Arabic as a springboard to learning Hebrew

One might ask why someone who spent so many years (really, decades) studying Arabic would suddenly switch to Hebrew. In my own personal case, it was not so much a sudden shift for me, as Hebrew had long been a “back-burner” language that I wanted to study.

Originally, I sought to read the Old Testament in its original language because I learned that if one does that, then one discovers that Moses did not part the Red Sea but rather “the sea of reeds” in the original Hebrew. (Note: If you are not sure what we are talking about, keep on reading – you will get the answer at the end of this article).

The other pressing reason for me was that when I was in the first-ever M.A. program for Arabic in the first cohort, the then-Director of the program told us that by the time we finished the program in four summers, there would be a Doctorate of Modern Languages (DML) program for Arabic that we could apply for.

Reginald Hefner

Reginald Hefner is a multilingual language nerd. He has a BA degree in Russian, Chinese, French, and Spanish and a MA degree in Arabic from Middlebury College. Besides, he has an excellent command of Chinese and Japanese. He is currently working as an Arabic instructor at York College in Pennsylvania.

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That did not turn out to be the case, so I looked at the requirements for Ph.D. programs in various U.S. universities and most of them indicated that one had to also know at least one other Semitic language, preferably Modern Hebrew, to at least an Intermediate High level of proficiency. So, I originally intended to only study Modern Hebrew for one summer in the Middlebury College Intensive Summer Immersion program.

I had such a great experience during that summer, in which there were only 50 students in total in all levels of the Hebrew School, that I came back for a second summer, where I tested into Level 3 (of 5 total levels then) completely leaping over Level 2. This success prompted me to return for yet a third summer to the Hebrew School, in which I tested into the Level 3.5 Broadcast and Print Journalistic Hebrew, taught by an actual Israeli journalist who had also written for a number of U.S. publications.

During the third summer, I also had the opportunity to participate in some co-curricular activities with some Hebrew professors from Cambridge and Oxford and from Paris. I also simply like learning different foreign languages and thought a knowledge of Hebrew would be useful even later if I continued with Arabic, as it would help me to understand the development of Semitic languages generally.

Why Picking Up Hebrew is Easy When You Know Arabic: The Semitic Language Family

Those who know Arabic or have studied Arabic before have an advantage if they ever want to learn either Modern Hebrew (עִבְרִית חֲדָשָׁה) or Biblical Hebrew (עִבְרִית מִקְרָאִית); the reverse is also true. The reason that Arabic can be used to accelerate one's learning and acquisition of Hebrew is that both Arabic and Hebrew are members of the Semitic Language Family.

The word Semitic is derived from the name of one of Noah's sons in the Old Testament/Torah: Shem (שֵׁם). In fact, there is a branch of knowledge called Semitics, in which one can earn advanced degrees by learning two or more Modern Semitic languages and various combinations of ancient Semitic languages. This is possible because the Semitic languages share some basic common characteristics.

• History

Why is Arabic called a Semitic language?

The term Semitic Language was invented by a German scholar in 1781: August Ludwig von Schlözer.

byGerald Drißner

2 minute read

What are the main characteristics of the Semitic Family of Languages?

In broad strokes, the general characteristics of Semitic languages are, as follows¹:

1. Guttural sounds (i.e. sounds made in the back of the throat)
2. Three root letters for most verbs and nouns, though some older ones only have two
3. Meaning is derived from various forms and patterns within these forms
4. Pronoun suffixes to nouns, verbs, and prepositions
5. Common basic vocabulary: yd (hand), ktb (write), etc. So for hand, we have: يَد – יָד, both pronounced “yad“. For to write, we get: كَتَبَ – כָּתַב, pronounced: “katav” and “kataba” respectively.

What are the branches of the Semitic Family of Languages?

The Semitic Family of Languages is broadly divided into an Eastern branch, consisting of languages such as Akkadian — with its dialects Assyrian and Babylonian — and a Western branch (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Phoenician).

Akkadian, one of the earliest known Semitic languages, has been documented in writing dating as far back as the 24th century B.C. While not the oldest written language, Akkadian is significant in ancient Near Eastern history. The oldest confirmed writing system is Sumerian cuneiform, with inscriptions that predate both Chinese script and Akkadian.

As far as the earliest known Hebrew inscriptions are concerned, texts such as the Gezer calendar suggest that proto-Hebrew was in use during the 10th century B.C. Nonetheless, this does not position Hebrew as the world's oldest language as claimed by some. Modern Hebrew script owes its form to the influence of the Aramaic script, particularly following the Babylonian exile.

The Western branch of the Semitic Family of Languages is subdivided into a Northwest Group and a Southwest Group. The Northwest Group includes Ugaritic², Canaanite-Phoenician, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Aramaic is further divided into Western Aramaic (which includes Biblical Aramaic³ and Samaritan dialects) and Eastern Aramaic (including various Judeo-Aramaic dialects and Syriac). The Southwest Group of the Western branch of the Semitic Family of Languages comprises the Ethio-Semitic languages such as Ge'ez (classical Ethiopic), its modern counterparts Amharic, Tigre, and Tigrinya, as well as Arabic in all its forms: Classical, Quranic, Modern Standard Arabic, and all its dialects. Additionally, Maltese⁴, which developed from an Arabic dialect, is now an independent language with a significant lexical borrowing from Italian and English.

Note: If you know a lot about languages, you might not agree with everything I wrote here. To get the latest and most correct information on the categorization of languages, look at fresh research. What we know about languages can update when new studies or findings come out.

How to use Arabic as a springboard to (Modern) Hebrew

All of that is the theoretical foundation that enables one to use one Semitic language, like Arabic, as a springboard to learn and acquire another Semitic language like Modern Hebrew⁵. So, let's look at some specifics now.

Since I am presuming that those reading this do not know Hebrew script, I also write Hebrew in a simplified form of transliteration. For those who are interested in Biblical Hebrew⁶, I would suggest learning Modern Hebrew first, as this will help you learn Biblical Hebrew even faster, though there are some grammatical differences, and some of the vocabulary has since acquired quite different meanings. For example, the Biblical word for a halo around an angel's head now means “electricity” in Modern Hebrew.⁷

Arabic can even help those who might be interested in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs⁸. For example, the Egyptian symbol for “T” depicting a loaf is used in nearly the same way as the Tā' marbūta (تاء مربوطة) in Arabic.⁹

Let's look at some specific examples now from writing:

• Hebrew, like Arabic, is written from right to left.
• Hebrew, like Arabic, usually writes only consonants and long vowels, though, again like Arabic, certain types of texts can indicate the short vowels as well. For example, vowels are usually indicated in religious texts (except handwritten scrolls), children's books, and texts for foreigners; they can also be used to disambiguate some words that can be read two ways, depending on the vowels, similar to min (מִן) in Hebrew and man (مَنْ) in Arabic, which mean from and who, respectively. Most of the time, native speakers can deduce the correct vowel from context.

Comparison of the Arabic and Hebrew Alphabet

The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 consonant letters, four of which can also function as vowels.

Interestingly, some Hebrew letters change their appearance when placed in a final position: there are precisely five such letters that exhibit this morphological change.

This characteristic differs from Arabic, where letters can adopt up to three distinct forms in addition to their standalone shape. Consequently, foreign students learning Arabic must be aware of potentially over 112 letter formations, considering the various contexts within words.

Furthermore, Arabic utilizes crucial non-alphabetical symbols for writing, such as the Tā' marbūṭa (تاء مربوطة) and the Hamza (ء). These symbols often present an extra layer of complexity for beginners studying the language.

Modern Hebrew has only five distinct vowel sounds; however, the written system uses 15 different marks to denote vowels, reflecting an older Hebrew pronunciation that experiences notable shifts, especially when followed by guttural consonants. Some of these Hebrew consonants have archaic pronunciations that resemble the contemporary sounds of certain Arabic letters, like Ṣād (ص) or ‘Ayn (ع).

Moreover, Aleph, the inaugural letter of the Hebrew alphabet, shares a similarity with the Arabic Alif. In both languages, this letter frequently acts merely as a supporting structure to indicate the associated vowel sound¹⁰.

How to convert Arabic letters to Hebrew letters

Creating a perfectly matched table of Arabic and Hebrew letters is challenging, as the two alphabets do not correlate one-to-one in terms of phonetics or character representations. The following table should therefore only be seen as an aid, as there are always exceptions.

Regarding the word dagesh (דָּגֵשׁ): The pronunciation changes in Hebrew depending on the position in a word. The “dagesh” in Hebrew refers to a diacritical mark indicating a modification in the way a consonantal letter is pronounced, often doubling the consonant sound or changing its articulation. In certain letters, known as “Beged Kefet,” a dagesh can also signify a shift between a plosive and a fricative sound, as seen in the difference between “bet” (בּ) with a dagesh, pronounced as [b], and “vet” (ב) without a dagesh, pronounced as [v].

Some similarities between Arabic and Hebrew

I would like to turn now to two other areas that show how Arabic can be used as a springboard for learning Hebrew and vice versa for Arabic, mutatis mutandis. Of course, this is meant to be a general overview, not an exhaustive detailing of every possibility, and it must be stated that these are just my own personal observations. The first of the two additional areas is the similarity between the Past Tense in Arabic and Modern Hebrew. I shall illustrate this using the verb “to read” in Hebrew¹¹:

Past Tense Conjugation of “Likro” (לקרוא – to read)

Note: The third-person feminine plural form in Hebrew is not commonly used in Modern Hebrew and can be considered archaic. In cases where it is used, it would typically be “Kar'au” (קָרְאוּ) like the masculine form.

➤ Those who know Arabic can readily see that the suffixed forms for the Modern Hebrew past tense verb forms closely resemble the suffixed forms used in the past tense (sometimes called perfect) of Arabic.

Similarly, we can see the same phenomenon in the Modern Hebrew future tense forms, except they will resemble the prefixes and suffixes used in the present tense of Arabic, and there is no سَ- prefix or word equivalent to سَوفَ in Hebrew. Let's look at the verb “to read” again, but in the future tense in Hebrew:

Future Tense Conjugation of “Likro” (לקרוא – to read)

Here's a simpler version of the provided content:

Understanding personal pronouns can be tricky. But if you already speak Arabic, learning Hebrew pronouns is much easier and faster.

The pronouns

If we compare the pronouns in Arabic and Hebrew (Modern Hebrew), we can observe many similarities. But not only that.

One noteworthy example is that in Modern Hebrew the word for you (masculine) is ‘attah (אַתָּה), but in its written form in Modern Hebrew, a small dot called dagesh is inserted in the letter for t (תָּ), which indicates an ancient “n” sound that has dropped out.

So, at some point in the past, the word in Hebrew was “‘anta” rather than its modern equivalent ‘attah (אַתָּה).

Please note that in Hebrew, the dual form is not commonly used as a part of modern pronouns and thus has no equivalent to the Arabic dual forms listed here.

How to understand Hebrew words with Arabic knowledge – some examples

Now let's look at a few words that we can understand even without knowing Hebrew if we convert the letters.

Now one question remains to be answered: What is it about Moses and the Red Sea in the Old Testament?

Did Moses really part the Red Sea in the original Hebrew text?

In the original Hebrew, the event of Moses parting the Red Sea is referred to as “Kriyat Yam Suf” (קְרִיעַת יַם סוּף). Let's delve into the significance of this episode:

Kriyat Yam Suf (קְרִיעַת יַם סוּף) translates to “parting of the sea of reeds“. It is a pivotal moment in the origin myth of The Exodus as recounted in the Hebrew Bible. Here are the key details:

• Context: After the Plagues of Egypt, the Pharaoh agrees to let the Israelites go. Led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, they travel from Rameses to Succoth and then to Etham on the edge of the desert.
• Location: God instructs Moses to camp by the sea at Pi-Hahiroth (פִּי הַחִירֹת), between Migdol (מִגְדּוֹל) and the sea, directly opposite Baal-Zephon (בַּעַל צְפוֹן).
• Miracle: When the pursuing Egyptian army approaches, the pillar of fire and cloud separates the Israelites and the Egyptians. At God's command, Moses holds out his staff over the water, and the waters part. The Israelites walk through on dry land with walls of water on either side.
• Destruction of the Egyptians: The Egyptians pursue them, but at daybreak, God “made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving,” throwing them into panic. As the water returns, the entire Egyptian army is destroyed.
• Song of Praise: Witnessing God's power, the Israelites put their faith in God and Moses, singing the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:1-21), which includes the line, “Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song unto the Lord, and spoke, saying: ‘I will sing unto the Lord, for He is highly exalted; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.'” (Exodus 15:1).

Footnotes

1. Mansoor, Menahem. Biblical Hebrew: Step by Step Vol. 1. 2d Edition. (Baker Book House: Michigan). 1980. Pp. 6-11. ↩︎
2. Williams, Michael. Basics of Ancient Ugaritic: A Concise Grammar, Workbook and Lexicon. (Zondervan: Michigan),2012. On p. 106, there is an interesting comparative Semitic Consonant Chart for the Semitic languages: Ugaritic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Akkadian, if interested. ↩︎
3. Van Pelt, Miles V. Basics of Biblical Aramaic. (Zondervan: Michigan). 1969. Vance, Donald et al. Biblical Aramaic: A Reader and Handbook. (Hendrikson: MA.) 2016. is also useful as it examines every instance of Aramaic appearing in the Old Testament/Torah with explanatory notes on grammar and vocabulary.  ↩︎
4. Aquilina, Joseph. Teach Yourself Maltese: A Complete Course for Beginners (Hodder and Stoughton: Great Britain), 1965. ↩︎
5. Ringvald, Vardit. Brandeis Modern Hebrew. (University Press of New England: MA.). 2005. This text has become the dominant textbook for teaching Elementary Modern Hebrew in the United States. Middlebury College, for example, uses this text in its Summer Intensive Level 1 program, which usually finishes the text by the end of the seven-week program. Those who later test into Level 2 used a field edition of a follow-on text supplemented by other authentic sources of various types. ↩︎
6. Carasik, Michael. Biblical Hebrew: Learning a Sacred Language. (The Great Courses: VA.). 2018. (includes DVD with option for streaming service as well with the author teaching on the DVDs).  ↩︎
7. Glinert. Lewis. Modern Hebrew: An Essential Grammar. (Routledge: New York). 1991. ↩︎
8. Brier, Bob. Decoding the Secrets of Egyptian Hieroglyphs (The Great Courses: VA.). 2016 (includes DVD with option for streaming service as well with the author teaching on the DVDs). ↩︎
9. Brustad, Kristen et al. Al Kitaab fee Ta cAllum Al-cArabiyya: A Textbook for Beginningg Arabic. Vol. I, II, & III Third Edition. (Georgetown University Press: Washington, D.C.). 2013. This has become the dominant tectbook for teaching Arabic in the United States. It follows a book entitled Alif Baa, which teaches Arabic script, both printed and cursive along with basic vocabulary and cultural points. Volume III of the series is not so common as Volumes II and III; even at Middlebury College, where it used to be used regulary, it is not used so much any more. Nonetheless, for those who are persistent with Arabic studies, it is a worthwhile investment to obtain Volume III in the series.The third edition of Volume I and Volume II also contains segments on Egyptian dialect and Levantine/Syrian dialect. The University of Texas at Austin used the same format and developed an online version of these segments for Moroccan dialect as well. The thrust of the volumes remains learning to use MSA, however. ↩︎
10.  Etzion, Giore. The Routledge Introductory Course in Modern Hebrew. (Routledge: New York). 2009. pp. 2-10.  ↩︎
11. I deliberately stated Past Tense in Modern Hebrew because in Biblical Hebrew a construction is used in which the letter Vav prefixed to the imperfect forms of Hebrew verbs to form a narrated past tense form.Page, Kelly H. Biblical Hebrew: An Introductory Grammar. (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.: Michigan), p. 145. ↩︎