Posted by:
Tevai
(
)
Date: November 04, 2016 10:57PM
catnip Wrote:
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> little diacritical marks either above or below the
> consonants to give the learner a clue as to where
> the word is going? Seems to me that this would be
> a very merciful help.
Those marks are called "nikud" (or: nikkud...or: niqqud).
The Wikipedia article on Niqqud is good...there is a section of the Bible there (on the right-hand side), with the nikud printed in red, and (for chanting; as during a synagogue service such as a Bar or Bat Mitzvah) there are music "tones" in blue. The red marks are (mostly) vowels.
In general, nikud are printed in dictionaries...with poetry...in books, etc. intended for children...in material (such as newspapers, or relevant Israeli government publications) intended for new immigrants to Israel...and in materials used to teach Hebrew to people who want to become Jews.
The article did explain to me why what I can plainly see on a page sometimes is pronounced differently when I hear it...
Unsurprisingly, it turns out that Hebrew has changed over the past couple of thousand years, and though a given word may be "spelled" a given way, the pronunciation today may vary from what was true back then.
When I am learning ANY foreign language, I get children's books, starting wherever I have to (pre-school level, first grade, etc.). When I can even limp along in books intended for teenagers, I feel that I have (at last!!) ARRIVED! :D
>
> When I learned about the "soundless" consonant
> years ago (I forget now which one it is) that is
> meant to carry the sound of stressed vowels, I was
> HUGELY impressed. It struck me as an extremely
> complex linguistic idea, and at the same time, so
> ancient!
>
> I went to school with a lot of Jewish kids, so I
> was exposed to Hebrew texts (and as a Spanish
> major, I learned to get by in Ladiño, a form of
> Spanish spoken by Sephardic Jews) and was very
> much drawn to the language. But As a Spanish
> major, a German minor, and taking Brazilian
> Portuguese for the heck of it, I didn't have much
> time or energy for Hebrew.
Ladino is a beautiful language. If you're interested in some really nice Sephardic music, I highly recommend Yehoram Gaon on You Tube, particularly "Duerme, Angelico" (a lullaby), and "Rey Nimrod." Both are from the Middle Ages, but they feel SO contemporary!! :)
>
> (I learned how to do the Hora during the Six-Day
> War, though! You never knew when you would be
> grabbed and drawn into a dance circle!)
Fun times!!! :D One of the things I really like about Jews and Judaism is how important music and dancing are, and how much fun people (from infants being carried, through great-grandparents) have...so much genuine fun after Shabbat services (etc.), and how a very serious song can effortlessly segue into a joyous song, often with dancing (which CAN get pretty "athletic" sometimes), where everyone feels they belong, even if they don't even know how to do whatever dance they're dancing at that moment.
> You never know how events will "ripple" into your
> life, like the pebble dropped into water. I was at
> university from 1966 to 1969. I used Ladiño to
> get through a Social Security interview around
> 1976 or 77, with a lady who had survived one of
> the camps. Seeing the tattoo on her arm made the
> whole, terrible Holocaust even more real for me.
>
> At the end of the interview, as we stood up, the
> lady reached across the desk and hugged me. She
> had tears running down her face. "You are the
> first adult woman I have been able to communicate
> with, in my own language, since I came to this
> country!" For a goyishe Presbyterian who spoke
> Spanish and had only been "exposed" to Ladiño a
> decade before, this was a profoundly moving
> experience.
Yes...you don't see so many numbered tattoos anymore, but when you do, it is sobering.
This is a wonderful story, catnip...I am so glad you were able to talk to her in Ladino. That must have seemed like a near-miracle to her...a bit of "home" to feel "at home" again.
I don't know if you know it, but Spain, Portugal, and Germany are all offering inducements to Jews/Israelis to come to their countries for university, and also to immigrate if they wish to (with Spanish or Portuguese citizenship offered to those who want to take advantage of the offer; I don't know what the requirements are for Israelis who might want to take out German citizenship).
At least some Sephardim are "going home" to the Iberian Peninsula, and evidently, a VERY great number of Jews/Israelis are going to Germany for school, and then staying there because the financial and professional opportunities in Germany are so much more bountiful than they are in Israel. On the surface, this seems really weird, but it IS what is going on.
And although Ladino had a dip in numbers of world speakers for at least a century (and maybe more; I don't know the historical stats from the Expulsion forward), Ladino speakers may soon be able to boast of Yiddish-at-its-height population numbers.
Thanks for this, catnip...this is a REALLY good post, all the way around!!!
:) :) :)
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/2016 11:01PM by Tevai.