Proposal 1.2

You can also read this proposal in Hebrew and in Hebrish.

Introduction

There is a need for a standardized representation of Hebrew using the Latin alphabet as represented in ASCII for computer use. The purpose of this representation is to allow a quick and easy means of writing and reading messages on computers (primarily for informal communication) as well as a possible use for file naming (e.g. mp3s). This representation does not have to accurately mirror Hebrew spelling and, in fact, would probably benefit by being simpler and more legible, if it didn't.

Over time, many people have come up with different ways of writing Hebrew with ASCII letters but there has never been a standard method of doing so, hampering widespread use.

There is a need for such a representation inspite of the apparent solutions of Unicode and multi-language text editor programs that allow the use of the Hebrew alphabet. The reasons are varied, a smattering of which is:

• Hebrew is written from right to left, causing many formatting problems when mixed with a left to right language, or more importantly, with numbers. There is no fool proof way to implement a mixed direction text editor and there will always be pitfalls and annoyances. This fact will also always delay introduction of Hebrew to new products.
• lack of widespread Hebrew support on many platforms. You might have Hebrew on your home computer but how will you write home while travelling through the far east? How do you write SMS messages using Hebrew? Unicode (which is an ugly solution) is not supported by many platforms and will not be for the foreseeable future. Anyway, even if you do find such a computer one doubts you would be able to find a Hebrew labelled keyboard.
• the dearth of support also creates portability issues for Hebrew. For instance, you may find it convenient to name your files in Hebrew on your Hebrew enabled computer but you will be unable to use those files on any other, non-Hebrew enabled, computer.
• a dearth of fonts ensures that even if your platform does support Unicode, chances are it does not have a Hebrew font installed and you will have to find and install one yourself. On the other hand, every computer on earth has ASCII characters (or their equivalents if the machine is particularly old).
• in the case of multi-language programs. Launching a full blown, over featured text editor every time you want to write a quick message, in Hebrew, to a chat partner or e-mail correspondent is slow and annoying. Also, both sides have to have the same software which probably uses proprietary formats not supported by any other vendor.
• it is very difficult to search Hebrew text on the internet.

ASCII Hebrew is not meant to replace Hebrew letters.

• simplification of writing and reading by elimination of like sounding letters (with which Hebrew is blessed), for example: and are represented by the letter X while and are represented by the letter K .This is allowable as Hebrish is meant for efficient casual communication and not for writing proper Hebrew.
• simplification of writing and reading through the use of vowels which do not exist in the Hebrew alphabet.
• elimination of those pesky dots and dashes under letters (Nikud)
• learning Hebrish should be easy for anyone who is familiar with Hebrew and with English spelling.

 

Letter assignments

There is only a partial correlation between Hebrew and Hebrish letters. The differences arise from the idiosyncrasies in the uses of the Hebrew letters , , , and from the use of vowels in Hebrish.

L			Q*
M			V
N			B
S			G
W			D
F			*
P			V
TS			Z
K			X
R			T
S			*
C			X
T			K

 

* - see the section titled Vowels Instead of 'Nikud'

Important features:

• C is used for (SH)
• X is used for (this was adopted from the similar sounding letter in the Cyrillic alphabet)
• Q is used for
• W is used for
• like sounding letters (C and K or C and S) or letter combinations (PH and F) are eliminated leaving only the simpler form (K, S and F, respectively).
• special forms of Hebrew letters at the end of a word () are completely ignored. Yet another simplification by elimination.

Vowels Instead of 'Nikud'

English spelling and thus Hebrish uses vowels for pronunciation instead of the Hebrew Nikud. With normal consonant sounds this is simple, as the following example with the letter illustrates:

Example	Hebrish	Hebrew
malka ()	MA
amra ()	M
mukar ()	MU
moxer ()	MO
menase ()	ME
mila ()	MI

Duplicate Nikud symbols (those denoting the same pronunciation) are not shown out of laziness (I'm sure you can figure them out). Naturally, such duplicate Nikud symbols are dropped (example: and ) as they are meaningless contrivances for the amusement of Hebrew language scholars and the torment of students on the eve of their matriculation exams.

Things get more complicated, though, when the letters , , , are considered. The following rules should be used:

Example Hebrish Hebrew hamara () HA huxax () HU homar () HO hedek () HE hika () HI	Example Hebrish Hebrew qamra/amra () QA/A qufnik/ufnik () QU/U qomer/omer () QO/O qeres/eres () QE/E qica/ica () QI/I
Example Hebrish Hebrew yarad () YA yuval () YU yored() YO yered () YE yisa () YI	Example Hebrish Hebrew vacti () VA uvxen () U volvo () VO vetek () VE vila () VI

Notes:

• can appear in two forms. Though the short form is tempting and sometimes more convenient, the long form is preferred in an effort to maintain consistent spelling. Problems arise using the short form when appears as a consonant after another consonant vowelized with a, resulting in double vowelization.Or when is vowelized with an a. For example: maamin, hacvaatit, kanaut and sinaa are far more legible when spelled maqamin, hacvaqatit, kanaqut and sinqa.
• and are ignored at the end of words. Conversely, is not.
• is marked with I when used as a vowel and with Y when used as a consonant.

Apostrophized Modifiers

Modifiers at the beginning of words pose a problem in English because they are strings of consonants without any vowels. The method of dealing with this in Hebrish is by writing the following equivalents:

Hebrish	Hebrew
C
KC
UXC
B
BA
HA
U
V
M
MI

Though not strictly necessary, separating modifiers from the the rest of the word with an apostrophe facilitates easier reading. An example:

 brecit bara qelohim qet hacamaim vqet haqarets 

Becomes more legible when written:

 b'recit bara qelohim qet ha'camaim v'qet ha'qarets

Example

The following passage is taken from the first chapter of "kufsa cxora", written by Amos Oz:

calom qalek. qim lo hicmadeta qet ha'mixtav ha'ze b'rega c'zihita qet ktav yadi wal ha'mawatafa, siman cha'sakranut xazaka qafilu min ha'sinqa. qo cha'sinqa celxa zkuka l'delek tari.

waxcav qata maxvir, mehadek k'minhagxa qet ha'lesatot ha'zeqeviyot celxa wad c'sfateixa newelamot pnima, v'mistawer wal ha'curot ha'qele kedey limtso ma qani rotsa mimxa, ma qani mewiza lirtsot, qaxrey cevaw canim cel ctika gmura beinenu.

v'ma c'qani rotsa c'tedaw hu c'boaz b'matsav lo tov. c'tawazor lo b'dxifut. bawali v'qani lo yexolim lawasot cum davar mi'pney c'hu nitek kol magaw, kamoxa.

waxcav toxal l'hafsik likro, v'lizrok qet ha'mixtav haze yacar qel tox ha'qec (mi'cum ma qani medama qotxa tamid b'tox xeder muarax, male sfarim, yocev levadxa leyad mixtava cxora v'mulxa ba'xalon mistarwim micorim reykim mexusim celeg lavan. micorim bli givwa, bli wets, celeg bohek v'tsaxyax. v'qec boweret ba'qax l'smolxa v'kos reika v'bakbuk rek wal ha'culxan ha'rek lefaneixa. kol ha'tmuna hi qetsli b'caxor-lavan. v'gam qata; neziri, mesugaf, gavoha, v'kulxa b'caxor-lavan).

qata mekamet karegaw qet ha'mixtav ha'ze, polet himhum mha'sug ha'briti, v'kolewa b'daikanot qel ha'qec: ki ma qeixpat lexa boaz. u'milvad zot, ha'lo qeinxa maamin l'af mila celi. hine qata nowets et weineixa ba'ec ha'mehavhevet v'omer l'watsmexa: cuv hi menasa lawavod walay. ha'nekeva ha'zot lo tevater v'lo titen menuxa.

uvxen lama li lixtov qeleixa?

m'rov yequc, qalek. vl'winyanei yequc ha'lo qata mumxe wolami. (ken, vadai c'karati - kmo kol ha'wolam - et sifrexa "ha'qalimut ha'noqecet - mexkar b'kanaqut hacvaqatit") , qaval qani lo mitkavenet waxcav lesaper c'nicmatxa kurtsa mi'meno: yequc kafu. yequc qarkti.

Comments

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