Learning Biblical Hebrew: Reading for Comprehension: An Introductory Grammar

Description

recommended by a grad student in Christendom College's theology graduate program

cf. this Anki deck: Hebrew Alphabet with vowels

What's the best way to learn a new language? By approaching it not as a series of facts to memorize but as something alive, with a personality you can get to know and tendencies you can sometimes predict. Designed for long-term retention, Learning Biblical Hebrew focuses on helping students understand how the Hebrew language works and providing a solid grounding in Hebrew through extensive reading in the biblical text.

Features:· Introduces advanced concepts in a form accessible to beginning students.· Focuses on historic patterns and changes that minimize memorization.· Focuses on how the language works for long-term retention.· Encourages mastery of paradigms from a handful of representative forms.· Includes extensive translation from the third week of class.· Prepares students for translation of unedited biblical texts by the end of first semester.· Emphasizes reading comprehension rather than decoding.· Promotes a strong oral component to enhance language competence.

Written for first-year and second-year Hebrew students, grammar is laid out to present comprehensive concepts to first-year students and then to aid in review and deeper understanding for second-year students. Though written for Hebrew competency, Learning Biblical Hebrew is also well-suited for students with different learning styles and objectives.

The Hebrew alphabet

Hebrew vowels

Syllables and reading Hebrew

Gender and number, definite article and conjunction

Vowel changes in Hebrew nouns

Noun and adjective function

Constructs, directional ending, prepositions, and interrogatives

Pronominal suffixes and review of definiteness

Learning to read intuitively: common patterns in Hebrew nouns

Numbers

Introduction to Hebrew verbs

Vowel changes in verbs

Qal perfects

Qal imperfects

Qal volitionals

Qal participles and infinitives

Qal Waw consecutives

Niphal

Piel, Pual, and Hithpael

Hiphil and Hophal

Rare verb stems

Verbs with object suffixes

Irregular features with object suffixes

Hebrew weak verbs

III-Waw/Yod verbs

I-Waw/Yod verbs

II-Waw/Yod verbs: introduction and Qal stem

II-Waw/Yod verbs: Niphal-Hophal stems

Geminate verbs

I-Nun verbs

I-Guttural verbs

II-Guttural verbs

III-Guttural and III-Aleph verbs

Appendix 1: Introduction to the Hebrew Bible

Appendix 2: Hebrew accents

Appendix 3: How to create a grammatical diagram

Appendix 4: How to create a thematic outline

Appendix 5: Transliteration

Appendix 6: Verb paradigms