The Masoretic Accents Can Help with Reading Fluency for Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic Students

[@manassehmarcas3965]

Thank you

[@rarapope]

Thank you. It is a very interesting theme.

[@MrMNadeau]

Thank you for freely sharing your resources for learning Biblical Hebrew. I am new to learning Hebrew, just getting started, and your presentation in this video made me feel learning Biblical Hebrew an attainable goal. Baruch Hashem.

[@_SYDNA_]

As someone just starting it's helpful just to know that when I am looking at these word examples that are plastered with markings - well past the shva and vowel marks - that these aren't all about pronunciation. Some are about cadence or identifying how sentences break out.

[@felishiafreddy8346]

שבת שלום ברוך השם

[@felishiafreddy8346]

We are from Horeb biblical Hebrew school in India🎉

[@rimonarmaly1950]

Great video, Doug! Thanks for making this great video on the Hebrew accents.

[@studyingthebiblicallanguages]

Thanks for the feedback, Rimon! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@estakass1482]

When I studied for my Bat Mitzvah in 1965, the cantor made a record of my Maftir and I was told to learn by imitation as well as by reading along with my text which included Nikkudot. I always thought we should have learned the cartílago marks for chanting. Thirty years later when I was helping kids prepare for Bar and Bat Mitzvah, I borrowed a book from the canter in which the accent were explained. I found it interesting but basically not practical for Bat and Bar Mitzvah study. Imitation turned out to be a lot easier for the thirteen year olds. I imagine that your audience is biblical scholars and that changed everything.

[@studyingthebiblicallanguages]

Thanks for sharing! Yes, my audience is primarily biblical scholars and those studying the biblical languages as parts of degree programs or for personal enrichment. Certainly the idea of hearing/imitating is extremely easier than learning to read symbols, just as in music education, the consensus is that one hear music before seeing it. One of the challenges with those with my background (and many in my audience) is that the idea and experience of cantillation with the biblical text is completely foreign to us at first! That is a huge advantage to have heard and imitated the phrasing and sounds!

[@1ugh1]

I am sorry but I just don't get it, are you saying that modern hebrew tanakh with nikud are not accurate? If that is NOT what you are saying then if it is an issue of reading fluency then why not just learn Hebrew naturally with modern nikud? You mentioned the singing, but that is not for reading fluency.

[@studyingthebiblicallanguages]

Thanks for watching! I'm not saying that the Tanakh with nikud are inaccurate at all. I find the whole masoretic system fascinating and am so glad that they preserved the reading tradition found with the vowels via the nikud. I have just found that the accents have a side benefit, just as many of our activities are multi-purpose (e.g., if I take a walk for fresh air I'm also getting a change of scenery for my mind and exercise for my heart and legs). As a musician, I find that there is much overlap between singing and reading, especially in how we group words into phrases. When we are able to read in larger chunks than words and group those words together appropriately into sense units -- as I believe the masoretic accents do and can thus give us a "head start" for -- we are reaping multiple benefits simultaneously (while still making use of the nikud as well).

[@dustinburlet7249]

Fantastic video - we require Futato's work in our Hebrew class and I am working on a series of articles on the accents - fantastic video - well done!

[@studyingthebiblicallanguages]

That is great! Your students are blessed!

[@tsukareppi]

Thank you so much for spotlighting this. My intro to Biblical Hebrew course did not cover any of these, and I'm trying to pick them up. I also appreciate the resources you mentioned. I know this is for teaching the accents, but this is helpful to me as a student as well!

[@studyingthebiblicallanguages]

Thanks for this feedback! So glad you have found it useful as a student and that it's helping to fill a gap!

[@tsukareppi]

@@studyingthebiblicallanguages Most definitely! My course this fall is just now covering the accents, and I have found myself swamped, with no idea how to go about studying them. This was very helpful, as was your article with the charts!