Jill Suzanne Jacobs - Hebrew For Dummies

Holding one hand at about shoulder level with the palm upright and all the fingers cupped together in the center means ! רֶגַע ( reh -gah; wait a minute ).

When you want to catch a cab, point your index finger down at the ground, indicating that you want the cab to stop where you’re pointing.

In Israel, the American thumbs-up sign has traditionally been seen as an unfriendly gesture that means you’re בְּרֹגֶז ( broh -gehz; mad or pissed off at someone ).Interestingly, an ad campaign in Israel once encouraged kids to make a thumbs-up sign to drivers when they’re crossing the street, with the drivers returning the thumbs-up as an indication that they see the children and will let them cross without running them over. So, thumbs-up is taking on a positive connotation!

The second piece of advice I’ll give you has to do with certain Hebrew letters that are pronounced at the back of the throat. Use these tips to pronounce them:

ע (eye- yeen ): This letter makes a barely audible guttural sound in the back of the throat. For practical purposes, this letter is nearly a silent syllable.

כ ( ḥahf ): This letter makes a sound you don’t hear in English. It’s a hard H sound, like the one you make when you clear your throat. In this book it is written as an ḥ.

ח ( ḥeht ): This letter makes a strong throaty H sound. In this book, this syllable is written as ḥ .

ר ( raysh ): Traditionally this letter makes an R sound as in round . To sound like a native, roll this syllable like a Spanish R, and try to produce the sound from the back of your throat.

Find out about the rest of the Hebrew alphabet in “ Recognizing Tips to Help You Read Hebrew” later in this chapter.

Hebrew served as the vernacular during the ancient Jewish commonwealth until it was conquered by the Romans in 70 CE (Common Era). Then Jews fanned out across the globe to Asia, Africa, and Europe. Even though they were dispersed, the Jewish people continued to practice their religion (Judaism) and remained literate in their language (Hebrew).

Hebrew continued to be the language of prayer, study, and correspondence for Jewish people. Gradually, Jews adopted the languages of their host countries as their spoken language. They mixed Hebrew with their host countries’ languages, giving rise to new Jewish languages such as Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, and Yiddish.

In the 1800s, a movement began to revive Hebrew as a spoken language. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda championed the cause and moved to אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל(e h- rehtz yees -rah -ehl; the Land of Israel ) to revive Hebrew, writing the first Modern Hebrew dictionary. Today, Hebrew is one of the two official languages in Israel (Arabic being the other) and is a living, spoken language for millions of Israelis and other Hebrew speakers across the globe.

Third, watch the pronunciation of your vowels. When pronouncing the ah sound, pronounce that vowel fully. Open your mouth wide and say “Ah” as though you were at the doctor’s office. Hebrew doesn’t have a short i sound (like the vowel sound in sit ), so any time you see an i, remember to make it a long sound, like the ee in Whoopee! In Hebrew, oh sounds are long, as in over.

Hebrew is a Mediterranean language, and as such, it has a certain nasal quality. More so than in English — but actually a lot like in French — you use your nasal cavity when making sounds. Here’s a less-technical tip: When speaking Hebrew, try to fake a French accent. At the very least, your Hebrew will sound better than it does with an American accent!

Learning how to count is fundamental to the study of any language. Hebrew divides words into masculine and feminine genders (see Chapter 2), and numbers are no different; they have masculine and feminine forms. You may feel a little confused, but don’t worry! Table 1-1gives you the cardinal numbers (the numbers you use for counting) from 1 to 10. When you want to count without counting objects, use the feminine form. See “ Counting objects” later in this chapter to find out how to incorporate gender into numbers.

TABLE 1-1Counting from 1 to 10

The gender of the number you use when you want to count something depends on the gender of the noun you’re counting. (Sound confusing? Don’t worry. You can do it.) Counting objects in Hebrew is easy. Just remember to do the following things:

Figure out the gender of the noun you’re counting. If you want to talk about one book, first you must figure out whether the noun book is masculine or feminine. (It’s masculine.) So, when you count books, you need to use the masculine form of the number.

Place the number appropriately before or after the noun. For the number 1, you place the number after the noun. So rather than saying “one book,” you say, “book one” (סֵפֶר אֶחָד; seh -fehr eh- chad ). But after you get to the number two, place the number before the noun. In Hebrew, the plural of סֵפֶר is סְפָרִים (sfah- reem; books ). So, to say “two books,” you say שְׁנֵי סְפָרִים ( shnay sfah- reem ); for “three books,” say שְׁלוֹשָׁה סְפָרִים (shloh- shah sfah- reem ); for “four books,” say אַרְבָּעָה סְפָרִים (ahr-bah- ah sfah- reem ); and so on.