Like the Alphabet, The letters in Hebrew are called the Alef - Beyt and they are presented on my blog from bottom to the top so you can learn them order, then to read them right to left. You will see what the original "Bible" said and what the names meant as they went through the stories of old.
Note that there are two that are the same, but one has a Dagesh (the dot in the middle) so we pronounce it like a "P" sound in English. If there is no Dagesh, then it is pronounced like an "F" (this includes the final form below).
Pey symbolizes a mouth and means speech itself. It's a complicated letter to learn because it has two different pronunciations and a Sofit (final) form.
It is the seventeenth letter. It is a consonant and has the numerical value of 80 when used as a number.
Can you think of another letter that has a Dagesh that changes its pronunciation?
Which other letters have a Sofit form or a form they take at the end of a word?
Where we are so far
Only 5 more letters and you will be reading! Well, there are many letters you can read already.
Let's also start studying our vowels. There are five sounds that go with any of the letters you know.
Try putting one of the letters you know in the square and say that letter and the vowel under it
Example: if you place Lamed in the squares, you would have Lah Lay Lee Low Lew - downward.
Here is a chart.
- the square represents any letter.
- the vowels are positioned as they would be in a written word.
- there are five lines of vowels - five sounds
On the left a word that contains the vowel sound
On the right a representation of that sound.
They are nearly the same as in Spanish and in the same order!
I have to say that there are slight differences - one might be a little longer than the one next to it, but the sound is the same. There are also combinations that may extend the sound of a vowel. I will leave this chart on the next seven lessons as we go through more letters.
We will soon be reading
So get your Hebrew Bible soon! Click here to obtain the book we will using in a few short weeks. It is a free download - or browser usable.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
