Hebrew speakers know the difference between ayin and aleph in writing, even though many people pronounce them identically. I believe the way to proceed is to convert each Hebrew phoneme into a separate and different Latin letter. This pressure comes from those involved with tourism and transportation. We've been under a great deal of pressure to introduce a standard for converting Hebrew words into English. THE ACADEMY for the Hebrew Language, of which I am a member, is now addressing the problem of Latin transliterations of Hebrew signpost names. Latin characters that do not identify an individual Hebrew phoneme - that is, a unit of a sound in a language - with a unique transliterated letter do not help non-Hebrew readers, and are actually confusing to those who have some command of Hebrew. Certain words need to be transliterated with a "K" and others "Q," - for instance, "Ksalon," but not "Qoranit." This is a strong reason why the Latin characters of Hebrew words should be accurately written and clearly represent the Hebrew original.įor example, Hebrew has two letters for the "K" sound. Others are foreign workers or members of the diplomatic corps.įor some, Latin transliterations offer a "moment of Hebrew" which helps non-Hebrew readers make some connection between the Hebrew and English alphabet. Some of them are newcomers, others veteran immigrants who came as adults and haven't perfected their Hebrew. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis look at signposts and see the Latin characters first, even if many of them know some Hebrew. It's not easy to guess the proper pronunciation of any foreign language.īut signs of this sort are not intended for foreign tourists alone. Those who don't read Hebrew can't easily figure out how to pronounce place names simply by reading the Latin transliterations. The English signs - meaning those written in Latin characters - are not translations of the Hebrew, but transliterations. (function (a, d, o, r, i, c, u, p, w, m) ` (script) Īnyone who lives in Israel or has visited knows that many, perhaps most, road signs are written in both Hebrew and English (and often in Arabic as well). Rendering Hebrew into English? Make it simple - The Jerusalem Post
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