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#18114 02/14/01 04:01 PM
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Hebrew vowels
I know a little bit about Hebrew, having studied it for one semester in college, just for fun (had to drop it because I couldn't afford the time it took). The Hebrew language does have vowels, of course, but there are no letters in the alphabet to write them with. You were supposed to know what vowels went where, and there are rules for what vowels can go with what combinations of consonants. The King James translators rendered the combination yod-he-vav-he (the Tetragrammaton, or name of God) as Jehovah , which is not correct -- those vowels can't go with that arrangement of consonants. We now know that it should be Yahway. Sometime after the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 and the diaspora of the Jews, the rabbis became worried that the correct formation of words might be lost, since the Jews were now dispersed among other peoples and languages, and Hebrew (and its close relative, Aramaic, the spoken language of Palestine in New Testament times) were no longer a common everyday language. For this reason, two things were done: a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Pentateuch) was produced so the content would not be forgotten even if the Hebrew language was; and to help in studying Hebrew, a set of markings, called the Masoretic points, was invented. You might suppose that the simple solution to this problem would be to invent, or borrow, letters to represent the vowels, but this was impossible, since it would be been considered blasphemous to add letters to the sacred text. Little marks, however, apparently didn't count. They are still used in Hebrew textbooks, and in some prayer books, for those who are not expert enough in the language to do without them.

If I remember correctly (this is coming off the top of my head -- my textbook is at home) there are six marks. They are written under the consonant which precedes them, except for a final consonant. "Short a" looks like a hyphen; "long A" is like a tiny letter T; "e" is two dots following each other like ".."; "i" is a single dot; three dots arranged in a triangle, two over one, is "short e" but is actually pronounced like schwa; finally, two dots vertical, like a colon, is no vowel, indicating no vowel goes with that consonant.


#18115 02/14/01 06:13 PM
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In reply to:

I would love to hear comments from others on how they learned to read and spell correctly

I learned initially "at my mother's knee",
Writing was also taught to me intially (how else? ) by my Mother.


"how else" you ask? In my case, by my doting Dad, and my maternal grandparents, who helped their ex-son-in-law teach his children how to love reading before they went to school.

Salaam from Max (who learned nothing at all "at his mother's knee" )



#18116 02/15/01 07:59 AM
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Learning to read and write? I simply don't remember not being able to read and write. I do remember being very bored at school during English lessons for the first few years. And I do remember being rather annoyed by those looping exercises that we were run through to learn to write, since I already could. I'm sure that both my parents helped at various times, but the process escapes me.





The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#18117 02/15/01 01:13 PM
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It is interesting how many people on this board learned to read and write before they went to school quite a few people have stated they don't remember not knowing how. (This is true for me too since my learning-to-read stories only came down as family anecdotes later in life; I don't actually remember the phonics books.) I guess we all got hooked on language at an early age...or we wouldn't have ended up here!

About learning to write...to this day, my mother insists that my handwriting was ruined by my Canadian teacher when I came back from Italy. We learned cursive writing right from the get-go in Italy, starting in grade one, so I came back in grade three with great handwriting and all my classmates were just learning. My mother had to ask special permission from the teacher for me to use cursive in my assignments because that's what I was used to using. I got a lot of flack from the other kids "GASP! You're not ALLOWED to use cursive writing on your stories yet!" "Ummm...I am...because the teacher said I could...." This did not increase my popularity in the class. Anyway, the teacher still forced my to write my letters in the North American style, so I lost the great script I had learned in Italy. I still find Italian handwriting easier to read. For one thing, it isn't slanted way over to the right like the classic version is here.

Interestingly, my writing continued to deteriorate so that by grade ten I couldn't really read my own writing. I then taught myself to print just as quickly as I once wrote, and now everything I do (except my signature) is printed.

Anyone else prefer printing over writing (not counting using this beast of a computer to make your writing neat)?


#18118 02/15/01 02:36 PM
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Dear Bean: I remember spending hours learning Palmer Penmanship, filling pages with neat slants, neat coils of circles,etc. I think that the typewriter gets the blame for abandonment of penmanship efforts.When I want to be sure my something I write is legible, I use block printing, but it is slow enough I hate to do a whole letter with it. You must have seen the old story about Horace Greeley's clerks putting ink on a hen's foot to "write" a word. Greeley allegedly took one look and declared the word was "unconstitutional,you damned fool!" I await wow's correction of this. wwh


#18119 02/15/01 03:01 PM
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I've adopted kind of a hybrid version of printing & cursive that works OK for me, and most people seem to find it legible. The only downside to my signature is that my "D" looks somewhat like an elongated cursive "S", and consequently I'm addressed as "Sagny" if I'm not careful! I'll do my best to accept the sagging gracefully when it comes, but I'd prefer not to be reminded of the inevitable! Dagny will do, thank you.


#18120 02/15/01 03:25 PM
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Printing vs. cursive writing
My youngest sister (b. 1951) was just starting elementary school when they decided on one of those great new ideas, this time that cursive writing was a waste of time and all children should learn to print neatly and forget about the cursive writing. She still does it; it's quite legible and she can write almost as fast as someone using cursive writing.

When I learned to write, ca. 1946, we sat at the old-fashioned cast iron desks with wood benches and a slanting wood top (which opened to store your things) and an ink bottle set in a hole in the top right corner. Once you mastered writing with a pencil, you then began writing with a steel pen (the steel nib set in a pen-holder, if anyone remembers these terms) and the ink bottle. There were, of course, hours of practicing by the Palmer method to produce the standard hand, which was somewhat like the classic "copperplate" hand but not quite as elegant. Of course, as time went by, everyone abandoned that hand, as it was too slow. My handwriting was not too bad until I took an art history course in college. It consisted mostly of slides, which were shown, of course, in a dark room, with commentary and at a pretty stiff pace. Having to take notes furiously in the dark resulted in a condensed and greatly streamlined hand which is often illegible not only to others but occasionally to me.


#18121 02/15/01 03:36 PM
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Taking notes in the dark. How I wish the tape recorder had been available when I was in college. wwh


#18122 02/15/01 06:48 PM
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tidbits about penmanship:

-- Most people, including myself, use a mixture of print and cursive writing. Apparently, purely cursive writing indicates a female scribe.

-- I read once that textbook penmanship is very rare, and handwriting analysts find that the scribe of perfect penmanship is either retarded or a teacher.

-- My own theory: the more educated you are, the sloppier your handwriting tends to be. Every year, as one slogs though high school, then college, then grad school, one takes voluminous and frenzied class notes, and every year, one's writing becomes more cryptic. Hence, the old saw about physicians' handwriting. I say, the same is true of lawyers and others who have spent many years taking class notes.


#18123 02/15/01 08:26 PM
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Hmmmmm! I had the wooden pen, nib and inkwell too when I learned a technique similar to Palmer method. My handwriting is easy to read and occasionaly when I write a check I get a compliment on my handwriting. Never been considered impaired in the brains department... However, an Editor could be considered a teacher. ????
My teachers used to say "Sloppy handwriting is the sign of a sloppy mind." Then I saw Shakespeare's signature! HA!
Sparteye's comment about taking notes sent me back to my reporter's notes, taken at high speed. Handwriting is clear and letters easily read but my "code" (for fast transcription) make it difficult for anyone but me to understand.
Handwriting sample will be submitted to any persons who care to provide me with their real-mail address!
(Going off to practice writing with my Mont Blanc Meisterstick, inherited from Dad)
wow



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