Hebrew Lessons / Shi`urey Ha`ivrit

[Mecislau]

Lesson 2

hu' shoter
'an?chnu choshvim
hu' ro'eh k?lev
'at 'ok?let
'ani holek
hem roqdim

You forget the lenition rules. Kaf (which I spell as <k>) becomes [X] at the end of a word.

[valinta]

Thanks for doing this! I think I caught a minor spelling mistake in your first lesson. I think tov is spelled with a tet (טוב). Anyway, here are my answers to lessons two and three:

השעור השני-

הוא שותר
אנחנו חושבים
הוא רואה כלב
אני הולך
הם רוקדים

השעור השלישי-

הוא מאנגליה
אנחנו הולכים למשוק
הכלב בבית

Hello. I am Jonathan and I am from the United States. Now, my wife and I are visiting the family in Israel on vacation.

[Mecislau]

Thanks for doing this! I think I caught a minor spelling mistake in your first lesson. I think tov is spelled with a tet (טוב).

Ack, how did that happen? I even double checked to be sure, and yet I still wrote tav... Thanks.

And there's one little mistake in your Lesson 3 answers:

You wrote אנחנו הולכים למשוק for "We are going to the market". You have an extra mem in the last word (which should be לשוק lashuq).


Next lesson'll be here soon...

[Mecislau]

<b>Lesson 4 / השעור הרביעי / Hashi`ur Harevi`i</b>

1) Gender

As previously mentioned, verbs in the present tense agree in gender with their subject. All nouns have gender (either masculine or feminine), which affects the conjugation of verbs, declension of adjectives, pronoun usage, declention of prepositions, etc, as well as the declension of the nouns themselves.

Feminine nouns generally end in ה -ah or ת -t. For those interested in spelling, beware: Sometimes a final ה is actually -eh, a masculine ending, and ט, though still /t/, is not a feminine marker.

Some words also end in /a/, but not -ah, and are therefore masculine. These final /a/s are the result of a final ע `ayin, which caused an epenthetic /a/ to be inserted after it back when it was still a pharyngeal consonant. So שבוע shavú`a "week" is masculine. The best way to tell when this happens is to look for that final `ayin.

Masculine nouns end in anything else, be it another vowel or another consonant.

Of course, you always have your exceptions. לילה láylah "night" is masculine, while עיר `ir "city" and ארץ 'éretz "land, country" are feminine. In addition, all city and country names are feminine, possibly in association with the above last two words.

Nouns refering to people or professions generally have two forms, one for each gender. The base form is the masculine (also used to refer to unknown gender or mixed gender). For example:

חבר chaver "friend"
עיתונאי `itonay "journalist"
שוטר shoter "police officer"
חייל chayal "soldier"
איש 'ish "man, husband"
בעל ba`al "owner"

These can be made feminine by adding -ah or -it/-et. Unfortunately it's often hard to know which one to use.

חברה chaverah "female friend, girlfriend"
עיתונאית `itona'it "female journalist"
שוטרת shotéret "policewoman"
חיילת chayélet "female soldier"
אישה 'ishah "wife"
בעלת ba`alat "female owner"

It seems as though -ah is more common in terms of kinship or familiarity, and -t in terms of profession.

EXERCISE 1:

Identify the gender of these nouns. This should be relatively quick and painless:

• כלב kélev "dog"
• טלפון telefon "telephone"
• גבינה gvinah "cheese"
• בת bat "daughter"
• פועלת po`élet "laborer" (bonus point: What's the form in the other gender?)
• אונייה 'oniyah "boat"
• זמן zman "time"
• פרי pri "fruit"
• כתובת któvet "address"

2) Plurals

There are two main plural endings - one for masculine nouns and one for feminine nouns.

Masculine nouns generally just add ים -im. This is present in several English words of Hebrew origin, such as "cherubim" and "kibbutzim". So מחשב machshev "computer" becomes מחשבים machshevim "computers".

Feminine nouns drop their final -ah and add ות -ot: גבינה gvinah "cheese" becomes גבינות gvinot "cheeses".

Feminine nouns ending in /t/ weaken that /t/ to /j/, and add -ot: חנות chanut "shop, store" > חנויות chanuyot "shops".

Of course, there are many exceptions. Some nouns seem to take the "wrong" ending (ביצה beytzah "egg" (f) > ביצים beytzim "eggs"). Others are simply irregular. These will be dealt with later on.

One problem that will often be encountered is that the rules just aren't that simple. These plural endings are often accompanied by vowel changes in the stem of the noun. /a/ > /e/ and /e/ > /a/ are especially common. Sometimes a vowel will drop entirely, as Hebrew seems to have something against lengthening the syllable counts of many words. It won't take long before you begin to pick up the patterns, though. One I'll teach you for now is that nouns of the form CéCeC always have a plural in CCaCim: ספר séfer "book" > ספרים sfarim "books" (or CeCaCim if too awkward of a cluster would form, like liquid+consonant - see exercise). Once again, though, the spelling masks these changes, since the vowels are not explicitly marked.

Hopefully that's not too confusing.

EXERCISE 2:

In the meantime, pluralize these food-related nouns.

• חסה chásah "lettuce"
• לימון limon "lemon"
• עוגה `ugah "cake"
• פלפל pilpel "pepper"
• ענב `enav "grape" (e > a)
• בצל batzal "onion" (first a > e)
• גזר gézer "carrot" (You should know the irregularity here)
• תפוז tapuz "orange"
• לחם léchem
• בננה banánah "banana"
• גלידה glidah "ice cream"

And a challenge:

• ארץ 'éretz "country" (both e > a, but remember the quirk I mentioned earlier about this noun)

Hebrew does also have a dual number, and we'll get into a bit later. I'm thinking the lesson after next.

Next lesson: Some other present-tense verb patterns, the infinitive, object "pronouns"

[Xonen]

EXERCISE 1:

• כלב k?lev "dog" M
• טלפון telefon "telephone" M
• גבינה gvinah "cheese" F
• בת bat "daughter" F
• פועלת po`?let "laborer" F (bonus point: What's the form in the other gender?) po`el
• אונייה 'oniyah "boat" F
• זמן zman "time" M
• פרי pri "fruit" M
• כתובת kt?vet "address" F

EXERCISE 2:

• חסה ch?sah "lettuce" - ch?sot
• לימון limon "lemon" - limonim
• עוגה `ugah "cake" - `ugot
• פלפל pilpel "pepper" - pilpelim
• ענב `enav "grape" - `anavim
• בצל batzal "onion" - betzalim
• גזר g?zer "carrot" - gzarim
• תפוז tapuz "orange" - tapuzim
• לחם l?chem - lechamim
• בננה ban?nah "banana" - ban?not
• גלידה glidah "ice cream" - glidot

• ארץ '?retz "country" - '?ratzot (?)

[Cathbad]

Lesson 4:


masculine; masculine; feminine; feminine; feminine (m. po`?l?); feminine; masculine; masculine; feminine.

ch?sot
limonim
`ugot
pilpelim
`anavim
betzalim
gzarim
tapuzim
lechamim
ban?not
glidot

'aratzot (?)

[valinta]

Lesson 4 Answers:

Exercise 1

כלב M
טלפון M
גבינה F
בת F
פועלת F
אונייה F
זמן M
פרי M
כתובת F

F:פועלת - M:פועל

Exercise 2

חסה - חסות
לימון - לימונים
עוגה - עוגות
פלפל - פלפלים
ענב - ענבים - anavim
בצל - בצלים - betzalim
גזר - גזרים - gzarim
תפוז - תפוזים
לחם - לחמים - lchamim
בננה - בננות
גלידה - גלידות
ארץ - ארצות - artzot

[Mecislau]

Nice job everyone!





Valinta - you went a little too far with the vowel droppings in two words. The plural of לחם is pronounced with a vowel - lechamim, due to the awkwardness of the cluster. Also the plural of ארץ is in fact pronounced 'aratzot (note the stress shift, though, back to the final syllable). 'Artzot actually is a word, but it's the actually another form, called the construct plural (סמיכות smichut), as you saw earlier in 'Artzot Habrit. We'll discuss this later on.

[Tuli]

Answers for Lesson 4:
Exercise 1
k?lev m
telefon m
gvinah f
bat f
po`?let f, po`el m This is the same root P-`-L as in pa`al, right?
'oniyah f
zman m
kt?vet f
Exercise 2
ch?sah-ch?sot
limon-limonim
`ugah-`ugot
pilpel-pilpelim
`enav-`anavim
batzal-betzalim
g?zer-gzarim
tapuz-tapuzim
l?chem-lechamim What does this word mean?
ban?nah-ban?not
glidah-glidot
'eretz-'aratzot, edited in accordance with Maknas' previous post
I can read Hebrew much better now. And I'm scribbling constructed sentences all over everywhere, too, for practice.

[Mecislau]

This is the same root P-`-L as in pa`al, right?

It is. The root פ-ע-ל P-`-L generally means something like "to act" or "to operate", and therefore was used as the basis for naming the verbal binyanim (verb = action).

l?chem-lechamim What does this word mean?

Whoops. It's "bread". Will edit...

Which reminds me. You should be able to understand the meaning of the city name "Bethlehem" now. In Hebrew it's בית לחם Beyt L?chem. "Beyt" is the construct singular form of b?yit, by the way.

[Mecislau]

<b>Lesson 5 / השעור החמישי / Hashi`ur Hachamishi</b>

1) Object Pronouns

First, a little introduction to the behavior of prepostions in Hebrew. When their object is a noun, they behave pretty much just like in English - the object follows the preposition. However, when a pronoun is the object of a prepostion ("on him", "about me", "to us", etc), the pronoun is not actually written, but instead the prepostion is conjugated to match that pronoun. In other words, there are separate words for "about me", "about you(m)", "about you(f)", "about him", etc.

Now, as I said before, Hebrew has only one set of true personal pronouns, which you have already learned. And of course, they are always definite (since they point to a specific antecedent). So, can you see where the object 'pronouns' come from? They're conjugated forms of the preposition את 'et, the definite direct object marker. את conjugates as follows:

• אותי 'oti (1SG from אני 'ani)
• אותך 'otcha (2SGM from אתה 'atah)
• אותך 'otach (2SGF from את 'at)
• אותו 'oto (3SGM from הוא hu')
• אותה 'otah (3SGF from היא hi')
• אותנו 'otánu (1PL from אנחנו 'an?chnu)
• אתכם 'etchem (2PLM from אתם 'atem)
• אתכן 'etchen (2PLF from אתן 'aten)
• אותם 'otam (3PLM from הם hem)
• אותן 'otan (3PLF from הן hen)

You can see the connections between the pronouns and the endings את takes in many places. Also note that the vowel in the preposition does not change to /o/ in the 2PL forms.

Therefore: אני רואה אותו 'ani ro'eh 'oto means "I see him".


2) Present-Tense Pa`al Gzarot

The gzarot (sg. gizrah) are irregular, though predictable, pattern changes in the conjugation of a verb. The normal pattern for the pa`al present (called shalem "whole") you already know (CoCeC, CoCéCet, CoCCim, CoCCot). However, certain consonants cause predictable changes in this pattern.

These gzarot are named based on the root פ-ע-ל P-`-L, just like the verbal patterns. For example, Gizrat ל"ה L"H, read "lamed-hey", means all roots where ה (h) is the final consonant (because L is the final consonants of P-`-L). Gizrat פ"י P"Y (Pey-Yod) means all roots where י (y) is the initial consonant. If you don't quite understand this classification system, please say so and I'll explain it further.

The simplest gizrah to start with is Gizrat ע"גרונית `Ayin-Gronit. "Gronit" is the Hebrew word for "gutteral", and refers to the consonants א ע ה ח ' ` h ch. In other words, this pattern is used for all roots in which the middle consonant is /?/, /h/, or /X/.

The singular forms are the same: CoCeC, CoCéCet. The plural forms just have an epenthetic /a/ inserted between consonants 2 and 3: CoCaCim, CoCaCot, put there in order to break up the gutteral clusters. Therefore, the verb א-ה-ב '-H-B "love" conjugates like this: אוהב, אוהבת, אוהבים, אוהבות 'ohev, 'ohévet, 'ohavim, 'ohavot.

The second gizrah discussed in this lesson is ל"ה L"H, or final /h/. When it's conjugated, the /h/ is lost entirely, and only the first two consonants are used:

MascSg: CoCeh
FemSg: CoCah
MascPl: CoCim
FemPl: CoCot

So ר-א-ה R-'-H "see" is conjugated as: רואה, רואה, רואים, רואות ro'eh, ro'ah, ro'im, ro'ot. When I asked you to conjugate this in the masculine singular earlier, it was just coincedence that it happened to work with the shalem vowel pattern. Clearly, it won't in the other forms - there is no *ro'éhet, ro'ahim, ro'ahot.

You see that the two singular forms here are identical in spelling. Once again, context must be used to identify which vowel should be used in the second syllable - if the subject is masculine, /E/, feminine, /A/.

Other gzarot wil be discussed in the next lesson.


3) The Infinitive

The Hebrew infinitive is fairly easy to form and again depends on the gizrah of the root.

For shalem and ע"גרונית (medial gutteral) roots, the pattern is liCCoC, where consonants 1 and 3 are lenited, if possible. So the infinitive of כ-ת-ב K-T-B "write" is לכתוב lichtov.

For ל"ה (final H) roots, the pattern is the same, but ת /t/ is substituted for the third consonant - liCCot. So ר-א-ה R-'-H begins לראות lir'ot.

And of course there are always a few that are just irregular. The only one you should know for now is ללכת laléchet, the infinitive form of ה-ל-כ H-L-K "walk, go".


EXERCISES:

1) One very useful root you now know how to conjugate is ר-צ-ה R-Tz-H, meaning "want". Conjugate it in the present and infinitive.

2) Translate the following:

• I see them.
• He wants to go to the theatre.
• She likes (lit. "loves") to dance.
• They (m) love chicken sandwiches. (lit. "sandwiches from chicken").
• We are buying oranges at the store. (lit. "in the store").
• She wants to meet them.
• I love you. (gender it as appropriate for yourself)
• You (f) want to write a letter to the friends.

Necessary Vocabulary:

• עוף `of - chicken
• סנדוויץ׳ séndvitsh - sandwich*
• מכתב michtav - letter
• תאטרון te'atron - theatre
• ק-נ-ה Q-N-H - buy, purchase
• פ-ג-ש P-G-Sh - meet

All other necessary vocab has been given either in this or in previous lessons.


*Notice the last character there - צ׳. If you're not already familiar with it, this mark is used to represent certain foriegn sounds. When preceded by a tzadi like this, together they are pronounced /tS/, like English "ch".



How's the pace of these lessons so far? Does each individual lesson have just about the right amount of info? Is the time between lessons alright?

[Xonen]

1)
lirtzot
rotzeh
rotzah
rotzim
rotzot

2) Translate the following:

• 'Ani ro'eh 'otam.
• Hu' rotzeh lihloch late'atron.
• Hi' 'oh?vet lirqod.
• Hem 'ohavim s?ndvitshim me`of.
• An?chnu qonim tapuzim bachanut.
• Hi' rotzah lifgosh 'otam.
• 'Ani 'ohev 'otach.
• 'At rotzah lichtov michtav lachaverim.

How's the pace of these lessons so far? Does each individual lesson have just about the right amount of info? Is the time between lessons alright?

Exactly the right amount of info, I'd say. The time between lessons might be a bit short, but so far, I haven't had any major trouble keeping up.

[Mecislau]

Only one little mistake, Tuomas:

Hu' rotzeh lihloch late'atron.

You must have missed the comment about the infinitive of H-L-K. It's just irregular - lal?chet.

Just for future reference, for everyone - Hebrew does not allow clusters of h+any other consonant.

Exactly the right amount of info, I'd say. The time between lessons might be a bit short, but so far, I haven't had any major trouble keeping up.

Alright then. I'll lengthen the time a bit. I just generally do the lessons whenever I have spare time with nothing better to do...

[Tuli]

I think the pace is great, with enough time between the lessons to digest the information, and ample information in each lesson. 'Ani 'ohev 'et hashi`urey ha`ivrit.
Answers for Lesson 5 (Did them yesterday; they took so long to get up because I was figuring out how to type Hebrew on my computer, and the darned thing keeps moving letters around from where I put them):
Exercise 1
רוצה rotzeh
(I gave up trying to get the letters in the right order)
rotzah
rotzim
rotzot
lirtzot
Exercise 2
אני רואה אותם 'Ani ro'eh 'otam.
הוא רוצה ללכת לתאטרון Hu' rotzeh lal?chet late'atron.
היא אוהבת לרקוד Hi' 'oh?vet lirqod.
הם אוהבים סנדװיצ׳ים מעוף Hem 'ohavim sendvitshim me`of.
אנחנו קוהים תפוזים בחנות An?chnu qonim tapuzim bachanut.
היא רוצה לפגוש אותם Hi' rotzah lifgosh 'otam.
אני אוהב אותך 'Ani 'ohev 'otach.
את רוצה לכתוב מכתב לחברים 'At rotzah lichtov michtav lachaverim.

Also, is there any way to predict between tet and tav? Or when to use yod to represent /i/?

[Mecislau]

Answers for Lesson 5 (Did them yesterday; they took so long to get up because I was figuring out how to type Hebrew on my computer, and the darned thing keeps moving letters around from where I put them):

Heheh, it can be a pain, yes. Most programs have trouble handling bidirectional text (ie, mixing English and Hebrew), and these text boxes on the Board (at least for me) sometimes do poorly with Hebrew punctuation, which is the same as Western, but the box keeps trying to put them in the wrong place. For example, I may type a "?" and it ends up at the far left of the text - normal for English, very wrong for Hebrew!

אנחנו קוהים תפוזים בחנות An?chnu qonim tapuzim bachanut.

Heh. Your transliteration is correct, but you've substituted a hey ה for a nun נ in "qonim". Just a typo, I presume.

Also, is there any way to predict between tet and tav?

Unfortunately, no. You just have to memorize when to use which. In Biblical Hebrew, they represented two separate consonants (tav being /t/, tet being an emphatic /t_G/ or an ejective /t_>/). Now they represent the same sound, but they're still distinct in spelling.

However, one useful thing to remember - Almost without exception, ט tet is used to represent /t/ in foreign loanwords. This is because in some dialects ת tav has lenited forms (it becomes [T] in various positions), while tet is unchanging.

Or when to use yod to represent /i/?

Well, when you see a single yod in writing, it's always either /i/ or /j/ as part of a diphthong (unless it's at the beginning of a word, where it's always /j/, or at the end, where you really can't predict which one it is). When you see two yod in the middle of a word, it always represents /j/ between two vowels - like in the חייל chayal example earlier. Again, you generally just have to learn which pronunciation is expected, but with some practice, it becomes quite easy.

Or do you mean when you'd supposed to write a yod when a word contains /i/? Well. Generally you do, the only exceptions (like in michtav) being in certain vowel patterns. For example, you never write a yod for /i/ in the miCCaC nominalization pattern, other examples being מגדל migdal "tower" (from G-D-L "grow, big") or מדבר midbar "desert" (from D-B-R "lay waste, destroy, exterminate").

[valinta]

I'm happy with the pace, and I'm working on the lesson 5 exercises now. Great stuff!

[Xonen]

Only one little mistake, Tuomas:

Hu' rotzeh lihloch late'atron.

You must have missed the comment about the infinitive of H-L-K. It's just irregular - lal?chet.

Just for future reference, for everyone - Hebrew does not allow clusters of h+any other consonant.

I even wondered about this (since such clusters tend to be quite rare - although there are languages, such as Finnish, which allow them), but didn't bother double-checking? Excuse me while I kill myself.

[Cathbad]

rotzeh, rotzah, rotzim, rotzot; lirtzot (god... the infinitive is just so much simpler in Arabic : p)

'ani ro'eh 'otam
hu' rotzeh lihloch late'atron
hi' 'oh?vet lirqod
hem ohavim s?ndvitshim me'oh
'anahnu qonim tapuzim bachanut
hi' rotzah lifgosh (?) 'otam
'ani 'ohev 'otach
'at rotzah lichtov michtav lachaverim



I have to learn the script, at some point... (Though, once done, I'd probably rather handwrite the answers than try to tackle the text direction problems. Yuck.)

Which reminds me. You should be able to understand the meaning of the city name "Bethlehem" now. In Hebrew it's בית לחם Beyt L?chem. "Beyt" is the construct singular form of b?yit, by the way.

What's interesting is that a colleague at my Arabic class tried to translate it as 'House of Meat', as لحم [laX\m] means 'meat' in Arabic...

[Grath]

And I've never heard be- used to mean "with". In what sense to do mean? Do you have an example?

I mean in the instrumental sense of "using". Two random examples that come to mind are be'etzba'o "with his finger" (might be archaic, since it's from Leviticus (Vayikra)) and uv(e)qo'ach (ko'ach?) hatiqvah "and with the strenght of hope" (from the song Od lo gamarnu).

This notwithstanding, I don't seem to be able to find the word for "store".

[Mecislau]

(god... the infinitive is just so much simpler in Arabic : p)

How so, if I may ask?

hu' rotzeh lihloch late'atron

You made the same mistake here as Tuomas. It's lal?chet, not *lihloch.

hem ohavim s?ndvitshim me'oh
'anahnu qonim tapuzim bachanut

In line 1, you want me`of, not me'oh. I presume that's just a typo.

In line you, the pronoun's 'anachnu, with /X/, not /h/.

hi' rotzah lifgosh (?) 'otam

Correct.

What's interesting is that a colleague at my Arabic class tried to translate it as 'House of Meat', as لحم [laX\m] means 'meat' in Arabic...

In Arabic, that's correct. The city name in Arabic is بيت لحم Bayt Lahm, which means "House of Meat". That's just good ol' semantic drift.

mean in the instrumental sense of "using". Two random examples that come to mind are be'etzba'o "with his finger" (might be archaic, since it's from Leviticus (Vayikra)) and uv(e)qo'ach (ko'ach?) hatiqvah "and with the strenght of hope" (from the song Od lo gamarnu).

Mabye in Biblical Hebrew, but I don't think you can do that in normal language nowadays. However, the prepostion be- is used to form many adverbials ("in silence", "in speed", "in truth", "in hope", etc). Mabye they're related phenomina?

This notwithstanding, I don't seem to be able to find the word for "store".

Well, if you really need to, you can always check what others wrote

But it's חנות chanut.

[Tuli]

The word for store is in there, it's "chanut." Took me a while to find it, too. (I had to do a Find thingy.)

Will we be learning negatives soon? And questions and imperatives and other tenses and other binyanim and adjectives and. . . (What can I say? I want to know everything. )

I'm sure everyone's seen Maknas's wonderful thread on triconsonantal root systems, but I'll mention it just in case.

Also, I think that from that thread and Wiki, I've worked out the basics of adjectives. To be proven wrong, I shall attempt to construct a sentence so Maknas can tear it to shreads :
.השוטרות הגדולות רואות את הכלבים הכתנים
Hashotereyot hagdolot ro'ot 'et haklavim haktanim, in case I typed the Hebrew wrong. (Why is it that most of the letters manage to be right beside the English equivalents?)

[Mecislau]

To be proven wrong, I shall attempt to construct a sentence so Maknas can tear it to shreads :

I will do so!

Actually, not too bad.

The only mistake (a logical one, though) is that the plural of shot?ret is shotrot, not shoteriyot. The profession pattern CoCeC/CoC?Cet pluralizes in the same way the verbs do: CoCCim, CoCCot.

Also, "haqtanim" is spelt with a qof and tet, not kaf and tav: הקטנים

But otherwise, nice job.



In honor of you, I'll put adjectives and negatives into the next lesson

Actually, I was already going to do that, but... Shh!

[Tuli]

!תודה
I should've read the way qatan was written in Hebrew, and remembered that other transliterations aren't as lucid as yours.
That's neat with the plurals of the professions. So כותב kotev and כותבת kot?vet mean writer (or perhaps clerk, given the meaning of the Arabic equivalent), and so on?
Again, with my obsession for correspondences between languages, I've noticed a pattern between Hebrew and Arabic:
shalom-salaam
lo'-laa'
(On the other hand, 'ani-'anaa. I need to find more samples.)
It looks to me like Hebrew o generally corresponds to Arabic aa. This makes the profession pattern CoCeC seem to be related to Arabic CaaCiC. I'd like to figure out what circumstances make Hebrew sh correspond to Arabic s (as in shalom/salaam, L-Sh-N and lisaan, shemesh? and shams). It's like Spanish and Portuguese, only non-Indo-European!
EDIT:
I've found yom-yawm, which means my observation, though still interesting (at least to me ), not very useful for guessing the Arabic or Hebrew cognate.

[Mecislau]

That's neat with the plurals of the professions. So כותב kotev and כותבת kot?vet mean writer (or perhaps clerk, given the meaning of the Arabic equivalent), and so on?

"Writer" is correct.

And not all professions do it this way. There are other profession patterns than just CoCeC.

Again, with my obsession for correspondences between languages, I've noticed a pattern between Hebrew and Arabic:
shalom-salaam
lo'-laa'
(On the other hand, 'ani-'anaa. I need to find more samples.)
It looks to me like Hebrew o generally corresponds to Arabic aa. This makes the profession pattern CoCeC seem to be related to Arabic CaaCiC. I'd like to figure out what circumstances make Hebrew sh correspond to Arabic s (as in shalom/salaam, L-Sh-N and lisaan, shemesh? and shams). It's like Spanish and Portuguese, only non-Indo-European!
EDIT:
I've found yom-yawm, which means my observation, though still interesting (at least to me ), not very useful for guessing the Arabic or Hebrew cognate.

Of course, the two languages are fairly closely related. You'll be able to find all kinds of cognates in words and patterns as we go on. Feel free to mention whatever you may find.

When I visited Morocco last year, I loved the fact that I could guess the meanings or pronunciations of certain words by virtue of their similarity with Hebrew. I noticed, among other things, "maya" (water) for Hebrew "m?yim", and "zhuzh" (two) for Hebrew "zug" (pair). I'm not sure how the Arabic's spelled right off hand, so pardon my transcription.

And your profession pattern CaaCiC in Arabic I think may actually be related to Hebrew's CaCaC/CaCaCit profession pattern, used alongside CoCeC/CoC?Cet.




Also:


<b>Lesson 6 / השעור השישי / Hashi`ur Hashishi</b>

1) Negation

Negation is very simple (which makes me wonder why I didn't say anything before). All you do is add the word לא lo', the same as the word for "no", before the verb.

אני רואה 'ani ro'eh "I see"
אני לא רואה 'ani lo' ro'eh "I don't see"

There's also another form of negation, but it's more formal and is a bit too complicated to be taught at this point.


2) Three More Gzarot

#1: Gizrat ל"ח (Final Ch)

MascSg: CoCéaC
FemSg: CoCáCat
MascPl: CoCeCim
FemPl: CoCeCot

The consonant /X/ always does odd things to nearby vowels. Most often, it drags nearby vowels toward /a/. When it occurs word-finally after an vowel but /a/, the previous vowel breaks and acquires an /a/ offglide. So the MascSg patterns CoCéaC is a natural, predictable variation of CoCeC. In the FemSg form, the /X/ has turned both of the nearby /e/s to /a/. In the plurals, an epenthetic /e/ is inserted to keep a gutteral cluster from forming.

With the verb פ-ת-ח P-T-Ch "open": פותח, פותחת, פותחים, פותחות potéach, potáchat, potechim, potechot. The infinitive is regular, but also shows the added /a/ due to the final /X/: לפתוח liftéach. Notice how the stress always remains on the original syllable that it would have been on if the /a/ had never been inserted: earlier *pot?ch > modern pot?ach.

Nouns show this same tendency: תפוח tapúach "apple". When pluralized, this /X/ is no longer word-final, so the /a/ is not inserted: תפוחים tapuchim "apples".

#2: Gizrat ל"ע (Final `Ayin)

MascSg: CoCéCa
FemSg: CoCáCaC
MascSg: CoCaCim
FemSg: CoCaCot

This only occurs with final `ayin, not 'alef. In a related phoneminon with the above, `ayin is not allowed word-finally, so an epenthetic /a/ is added after it wherever it otherwise would be final. Notice how it causes the same /e/ > /a/ changes as chet in the FemSg form, though in the plural forms, the epenthetic vowel is /a/, not /e/.

With the verb נ-ס-ע N-S-` "travel": נוסע, נוסעת, נוסעים. נוסעות nosé`a, nosá`at, nosa`im, nosa`ot. The same "preserve the original stress" rule is still in effect.

Can you guess what the infinitive form of "travel" is?

#3: Gizrat פ"א (Initial 'Alef)

These verbs are completely regular in the present (as you have already seen with א-ה-ב '-H-B "love" and א-כ-ל '-K-L "eat". The only irregularity is in the infinitive, where the pattern is leCeCoC instead of liCCoC, to prevent a cluster with /?/: לאהוב le'ehov, לאכול le'echol.


I know that all may seem a bit dense for now, but don't worry - the first two gzarot there are very logical alterations once you get used to the Final Chet and Final `Ayin rules found throughout Hebrew.


3) Adjectives, Part 1

Hebew adjectives aren't very difficult - if you can handle nouns, you can handle adjectives. They behave almost identically. Adjectives must agree in gender, number, and definiteness with the noun they modify.

There are two basic types of adjective patterns - those that end in /i/ in the masculine singular, and those that... don't. We'll be discussing the "don't" ones in this lesson.

The masculine singular indefinite is the basic form. Some examples to start off with:

• קטן qatan "small"
• גדול gadol "large"
• חם cham "hot"
• קר qar "cold"
• יפה yafeh "beautiful"

The feminine singular adds, you guessed it, ה -ah. If the masculine singular ends in -eh, it is replaced by the -ah (just like the verbs in Gizrat ל"ה - Final H). Many adjectives that consist of two syllables in the MascSg form to lose the first vowel entirely.

• קטנה qtanah
• גדולה gdolah
• חמה chamah
• קרה qarah
• יפה yafah

The masculine plural adds ים -im. Any vowel changes present in the FemSg are also found in both of the plural forms:

• קטנים qtanim
• גדולים gdolim
• חמים chamim
• קרים qarim
• יפים yafim

The feminine plural adds ות -ot.

• קטנות qtanot
• גדולות gdolot
• חמות chamot
• קרות qarot
• יפות yafot

So in other words, the adjectives basically take the exact same endings as nouns and present-tense verbs.

Definite adjectives just add ה ha- to the beginning of the adjective: הקטן, הקטנה, הקטנים, הקטנות haqatan, haqtanah, haqtanim, haqtanot.

Adjectives only take the definite article when they directly modify a definite noun: בית גדול báyit gadol "a big house", הבית בגדול habáyit hagadol "the big house". B?yit, despite its looks, is masculine.

However, when on two sides of a copulative sentence, the adjective never takes the article, even if the noun is definite: הבית גדול habáyit gadol means "The house is big", a complete sentence.


EXERCISES:

1) Another very useful verb to know is י-ד-ע Y-D-` "know". Conjugate it in the present. The infinitive is irregular - לדעת lad?`at. This is pretty much the last truly irregular infinitive you'll have to deal with for a very long time...

2) Using the following vocabulary, translate the following from English to Hebrew.

Nouns:

• לילה láylah "night" (masculine!)
• רכבת rak?vet "train"
• ארוחה 'aruchah "meal"
• מכונית mechonit "car" (remember the rule for pluralizing feminine nouns ending in -t)
• ביצה beytzah "egg" (feminine, but plural: ביצים beytzim)

Adjectives:

• חדש chadash "new"
• טוב tov "good"
• חזק chazaq "strong"
• רך rach "soft" (note the final consonant is a lenited kaf, so the other forms are rakah, rakim, etc, not rachah, rachim)
• כשר kasher* "kosher"
• שחור shachor* "black"

Adjectives marked with an asterisk (*) above lose their first vowel in all forms but the masculine singular.

Translate:

• A cold night.
• The night is cold.
• The strong man.
• A new train.
• Kosher meals.
• The black cars.
• Soft-boiled eggs. (lit. "soft eggs")

I realize this is a lot of information, and relatively few exercises. The next lesson, which will finish up adjectives and teach a few more useful forms, will be the start of the trickier themed lessons, with more texts of multiple sentences. Get ready!

[Tuli]

Answers to Lesson 6:
Infinitive of N-S-`
לנסוע lins?`a
Exercise 1:
יודע yod?`a
יודעת yod?`at
יודעים yod?`im
יודעות yod?`at
Exercise 2:
לילה קר l?ylah qar
הלילה קר hal?ylah qar
האיש החזק ha'ish hachazaq
רכבת חדשה rak?vet chadashah
ארוחות כשרות 'aruchot ksherot
המכונייות השחורות hamechoniyot hashchorot
היצים רכות beytzim rakot
Y-D-` means 'to know', right?