Biblical Hebrew

I am fascinated by the morphology of Semitic languages and have decided to learn Biblical Hebrew from a linguistic perspective.

Pronunciation

It's a dead language, so we can't ask a native speaker about the phonetic values. Actually even Jewish people around the world pronounce Biblical Hebrew differently. So I'll take the easy way out and read it as how Modern Hebrew is pronounced.

If you'd like to take a pronunciation reconstructed by linguists that is considered the closest to the original pronunciation of Jewish people in the 1st century, my references on the orthography and pronunciation are:

• Abjad (the consonant letters): Biblical Hebrew Orthography on Wikipedia
• Niqqud (the vowel points & misc): Niqqud Chart on Wikipedia
• Do the phonetic differences between vowel categories really exist, or are they purely grammatical?

Inflection

Like in other Semitic languages, many Hebrew words are built off a tri-consonantal root with various affixes and niqquds inserted between the consonants. The consonants in the root are called radicals. The root is the core of the word and carries the basic meaning, while the affixes and niqquds are used to reflect grammatical categories. Each "root + affix + niqqud" combination is called a form.

It's a very complicated yet interesting morphosyntax system, isn't it? 😆