Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niqqud> has a good explanation. Bottom line? Interpreting the Biblical Hebrew (as contrasted from paleo- or ancient Hebrew) without a knowledge of the vowel points would be, at the very least, very difficult.
Cheers, _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of hebrewsister Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2010 8:49 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ancient_hebrew] Vowel Mark Question, How How necessary is it really? I was wondering how necessary is it to know the vowel marks under the letters if it is a new thing? Is it possible to learn to read Hebrew without them? I mean, How did they learn it before? Bayadwa
