Hebrew developed more vowels over time. Arabic also has more vowels in the spoken dialects, they just aren't usually written. Perhaps you should spend some time reading in the history of Hebrew, as that would answer your question.
Kevin Riley On 3/05/2011 9:06 AM, Joseph Roberts wrote: > After looking at the vowel system of Hebrew, I was curious if its uses > of so many vowels was artificial and rise from a liturgical use or is > that how it was originally spoken. I have seen similarities between > Hebrew and Arabic. Arabic of course has a Dhama which makes the "u" > sound, a Kasra which makes a "i" sound and a Fatah which makes an "a" > sound. These are considered short vowels and they have corresponding > long vowels which seem to just lengthen the time that one makes the > vowel sound. Did Hebrew originally function like this? is the Cholem a > later invention? It just seems like there are a lot of sounds that are > not present in other semitic languages that i am familiar with. > > Joseph Roberts > _______________________________________________ > b-hebrew mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew > > > _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
