46 Comments
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Would have been helpful if the word was introduced first or if it was underlined so we could click on it to see the meaning.
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It is underlined on the internet version, isn't it on the app?
The nikkud צירה originally represented probably some form of long /e/, maybe the diphtong /ei/, I'm not sure. In Ashkenazy pronounciation up to the 20th century it was /ei/, and it used to be a known mark of immigrants from eastern Europe to Israel in the first part of the 20th century when they talked Hebrew.
In recent decades צירה is invariably a simple /e/. Where the צירה is followed by a consonant Yod, as in "בני אדם" = /bney adam/ = "humans", we retain the consonant or diphtong. The only exception that jumps to my mind is the "בית" in construct form, /beyt/, which is often contracted to /bet/ but it's still normal to hear /beyt/.
Now כיף is a strange case in itself. It was borrowed from Arabic, where it's pronounced /kef/, and has always been pronounced /kef/ by Hebrew speakers as far as I know. Why was the spelling with the Yod chosen? My guess is that to distinguish it from כף = /kaf/ = spoon, and adopting the Arabic spelling that has Ya; I believe that indeed the Arabic reached /kef/ by contracting /keif/ or /kaif/.
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Haha, in Bugarian кеф /kef/ is a slang-ish term meaning fun or enjoyment. Never knew it came from Hebrew!
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@ Bezalel P: Honestly, I could not figure out how to read the nikkud/vowels, so I find it much easier to just remember the pronunciation of words without it. I had a terrible grammar book, but after giving up on trying to understand how the Nikkud are used, I decided that I don't need them at all.
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Why does this spell 'kef' and not 'kif'? I was under the impression that a general rule of writing without nikkud was that yod following a consonant renders an 'ee' sound to the consonant immediately preceding it?
Grateful for answers!
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as per this post in particular: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/7388681/Hebrew-Time-9-Reading-without-vowels
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This, that, it (is), are all the same in Hebrew - ''זה'' or' 'זאת'' depending on the gender of the word.
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When written with nikud, the pay would have a dot inside of it.
This course is without nikud
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My understanding was that nikud are vowel markings only, not the consonantal differentiations. Is that wrong? It doesn't make any sense to me to remove them - what exactly is the benefit to the learner (or anyone else)? Maybe someone behind that choice for Duolingo Hebrew could answer?
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Technically you are right, but there are a few more grammatical signs which usually go with the nikud, in terms of not showing up. A text without nikud will not have these either.
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I would expect textbooks or software teaching Hebrew to have this. I know Rosetta Stone does, all the markings. I much prefer Duolingo though for the pacing and the system of review etc. but this is very disappointing.
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If you learn to read Hebrew with vowels it will be much more difficult for you to read modern Hebrew texts such as books, newspapers, road signs etc' which are written almost always without Nikkud. That's the reason they left it out of this course,
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A פ at the beginning of a word is generally pronounced /p/. A פ in the middle or end if a word is generally pronounced /f/
