Can't wait for Hebrew Pronunciation Addin?

If, like me, you're one of the people waiting for the Hebrew Pronunciation Addin (currently under development; no estimated ship date yet), you might be interested in another resource I just discovered that has some real Hebrew pronunciation in it (not the computerized read aloud feature which doesn't work):

The First Hebrew Primer: Textbook, Answer Book & Audio Companion

You can click on the asterisk beside any of the exercises and vocabulary lists, and a real human being will read it aloud to you. It also contains the entire book of Ruth (as part of some of the more advanced exercises towards the end).

There's a man and woman who alternate different parts of the book. I like the man's pronunciation better. Hers is OK, but his sounds more fluent.

[View:http://content.screencast.com/users/rosiep/folders/Default/media/43d45804-571e-42c3-a919-2b066ec63fea/First Hebrew Primer_controller.swf:640:498]

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Robert Pavich

Thanks Rosie, I had forgotten about that one...it's going on my wish list!

JimTowler

Hi Rosie,

Given that you are compairing the male and female speakers, I guess you have this resource.

Does the audio part work in Logos4, or are we still waiting for a later module to be completed?

If no audio yet, does any part of the resource work in a useful way in Logos4?

Can it be used to "look up" how to say something, or is it mostly limited to its face-value function of being a training manual/textbook?

For me, I had mostly decided that it would be too hard to learn useful amounts of both Hebrew and Greek, so had decided to focus on Greek only. Due to the Library package and upgrades I purchases, I now have a significant number of Greek resources. But also some Hebrew, but I really can't get into them without somewhere to start. Is this Primer the missing-link I need? (Its not cheap, from my point of view, once I have to convert it to local currency.)

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/124904#Comment_124904

Does the audio part work in Logos4, or are we still waiting for a later module to be completed?

Yes. Did you watch the video I posted above? It is clearly made in Logos 4, and you can hear how the voices sound.

Can it be used to "look up" how to say something, or is it mostly limited to its face-value function of being a training manual/textbook?

No. It's just for listening to how the text in the textbook is pronounced.

Is this Primer the missing-link I need?

I don't know if I can answer that for you. If you're not wanting to spend time to learn some Hebrew now, I'd suggest you focus on Greek as you'd planned. This suggestion was primarily for people who are wanting to learn some Hebrew now. I haven't taken the time to review much of this primer, but it looks pretty good. It says it is "THE ADULT BEGINNER’S PATH TO BIBLICAL HEBREW" and it gets a rating of 4.5 stars on Amazon -- you could read some of the reviews there to see if you think it would be right for you.

JimTowler

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/125147#Comment_125147

Did you watch the video I posted above?

Thanks Rosie,

No - I had not tried to load the video. I have got used to 30-second videos taking 15 minutes to download, so tend not to click such things. Well, just now I did, and it played just fine, with no delays to speak of.

You're right, its clearly running in Logos4. I would have known that if I ran the video.

I just took another look at the prices, and its "expensive", but only $10 less than retail price. That makes it easy: I won't buy it, and get it another day if i still want it, and too bad about the $10.

For now, Greek is hard enough, and it kind-of looks and sounds like English. Hebrew seems very different, by a whole order of "hard".

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/125365#Comment_125365

For now, Greek is hard enough, and it kind-of looks and sounds like English. Hebrew seems very different, by a whole order of "hard".

My view based on years of Sanskrit. Sanskrit makes Greek look easy. Greek makes Latin look easy. Hebrew makes Chinese, Tibetan, Tamil et. al. look easy. You wouldn't enjoy my description of identifying the #$%~))"><? tri-letter root. Once I can really do that Hebrew will be fine. Note: Sanskrit dictionaries are organized around roots and the concept "word" has no meaning ... and I still can't find the magic of Hebrew roots.[:'(]

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/125715#Comment_125715

For now, Greek is hard enough, and it kind-of looks and sounds like English. Hebrew seems very different, by a whole order of "hard".

My view based on years of Sanskrit. Sanskrit makes Greek look easy. Greek makes Latin look easy. Hebrew makes Chinese, Tibetan, Tamil et. al. look easy. You wouldn't enjoy my description of identifying the #$%~))"><? tri-letter root. Once I can really do that Hebrew will be fine. Note: Sanskrit dictionaries are organized around roots and the concept "word" has no meaning ... and I still can't find the magic of Hebrew roots.

I loved Hebrew and found it easier than Greek. I dropped Greek after a semester and a B- or C+ in college. I took a year of Hebrew in grad school and got and A+ both semesters, the highest numeric score any student had ever gotten in that professor's Hebrew classes. Go figure. Maybe I was just more motivated to study in my 30s than I was at about age 19 or 20.

Amy Leung

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/125715#Comment_125715

My view based on years of Sanskrit. Sanskrit makes Greek look easy. Greek makes Latin look easy. Hebrew makes Chinese, Tibetan, Tamil et. al. look easy.

Despite being Chinese I find Chinese *difficult*. As a language I find Hebrew many times easier than Chinese, so go figure. [:P] I don't mean that Hebrew passages in the Bible are easy though, however the problem doesn't lie so much in the grammar and the vocabulary but more (IMHO) in semantics and meanings of words, idioms and figures that are lost through time.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/125731#Comment_125731

but more (IMHO) in semantics and meanings of words, idioms and figures that are lost through time.

You are actually quite right (after I can find the roots) that the semantics, idioms and figures are far more of a problem than grammar and vocabulary - especially for a text that has been studied so thoroughly and has so few parallel texts. It is so easy for resources to have an interpretative bias.