Sunday, February 3, 2008

Photo of the Day


Masada





This photo was taken from the top of Masada.

Hebrew Aleph-Bet

Rather than an alphabet, Hebrew has an Aleph-Bet, so named from from its first two letters.
 Alef:                 א
Bet/Vet:           ב
Gimel:               ג
Dalet:                ד
Hay:                  ה
Vav:                   ו
Zayin:                ז
Khet:                 ח
Tet:                   ט
Yod:                   י
Kaf/Khaf:         כ
Khaf sofit:         ך
Lamed:             ל
Mem:                מ
Mem sofit:        ם
Nun:                   נ
Nun sofit:           ן
Samekh:            ס
Ayin:                  ע
Pay/Fay:           פ
Fay sofit:           ף
Tzadee:              צ
Tzadee sofit:     ץ
Kof:                   ק
Resh:                 ר
Shin/Sin:          ש
Tav:                  ת

Explaining this whole thing

I've had a fascination with words and languages for as long as I can remember. I revel in the sound of a word as it rolls off my tongue, the artistry of the letters as they appear under my pen, the unending similarities and differences between the vocabularies of languages world-wide, the subtle inflections and inferences of vernacular speech, the etymology of my mother tongue - English. 
This blog will record my amateur attempts to learn something about the languages that most intrigue me. At the present, these include:

Hebrew
French
Spanish
Arabic
Latin
Greek
Gaelic
Farsi
Portugese
Italian
Russian