Ancient Hebrew Language and Alphabet

Ancient Hebrew Language and Alphabet
Three - Reconstructing the
Original Hebrew Alphabet
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The Ancient Hebrew letters form the foundation to the
Ancient Hebrew language and a thorough study of these
letters is essential to understanding the cultural
background to the words they form. The process of
reconstructing the original Hebrew alphabet is similar to
the field of archeology, which digs down to hidden depths
to determine the origins, culture or way of life of Ancient
civilizations. As artifacts are found, they are compared to
artifacts of other cultures and other time periods to
determine the distinctive characteristics of the culture and
civilization. When studying Ancient alphabets, one digs
down into the depths of time and compares the artifacts of
pictographic and non-pictographic scripts to determine
dates, meaning and sound.
Letter Characteristics
We usually associate two characteristics for each letter, a
form and a sound, as in the first letter of our alphabet
whose form is "A" and has the sound "a". The Ancient
Hebrew alphabet has four characteristics: form, sound,
name and meaning.
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