Lecture 2: Hebrew Vowels

Chapter Overview

Listen to Miles' Chapter Overview

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Overheads (PowerPoint | PDF)

Chapter 2 in the first edition of BBH

Chapter Material

1. Read pages 20-25 in English Grammar to Ace Biblical Hebrew

2. Read this chapter from beginning to end but don't study it carefully until you have listened to the lecture. In the first read through, don't try to memorize the numerous vowels; just get a good sense of the basic vowel categories and the various other topics, especially Shewa and Daghesh Forte.

3. Listen to Gary's full lecture

4. Study every section of the chapter carefully and memorize the name, sound, class and type for each vowel. As with the consonants, you must achieve immediate recognition of each and every vowel in these categories.

Exercises

Please complete all of the exercises on pp. 7-9 in the Basics of Biblical Hebrew: Workbook.

Frequently asked questions

1. What is the difference between Shewa and the Hateph vowels?

2. What are the vowel letters, or matres lectionis, and how do they differ from consonants?

Helps

1. Exercise Seven (on page 7)

2. Exercise Eight (on page 7)

3. Exercise Seventeen (on page 7)

4. Exercise Seven (on page 8, first list)

5. Exercise Nineteen (on page 9)

6. Exercise Twenty-One (on page 9)

Correct your homework with the answer key

Review

1. Which letters in the Hebrew alphabet will not take a Daghesh Forte?

2. True or False: The presence of a Daghesh Forte in a begadkephat letter indicates that the soft pronunciation of the consonant is doubled.

3. List the three patterns of defective writing that you learned in this chapter: Do you fully understand every summary point in section 2.12?

4. At a glance, are you able to recognize the name, sound, type and class of every vowel studied in this chapter?

5. Do you now understand the difference in function between a Daghesh Lene and a Daghesh Forte?

6. Are you able to recognize the three patterns of defective writing as presented in section 2.11?

Assessment

Quiz (answers)