might be able to understand some words, or even a completely sentence if it's simple enough, it's definitely not intelligible.

I’m thrilled! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing such a great resource! אני אוהב א עם ב!!!

I can fairly easily read the Bible with my modern Hebrew. I guess it depends on the level of your Hebrew- those who usually understand and read modern Hebrew at a higher level are much more likely to understand intuitively the ancient text. It is a pleasure to read it like that, intuitively: laughing at some absurdities, reflect at some very touching stories.... Definitely an action book.

@bruno-bnvm

3 жыл бұрын

Haha action book.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Right! That's very likely.

Please make more videos on Hebrew, Luke. Looking forward to them!

@brazenserpent7

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much for recommending AlephwithBeth channel. I am hooked now. Cheers!

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

The hooked too! My pleasure

Wow, Alef and Beth are great. Their pronunciation of Hebrew seem to be exceptional.

Thanks for starting this Luke! I checked their lesson is much fun! I will share with friends!

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you! 😃

I love Aleph with Beth!

Thank you for making ancient languages more accessible, like promoting this channel. It's amazing how quickly I understood the vocabulary in aleph with Beth's video. And thank you for recommending lingua Latina and the downing method. I'm definitely going to try it soon.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

I'm so glad!

I had the real chance to study Ancient Hebrew with a carismatic teacher in Freiburg, Switzerland. He spoke both Biblical and modern Hebrew (and a bunch of other semitic languages) as a native speaker and his courses were really "practical" so I remember a lot even now! I hope that more and more will study this language also in the universities. The true "humanist" should not ignore Hebrew. ;-)

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

I agree! A humanist, a linguist, a philologist should at least give Hebrew a chance!

Oh em gee. first Latin and now Biblical Hebrew? THE GREATNESS NEVER ENDS.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

lol I know only what Beth has taught me in her videos. My supposed “greatness” is quite limited, I assure you lol

I'm just about to start learning Yiddish. It is available on Duolingo. I know it isn't pure Hebrew per se, but it makes me smile when I hear it.

@polyMATHY_Luke

Жыл бұрын

I believe Yiddish is fundamentally a dialect of German with a number of Semitic words in it

Glad I came across this video!

I am very fascinated by my language. It's amazing history and evolution amazes me every time anew, And learning about biblical hebrew is very interesting topic, So I was struck with surprise when I saw this video! Thank you

Thank you very much for the recommendation🥰

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for watching!

Oh, your enthusiasm is contagious Luke. I stop studying biblical Hebrew because I focused more in Koine Greek, but thank you for make me remember this wonderful channel.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Libenter!

I love your show!

Thank you very much for sharing this information!

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching and sharing!

When Luke recommends something, you know it's good! I followed the link and it did not disappoint👍 As a Biblical Hebrew student myself, I can confirm that the content is very good and follows the same method that my expensive Hebrew school offers.

@kaminobatto

3 жыл бұрын

MrZapparin I know, I paid my tuition in 6 installments and it was still too expensive. However, the methodology is great. But these guys do almost as much of a decent job for free!

Great stuff as always! At 2:38 - it's interesting that 'Classical Hebrew' (Biblical Hebrew) is said to be centered around the 10th century and, thus, is considered MUCH older than Classical Greek. I believe the 10th century inscriptions (Gezer Calendar, Zayit Stone, Ophgel Inscription) are all classified as Phoenician or Paleo-Hebrew. And the precise criteria for classifying "Archaic Biblical Hebrew" is disputed among experts. It seems like the term "Classical", when applied to Hebrew, may artificially cast a very wide chronological net; despite obvious diachronic changes that are all within the boundary of the “Classical” nomenclature. Whereas, Mycenaean Greek is attested in Linear B inscriptions as early as the 15th century BC and 'Epic/Homeric' Greek (with a lot of attested dialectical variety) was probably spoken by at least the 9th century BC. Since the term "Classical Greek" casts such a narrow net, specifically, around the Attic dialect, Classical Hebrew is able to boast its 'antiquity' compared to Greek. Not that it's a competition or anything. But... this seems a bit like gerrymandering to me. If we use the umbrella term 'Ancient Greek' as encompassing 'Epic', it would seem to put Greek on more equal footing. The earliest evidence we have of the Biblical Text dates to the Hellenistic period. And many scholars (such as Ian Young) argue persuasively that 'archaisms' in the Bible are archaizing poetic conventions that probably do not preserve the ‘original’ form of the text. This appears to be a point of contention in Biblical scholarship.

@Abilliph

2 жыл бұрын

Generally you are right. We do have inscriptions from the 11th century BCE, which show patterns that fit more with Hebrew than Phoenician (I can try and find if you'd like). Another thing I'd like to point is that the comparison between Hebrew and Greek is not very fair. Greek is a language in the sense that Canaanite is one, Greek contained a lot of dialects, spanning across a huge area, that were not necessarily very intelligible. Hebrew on the other hand, was just one of the dozens of Canaanite dialects, that were all very intelligible (at least from what we know of Moabite and Phoenician). Since Hebrew and Phoenician are closer than some dialects of Greek (especially Mycenaean, that we know very little about, to classical Greek), a better comparison would be between Hebrew and Athenian or spartan. Not a competition of course, I just want comparisons to be fair.

I recently heard that Latin "ave" (like Ave Maria) was a Punic loan word like Hebrew חוה/Hawe, meaning "to live" (related to lechayyim).

An honest review of Aleph with Beth (so far as I can make out): Luke has proven himself to be very passionate for the painstakingly accurate historical reconstruction of Latin (hence the 13 minute video on hard c & g and the hour long video on retracted s), whereas Beth & Andrew seem more concerned with just getting some form of the language out there that will be easy for students to learn; they also believe that it's impossible to know what Biblical Hebrew really sounded like and therefore we can do whatever we like with its pronunciation. For these reasons, they've chosen the Sephardic pronunciation which, according to what I've been able to find, is about as anachronistic in someways as certain interpretations of Erasmian Greek; they've also chosen to ignore phonemic vowel length. All this they've chosen because Sephardic is the most widespread pronunciation and it enables them to recommend other resources; also, it doesn't have enough weird sounds to scare most learners away. I've done my best to echo their position, but for those who want to hear it in their own words, they say about as much on their website (type the link in if you don't want to copy it; I don't click links from strangers either and completely understand): freehebrew.online/pronunciation/ In summary, Aleph with Beth has great comprehensible input lessons for Biblical Hebrew (and in fact, the only ones I've found on KZread thus far); I personally have learned quite a bit of vocabulary from them and continue using their material as the best option available. However, they're not a sort of Luke Ranieri of the Hebrew world; they've chosen commercial availability over historical accuracy in terms of pronunciation. For all these reasons, I can definitely recommend them to those who want a more shallow knowledge of &/or interaction with the language; if your goal is just to be able to stumble through Genesis in the original Hebrew and fact check your pastor, that's totally fine, I applaud your choice, and I can recommend a couple of awesome teachers to you. For those of us who want to understand Hebrew in the way that Luke understands Latin or Ancient Greek and sort of hear the voices of the ancients call down through the ages, I can still recommend them with one caveat; they do not have historically accurate pronunciation, do not claim to, & disbelieve in its existence, so if that's what you want then you'll have to find it somewhere else. I can recommend my own sources of research on this for whoever would like or leave them to do their own, but either way there will still be the bothersome task of adapting the words they teach to a better pronunciation system. It's the best we've got and I'm not complaining, but I'm just warning that if you want to take a polyMATHY level dive into Classical Hebrew, that's what needs to be done. My utmost respect and thanks to Aleph with Beth for their work, in spite of our disagreements. God bless!

שלום! שלום! Yes, It’s the CI that I’ve been looking for in learning the languages I want to learn.

Two of my favorite stories about this are from when my Israeli born daughter was in a dorm in Jerusalem and two American girls walked into the dinning room and one exclaimed, "Oh lovely. We're having chanticleer and rice today." "Chanticleer" would be the English equivalent of a rooster who crows with the dawn and mentioned in the morning prayers (Biblical Hebrew). Another American girl was heard asking the bus driver where the "final (Biblical Hebrew) bus stop was," . . . who replied "Under the wheels." Also there are groups of traditional religious groups (some, not all, Hassidim) who insist on only speaking Biblical, but the biggest problem understanding them is generally getting through the dialect changes between Ashkenazi Litvak or Ashkenazi Hungarian.

Have been interested in learning Biblical Hebrew for a long time. I will check their channel out!

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Great!

כפרה עליך לוקאס!

@Zoharargov

3 жыл бұрын

נשמה של ברבור :)

אתה מלך, כל הכבוד

It's been three years since I started learning biblical hebrew and i wish to study the modern language at university, you can't imagine how this video made me happy! !שלום

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Oh great! Thanks

I just tried the speed reading instructions on your website. In 30 minutes, I literally tripled my reading speed I can't believe how effective that was.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Woooow!

שלום מישראל! ♥

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

‏שלום! 😃

Brilliant (as usual)

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Thank you, Ramona! You’re very sweet. ☺️

I love Aleph with Beth. I actually enrolled in a Brazilian course for Ancient Greek and Latin which uses the same method and I'm learning mostly through them (they use Lingua Latina per Se Illustrata and Athenaze), and I like this method a lot. I actually want to make a similar course teaching portuguese in the future. It was through a live between the main teacher of this course (his name is Clistenes Hafner) and Beth that I found their channel just a few months in the past. :)

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Wonderful! Thanks for the comments, Emanuel!

@feleslucis-emanueldearaujo6237

3 жыл бұрын

@@polyMATHY_Luke you're welcome, bro!

Amazing video as always, Luke! Have you ever considered learning Mycenaean Greek written in Linear B script? I personally think that it would make for make for an amazing video series, because I find your sharp thinking fascinating to listen to. Btw thank you for showing me, that ancient languages are not quite dead yet. I honestly now find studying them more rewarding than living languages, because I love rediscovering ancient ways of thinking and making sense of the world. You're doing something really amazing, so once again - thank you :)

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

You and I have that in common! The pleasure in mine. Thanks for watching. As for Linear B, I would love that! I just have to find the time. 😃

Consider learning ancient languages by speaking them as Luke describes at the Polis Institute in Jerusalem. There you can learn Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Latin, Classical Syriac, Classical Arabic, Coptic that way.

Es gente encantadora y enseña superbien.

Awesome! All I know to say is "Shalom", "Toda" and "Todaraba" xD

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Yafe! 😃👍🏻

You should do a video in ladino, it being part romance part Hebrew.

Gonna pull this on the folks down at the Parish, it's gonna be lit.

The variance between Modern Hebrew to Biblical Hebrew is often likened to Modern English and Shakespeare's English

the word order is different for loshen kodesh (classical hebrew) but most speakers of the modern language can adjust themselves to it. religious speakers of modern hebrew are more likely to be able to understand loshen kodesh than secular speakers. it was once described to me as a bit harder than understanding shakespeare for a modern english speaker; the average person with little exposure has reasonable difficulty, but it's something they can build up quite easily.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

That sounds reasonable! Thanks for the additional info

@tFighterPilot

Жыл бұрын

The word order in Hebrew (modern and ancient) is flexible. So even though the common word order in ancient Hebrew was VSO compared to SVO in modern Hebrew, it's usually easy to understand from the context which word is what. There actually is one funny example where there is some confusion from 2 Samuel 2: "Must the sword devour forever?" which is in Hebrew "הלנצח תאכל חרב". The thing is, תאכל is both the future 3rd person singular feminine form and the future 2nd person singular masculine form. The correct meaning is the former here (sword (חרב) is feminine) but many modern Hebrew speakers think it's the latter, with "sword" being the object and the meaning being "shall you forever devour sword"

Wow I was not expecting a video about hebrew, I started studying modern hebrew recently. Also it may be interesting to analyze the "Giudaico Romanesco", let's say is some kind of Roman Iddish. The Jewish community of Rome is one of the world oldest, and even though it got many sound variation during the centurys, many others didn't especially in the liturgy. As always, lovin' yor content, greetings from Florence, Italy. I'll eventually get a like from Luke.

The ability of Modern Hebrew native speakers to read the Hebrew Bible probably varies a lot by age. People of my generation (I'm in my mid 40s) still read the actual text of the Hebrew Bible in elementary school. So now, if I pick up the Hebrew Bible and read it (more precisely, the parts that belong to the earlier linguistic strata, roughly the first half or so of the text, which is what we mostly read in school), I'm able to follow the text quite comfortably. I'll probably be getting some word meanings subtly wrong, but I'll be easily able to follow the text. They stopped reading the actual primary source text in schools some 15-20 years ago, though, so younger folks, are likely to run into much more trouble. PS: One nitpick: Our main surviving Classical Hebrew document depicts events from about 1,000 BCE, but the text itself is considerably younger. Dating is difficult, but most scholars would give roughly the 6th century BCE as the time at which something like Classical Hebrew was actually spoken, with some parts reflecting a significantly later recording date. Moreover, the biblical text was edited extensively in subsequent centuries.

כל הכבוד, אני מוקיר את המאמץ שלך לדבר באוצר המילים הישן אני גם לומד עברית תנכית, אבל לא שירות קל כל כך

So fucking cool to see hebrew again, in those videos.

As a Jew of Yemeni descent most Jewish scholars identify the Yemeni Hebrew pronunciation as being the most authentic

Hi Luke. I love your videos! I was wondering if you know of anyone who teaches Mandarin Chinese using CI? Thanks for your video, love your content!

A little remark about mutual intelligibility of classical and modern versions. Indeed, the classical Hebrew speaker (let’s disregard the phonetics and presume both parties speak slowly and articulate well + they talk about something that would not require any neologisms) will have some difficulty to understand a modern speaker. Yet, a modern speaker will understand the old version pretty good. Here comes the fascinating root of the discrepancy. The enthusiasts of the “resurrection” of Hebrew were ALL speakers of the Indo-European languages (Polish, Yiddish, Russian, French, etc). They were attributing the words Indo-European semantic fields instead (or additional to) their original Semitic meanings. That is obvious in neologisms. Example: להשפיע ‘to influence’ is the calque from the meaning of Romance languages prefix “IN” and “Fluence”: ‘flow’, ‘slope’, ‘movement down from a higher point’, etc. The same EXACT construct is in Russian, for instance: “В-Лияние». I, as a native Russian speaker (before my linguistics studies in Tel-Aviv University) had such an easy ride to learn Hebrew profoundly, because I realized very fast that with Russian semantics using Hebrew morphology and syntax I will go pretty far, and I did :-) If you take an Arabic speaker (or better a linguist) and teach him Hebrew grammar and correspondences his understanding of classical Hebrew nuances will be better and more accurate...

My language

as someone who natively speaks Hebrew, the Bible is to modern Hebrew, as Shakespeare is to modern English, in my experience.

@user-to7qd5gk5k

3 жыл бұрын

It depends on the parts, some are hard but most of them are very easy and quiet forward

@ashkenazi-auntie

3 жыл бұрын

i'm not proficient either in ivrit or loshen kodesh, but i've only ever been able to notice that some words are used differently and that the word order is shifted between the two.

@user-to7qd5gk5k

3 жыл бұрын

@@ashkenazi-auntie almost all parts are absolutely normal, there are parts that are weird and I would have probably say it differently but they are still understandable, the harder parts are the poetry parts which also considered older

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

I appreciate the insights from this discussion! I really like Modern Hebrew too and hope to learn it some day 🇮🇱

@itay3013

3 жыл бұрын

@@polyMATHY_Luke that's great! I love your latin videos.

Absolutely love this video! Props from Israel :) looking forward for some more ancient Punic content to see how similar it is to Biblical Hebrew 🤔

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Shalom! 🇮🇱 😃 And I look forward to fulfilling those hopes!

I was just looking forward to learning Hebrew, but I'm more inclined to learn the spoken Hebrew today. I will however check this channel. Would you recommend books on the mater Luci? It would be great to know of learning books that use this method and that similar to lingua latina.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

A great question! I will be having a livestream podcast on this channel with Beth and Andrew at 12pm ET on Saturday. That would be a good time to ask your question!

I’m not learning Biblical Hebrew, but it’s still a great video!

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Grātiās!

Interesting video

@servantofaeie1569

3 жыл бұрын

"Gela3ad Peret"? is that how you say your username?

@itay3013

3 жыл бұрын

@@servantofaeie1569 geel'ad pe ret

@user-to7qd5gk5k

3 жыл бұрын

@@itay3013 kaybe prat

@itay3013

3 жыл бұрын

@@user-to7qd5gk5k true. could also be perat

@user-vt4mf4kl8q

3 жыл бұрын

Gilead/Gilad Prat or Peret

@1:01 hahaha 😂 OMG you know that show! I feel like I'm the only person here, besides you, that gets that one

CI !

Imagine to know how Dido spoke, and then you know latin and ancient greek so you can reproduce a dialogue between Aeneas and Dido😍 (Btw the part of Virgil's Aeneid where the two met and then had to split up, it's heartbreaking. I had the chance to read it in latin and it was beautiful)

I'm curious about another angle to this. I came across these Hebrew scholars a few years ago (I think they're both connected to Rutgers) who have done some research on how Hebrew pronunciation and morphology has changed over the centuries. There are some parts which have me wonder where their pronunciations came from and some which I wonder if their understanding of Hebrew pronunciation is based on an incorrect pronunciation system for Koine Greek. The scholars are Gary Rendsburg and David Steinberg. Their pronunciation systems for early Hebrew are similar to each other, but different from the common view of what early Hebrew sounded like (pronouncing Mary as Maryam, not the Tiberian pronunication Miryam, as late as the first century AD and later). I'm also wondering about their theories about the formation of early Hebrew as recent discoveries (like the Ebal curse tablet) would seem to indicate that Hebrew in speech and writing is actually more than the commonly believed 3000 years old. They don't seem to explain how they came to their conclusions about Hebrew pronunciation (at least not in the sources I have read or videos I've watched), so I'm not sure whether I can trust their claims.

Kind of a technical question. What do you know about the phonology that they are using? Are they using a reconstructed form of biblical Hebrew? I ask because the way most people will learn the Hebrew alphabet, even in Hebrew school in order to be able to read from the prayer book or the Torah, Will be based on some of the modern traditions such as Ashkenazic reading, Sephardic reading, or modern Israeli reading. Also is there a similar source for Arabic? I ask because Arabic is more conservative in phonology than Hebrew and so many people who start with Arabic and go to Hebrew will read the corresponding letters more like how they might have been pronounced in biblical times.

@TheRahimpur

3 жыл бұрын

It's Aramaic alfabet.... Those two languages are pretty easily intelligible, and in the late Hellenistic era it was well spread. Therefore Hebrew speakers adopted this alfabet.... They were speaking bothe Hebrew and Aramaic so it was only natural. Later in the time of the hashmonites the power of Hebrew grew, alongside the Jewish kingdom of the hashmonites. Then the Bible was written in Hebrew, using Aramaic alfabet, and it just stuck. Original Hebrew alfabet is almost identical to the Phoenicians one.

@Caralaza

3 жыл бұрын

They seem to use an oriental style modern Hebrew accent, meaning they clearly pronounce Aleph (א أ) and Ayin (ע ع), and differentiate between Chet (ח ح) and Khaf (כ/ך خ). They don't differentiate, however, between Tet (ט ط) and Taw (ת ت), Kaf (כ ك) and Qof (ק ق), and they pronounce Waw (ו و) as an English "v". Arabic is more phonologically conservative, however, there are letters pronounced a certain way which were never pronounced as such in Hebrew. For example, ج (jīm) is pronounced like an English or French "j" in Fusha Arabic, but the Classical Hebrew equivalent ג (gimal) is pronounced like a "g" (as the letter would have been pronounced in Proto-Semitic). Similar situation with פ (pē) and ف. Hebrew has also changed considerably throughout Biblical times, so reconstructed pronunciations can vary. If you learn the traditional Tiberian accent, you will certain sound like a late Biblical Hebrew speaker (post-exile), but not quite like King David, who had an accent which is much more difficult to reconstruct. Rabbi David Bar Hayim has a series of videos teaching a tradition Hebrew accent, which is essentially Tiberian Hebrew, if you're interested.

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Niko Caraballo thanks for the great comment! Could you post the link to the rabbi’s videos for Tiberian?

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Great question! We are going to discuss it this weekend in a livestream chat with Beth and Andrew: kzread.info/dash/bejne/YmSJmaiEhpaZoLA.html You should come! Niko went over the details of the pronunciation they are using. It's not precisely historical to any particular time period, and is kind of in between ancient Hebrew and Modern Hebrew. As for the balance of instituting truly authentic historical pronunciation systems, versus the pedagogical concerns that arise from potentially radical choices, however historical they may be, I summarize my thoughts on the matter when discussing Ancient Greek conventional pronunciations in this video: kzread.info/dash/bejne/dqht3JeAptOZfbA.html Ultimately, it's a matter of preference, convention, and habit. Clearly Beth and Andrew's pronunciation system works excellently for them to be able to achieve fluent understanding of Biblical Hebrew, and therefore are excellent models to imitate.

@Caralaza

3 жыл бұрын

@@polyMATHY_Luke Yes! Here is a link to a Hebrew pronunciation playlist by the Rabbi: kzread.info/dash/bejne/Y2uop9Bup9bdaLg.html

I can speak Biblical [and Modern] Hebrew yay!

Do you know of any good German CI programs? Or any other german language learning methods?

CI is good. But having familiarity with some of the syntactical possibilities is useful while you learn. Ex., הנּה In the clip it is an interjection, so the preceding speech sounds are either vocative or explanation/exclamation. Didn’t sound like any of the right roots for snake, so I guess that’s his name. תננ? שרפ? נחש?

Yo también aprendí el alfabeto con HebrewPod.

Dear Mr Rainiery, I can understand most of the TaNaKH being a native Hebrew speaker. The key is in the level of speech: if one speaks Tel Avivish (the ugly bastard of Russian, Arabic, Vulgar(army + crimminal) and Hebrew slangs) then Yes it'll be harder. Also i can't understand this slang. For me the hierarchy is like this Septuagint: 99% (the difficulty is more cultural then linguistic) Nevi'im & ketuvim: ~50% some language one can deduce by grammatical logic Tehilim: ~33% enough to get some semblance of what's going on, but it's the hardest collection of Hebrew texts I know off. Talmud is written in syriac, thus it's unintellegible to Hebrew speakers. Thanks for your time

Wow ! I too love Hebrew , and videos like these keep me inspired to make further progress . P.S. - is it just me , or do you really look like a , maybe Roman general or soldier.... You look exactly like one .

סרטון מצוין, אהבתי

Hi, I recently watched your video on spencerian script and you got me convinced that I should go do something about my terrible handrwriting. How did you learn spencerian script though and how long did it take you to master it ?

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

A few weeks to become comfortable. I just googled it. 😊

To truely see the permutations of the Hebrew letters, visualize the burning as white fire upon black fire. Etch and engrave them in you minds eye, as you would engrave a tablet of clay…

Do you know which is the best way of learning ancient Greek? Or any book to learn it by the natural method. Thanks!

@polyMATHY_Luke

3 жыл бұрын

Yes! Athenaze. You can find my videos on ScorpioMartianus and the audio on my Patreon page. 😊

@moisessanchez8099

3 жыл бұрын

@@polyMATHY_Luke Thanks you so much!!!!!!!!

Can you refer me to a channel that teaches Egyptian Arabic in CI?