Hebrew Orthography Research Articles

Babylonian Physiognomic Omens in Cryptic Hebrew Orthography

Babylonian Physiognomic Omens in Cryptic Hebrew Orthography

Motion and Memory in VR: The Influence of VR Control Method on Memorization of Foreign Language Orthography

A small-scale investigation of 22 first-time VR users was conducted to determine the extent to which different control methods (“Touch Mode” and “Point Mode”) influenced participants’ ability to memorize the educational content (Hebrew orthography) in an original VR game. In Touch Mode, participants selected user interface (UI) elements by physically moving their hands (and upper bodies) toward targets in virtual space, whereas in Point Mode, participants could manipulate a virtual laser pointer with their wrists to select UI targets from a stationary position. The Point Mode control method required less time to learn on average than the Touch Mode with high-medium effect size (Cohen’s d = 0.76). Ultimately, the difference in post-test scores between Touch Mode users and Point Mode users was not statistically significant (p = .294). Thus, the increased bodily motion necessitated by Touch Mode did not have a significant influence on memory function as initially hypothesized.

Evaluating preschoolers’ references to characteristics of the Hebrew orthography via a computerized early spelling game

Abstract The current study evaluated how characteristics of Hebrew, a Semitic language with an abjad writing system, are manifested in Hebrew-speaking preschoolers’ play with a computerized spelling game adapted for Hebrew. The game words were of different lengths and structures so as to include the entire Hebrew alphabet and all the vowels (a, e, i, o, u) in all possible positions in the word (first, last, second). We analyzed the 18,720 spellings typed by 96 preschoolers aged 5;7 years (on average) who played the game during eight sessions (about 20 minutes per session) in one month. The study indicated a greater difficulty in spelling א, ה, ו, י letters as consonants than as vowels, and more success in spelling ב, כ, פ letters that are pronounced as stops, as compared to the same letters that are pronounced as spirants. The success in spelling consonants and consonant-vowel letters was identical. Within a word, there was greater success in spelling the first letter, than in spelling the last letter, and the second letter. The length of the word did not influence success in spelling the first, second, or last letter in the word. At the same time, spelling an entire shorter word was easier than spelling an entire longer word. Lastly, spelling of words to which children had more exposures was easier than spelling words with only a single exposure. The discussion focuses on the implications of the study and refers to the nature of appropriate literacy-oriented digital Hebrew games and activities with preschoolers.

Hebrew script for Jewish languages

Abstract That “script follows religion” is well known. Missionary activities by Christian, Manichaean and Islamic, and Buddhist and Hindu proselytizers brought literacy, in alphabetic, abjadic, and abugidic scripts respectively, to previously non-literate communities in Europe, Asia and Africa, and South and Southeast Asia respectively. Judaism, however, did not proselytize; instead, it “wandered,” bringing Jewish communities throughout Europe and a good part of Asia, to lands that were already literate thanks to those earlier missionaries. Jewish languages emerged when diaspora communities adopted vernaculars altered on the basis of the culture-languages Hebrew and Aramaic. Such communities treasured their Hebrew and Aramaic literacies and often wrote the vernaculars using Hebrew script. The Hebrew letters denote consonants only, but the Jewish languages usually have more than 22 consonants and a number of vowels. Medieval Hebrew scholars devised vowels marks, used almost exclusively in sacred texts, but most Jewish languages barely use them. Unlike the other missionary scripts, Hebrew-script orthographies were often influenced by the indigenous orthographies they encountered. Exploring those influences needs an abbreviated account of the development of Hebrew orthography from its second-millennium bce forebears. A few examples follow of the adaptations of Hebrew script to Jewish languages, and various commonalities are found among such adaptations that probably emerged independently with little contact between speakers of the various languages. The question arises as to whether similar divergences and commonalities are found in other scripts spread in Scriptural contexts. That they are generally not reflects the difference between scripts arriving in non-literate versus literate surroundings.

Semantic and syntactic constraints in resolving homography: a developmental study in Hebrew

Effects of semantic versus syntactic constraints on resolution of Hebrew heterophonic-homographic words were examined at three reading skill levels. Fourth-and sixth-grade students and a group of adults read aloud sentences containing two types of heterophonic-homographs: noun–noun (e.g., BYCH ביצה is read as beitsa ‘egg’ and bitsa ‘swamp’) and noun–verb (e.g., GZR גזר is read as gezer ‘carrot’ and gazar ‘(he) cut’). Dominant and less-dominant alternatives were identified for each homograph and the alternatives were embedded in two sentences biased semantically towards noun–noun homographs and syntactically towards noun–verb homograph. The reading accuracy and correction results clearly showed a greater effect for syntactic context than for semantic context. For noun–noun words, the dominance effect appeared among the three study groups, though accuracy of reading the less-dominant meaning increased with age, indicating greater reliance on context. For noun–verb words, a small difference between the two meanings was found in the younger group only. We concluded that in resolving Hebrew heterophonic-homographic words, syntactic constraints are sufficient for accurate reading while semantic information is less efficient. The results are discussed in the context of other languages and the unique typology of the Hebrew orthography.

Gutturals in General Israeli Hebrew

Abstract Modern Hebrew is written with the traditional Hebrew orthography, which contains several symbols that refer to guttural sounds. However, the pronunciations corresponding to these symbols in Modern Hebrew are not phonetically guttural. This paper is an exhaustive survey of these realizations. It shows that in many cases, there are reasons to think that even though no sound is produced, there is an underlying segment in the position of the historical guttural, and this segment behaves in a predictable manner. That said, alongside this general pattern, there are some effects related to historical gutturals that must be regarded as morpheme-specific, as well as some idiosyncrasies of the different original gutturals.

Morpho-Orthographic Processing in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Case of Hebrew Orthography

Objective: Most studies on word reading in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) focus on graphemic-phonemic decoding and the direct orthographic route. To extend the scope, we investigated morpho-orthographic identification beyond graphemic-phonemic abilities. Patients and Methods: The original study included 31 sixth-grade children with ASD and comparison groups of typically developing (TD) children: 23 age-matched children, 15 third-graders, and 17 second-graders. The groups were compared regarding reading of morphologically based Hebrew pointed pseudowords to examine graphemic-phonemic decoding, and unpointed pseudowords to test morpho-orthographic identification. To better focus on morpho-orthographic identification processes, we eventually included only children with a minimum threshold of ≥65% correct in reading pointed pseudowords, thereby excluding 11 children with ASD, 1 TD age-matched child, and 1 TD third-grader. Results: About half of the children with ASD eventually included were as accurate as the TD second-graders in reading unpointed pseudowords, and slow in reading both pointed and unpointed pseudowords. The other half were as accurate as their typical peers in reading unpointed pseudowords, but slightly slower. Conclusion: The results highlight the difficulties many Hebrew-reading children with ASD experience in using morpho-orthographic processes beyond their difficulties in using graphemic-phonemic processes, demonstrating effortful (slow) reading. While this study can be considered a pilot investigation, further studies are needed.

Cross-language semantic influences in different script bilinguals

The current study examined automatic activation and semantic influences from the non-target language of different-script bilinguals during visual word processing. Thirty-four Arabic–Hebrew bilinguals and 34 native Hebrew controls performed a semantic relatedness task on visually presented Hebrew word pairs. In one type of critical trials, cognate primes between Arabic and Hebrew preceded related Hebrew target words. In a second type, false-cognate primes preceded Hebrew targets related to the Arabic meaning (but not the Hebrew meaning) of the false-cognate. Although Hebrew orthography is a fully reliable cue of language membership, facilitation on cognate trials and interference on false-cognate trials were observed for Arabic–Hebrew bilinguals. The activation of the non-target language was sufficient to influence participants’ semantic decisions in the target language, demonstrating simultaneous activation of both languages even for different-script bilinguals in a single language context. To discuss the findings we refine existing models of bilingual processing to accommodate different-script bilinguals.

The Relations Between Early Working Memory Abilities and Later Developing Reading Skills: A Longitudinal Study From Kindergarten to Fifth Grade

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the relations of early working‐memory abilities (phonological and visual‐spatial short‐term memory [STM] and complex memory and episodic buffer memory) and later developing reading skills. Sixty Hebrew‐speaking children were followed from kindergarten through Grade 5. Working memory was tested in kindergarten and reading in Grades 1, 2, and 5. All memory measures, but phonological STM, correlated with reading up to Grade 5. Regression analyses (with intelligence quotient controlled) demonstrated that phonological complex memory predicted all reading skills in Grade 1, and accuracy in Grade 2. The rather understudied visual‐spatial memory predicted comprehension in Grades 2 (STM) and 5 (complex memory). The results point to an important role of the phonological complex memory in early assessment, and suggest a long‐lasting role of early visual‐spatial memory in predicting variance in reading. Whether this role of the visual‐spatial memory is unique to the Hebrew orthography because of its visual features requires, however, further investigation.

Debated issues in Karaim Hebrew orthography

The present study tries to elucidate how the Hebrew alphabet was used in different Karaim manuscripts. Religious and secular texts in all Karaim varieties provide a basis for the comparison. Since a comprehensive description of the relevant orthographic features would exceed the limits of this paper, only two of the most debated characteristics, namely the writing of the e and k sounds, will be discussed here. An analysis of numerous manuscripts makes it possible to provide a general description of certain tendencies and preferences in the use of certain letters or letter combinations in each Karaim variety.

Validation of the Simple View of Reading in Hebrew—A Semitic Language

The Simple View of Reading (SVR) in Hebrew was tested by administering decoding, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension measures to 1,002 students from Grades 2 to 10 in the northern part of Israel. Results from hierarchical regression analyses supported the SVR in Hebrew with decoding and listening comprehension measures explaining much of the variance in reading comprehension. Further, commonality analyses showed that decoding and listening comprehension contributed differently at different grade levels with decoding generally contributing more at the early grade levels and listening comprehension contributing more at the higher grade levels, which is observed in other alphabetic languages as well. However, unlike in transparent orthographies, such as Spanish and Finnish, decoding seems to play an important role in reading comprehension for a longer period due to the nature of Hebrew orthography of using unpointed script after the fourth-grade level.

Fast and slow readers of the Hebrew language show divergence in brain response ∼200 ms post stimulus: an ERP study.

Higher N170 amplitudes to words and to faces were recently reported for faster readers of German. Since the shallow German orthography allows phonological recoding of single letters, the reported speed advantages might have their origin in especially well-developed visual processing skills of faster readers. In contrast to German, adult readers of Hebrew are forced to process letter chunks up to whole words. This dependence on more complex visual processing might have created ceiling effects for this skill. Therefore, the current study examined whether also in the deep Hebrew orthography visual processing skills as reflected by N170 amplitudes explain reading speed differences. Forty university students, native speakers of Hebrew without reading impairments, accomplished a lexical decision task (i.e., deciding whether a visually presented stimulus represents a real or a pseudo word) and a face decision task (i.e., deciding whether a face was presented complete or with missing facial features) while their electroencephalogram was recorded from 64 scalp positions. In both tasks stronger event related potentials (ERPs) were observed for faster readers in time windows at about 200 ms. Unlike in previous studies, ERP waveforms in relevant time windows did not correspond to N170 scalp topographies. The results support the notion of visual processing ability as an orthography independent marker of reading proficiency, which advances our understanding about regular and impaired reading development.

What are the underlying skills of silent reading acquisition? A developmental study from kindergarten to the 2nd grade

Research on reading acquisition and on the processes underlying it usually examined reading orally, while silent reading, which is the more common mode of reading, has been rather neglected. As accumulated data suggests that these two modes of reading only partially overlap, our understanding of the natural mode of reading may still be limited. The present study was set out to explore the underlying skills of reading acquisition examined using silent measures of reading. To this end, children acquiring reading of the phonologically transparent vowelized Hebrew orthography were followed from kindergarten to the 2nd grade. The relations between a range of verbal and visual-spatial skills with measures of silent reading were tested. Phonological awareness, RAN and vocabulary explained a significant amount of variance in fluency in word recognition and in fluency in decoding of pseudo-homophones, while visual speed of processing of numeric symbols explained a notable amount of variance in fluency in word recognition only. Phonological awareness, morphological awareness and phonological working memory were the main skills explaining the variance in reading comprehension. The relations of these skills with the quality of oral reading have been widely established in the reading literature. Furthermore, a similar developmental picture was obtained in the relations between some of these skills and silent reading, as was found with oral reading. Therefore the role of these skills in reading may not be restricted to a certain mode of reading. Also consistent with findings on oral reading, the role of the visual non-orthographic skills in the measures of silent reading was insignificant to very small. Together these results imply that the processes underlying measures of silent reading are not substantially different from the ones underlying measures of oral reading, at least not at the early stages of reading acquisition of a transparent orthography.

The effects of orthographic consistency on reading development: A within and between cross-linguistic study of fluency and accuracy among fourth grade English- and Hebrew-speaking children

The different level of transparency of letter-sound mapping in various orthographies has been found to influence reading development across languages. The Hebrew orthography represents a special case of within language design with two versions of the script, a transparent (vowelized) and an opaque one (unvowelized). In this study we conducted a within and between comparison of word reading fluency and accuracy of English- and Hebrew-speaking children in fourth grade. In addition, the role of phonological awareness and vocabulary in predicting word reading in each language was examined. Findings suggest different trends for fluency and accuracy measures, with Hebrew-speaking children performing higher on word reading accuracy, and significantly lower on reading fluency. Phonological awareness was found to be a universal predictor of word reading in both languages. Vocabulary had an independent contribution to word reading only in English, indicating a unique role of verbal abilities to inconsistent orthographies.

Modern Hebrew, Esperanto, and the Quest for a Universal Language

A bstr Act Late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Zionist efforts to promote Hebrew as a modern vernacular not only emphasized Hebrew’s standing as a Jewish tongue but also affirmed the language’s universalist bona fides. These claims were buoyed by long-standing Jewish and Christian traditions that claimed Hebrew was a transcendent language tied to universal human values. During a period distinguished by modern universal language programs, however, Hebrew’s limited reach and apparent artificiality provoked a sense of unease about its universalist claims. This unease was expressed in programs to westernize Hebrew orthography and enhance its global spread and in a series of often anxious comparisons, offered in the Hebrew periodical press, between Hebrew and Esperanto, the most popular universal language program of the day.

Rate- and Accuracy-Disabled Subtype Profiles Among Adults With Dyslexia in the Hebrew Orthography

This study examined a subtyping scheme rooted in the dissociation between reading rate and accuracy in an exceptionally large sample of adult readers with dyslexia using a wide variety of behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures. Stage 1 was a behavioral study, in which basic reading skill, reading comprehension, linguistic and cognitive tasks were administered to 661 learning-disabled university students (n = 382) and their non-learning-disabled peers (n = 279). Based on a word reading measure, accuracy-disabled and rate-disabled subgroups were identified, as was a subgroup with deficits in both rate and accuracy. The results support the persistence of a rate versus accuracy dissociation into adulthood. Accuracy disability was related to a broad range of deficits affecting phonological, orthographic, and morphological processing, verbal memory, attention, and reading comprehension. Rate disability appeared to be associated with slower processing of printed material, alongside largely intact functioning resembling those of skilled readers. In stage 2, electroencephalogram (EEG)–ERP measurements were obtained from 140 participants recruited from the larger sample. Activation in visual association cortex, indicated by the N170 amplitude, was found to be lower for accuracy-disabled than skilled readers, and comparable between rate-disabled and skilled readers. The lowest amplitude was found in the double-deficit subgroup. The findings support the existence of distinctive reading disability profiles, based on selective deficits in reading rate versus accuracy and associated with different basic reading, linguistic, and cognitive skills as well as electrophysiological responses.

The importance of vowel diacritics for the temporary retention of high and low frequency Hebrew words of varying syllabic length

This study investigates the importance of vowel diacritics for the retention of Hebrew word lists, with word lists being manipulated along the dimension of word frequency and syllabic length. Eighty university students participated in the study. Half of the participants (40) were tested with the word lists presented in fully-pointed (voweled) Hebrew while the other half (40) were given the word lists in unpointed Hebrew (with vowel diacritics removed). Analyses of each group's recall rates and recall-order accuracy indicate that, overall, the presence of vowel diacritics had no facilitating effect on the participants' quantitative and qualitative Short Term Memory (STM) performance. This was found to be true whether word frequency (high vs. medium to low) or syllabic length (mono vs. trisyllabic) were computed as within-subject factors. Attempts to adequately interpret the absence of a pointing effect on STM performance based upon Orthographic Depth Hypothesis (ODH) and Grain Size Theory (GST) proved unfruitful. The authors propose an adaptation of the GST to the peculiarities of Hebrew orthography and discuss a morphology-centered grain-size theory (MGST).

Metalinguistic Awareness and Reading Performance: A Cross Language Comparison

The study examined two questions: (1) do the greater phonological awareness skills of billinguals affect reading performance; (2) to what extent do the orthographic characteristics of a language influence reading performance and how does this interact with the effects of phonological awareness. We estimated phonological metalinguistic abilities and reading measures in three groups of first graders: monolingual Hebrew speakers, bilingual Russian-Hebrew speakers, and Arabic-speaking children. We found that language experience affects phonological awareness, as both Russian-Hebrew bilinguals and the Arabic speakers achieved higher scores on metalinguistic tests than Hebrew speakers. Orthography affected reading measures and their correlation with phonological abilitites. Children reading Hebrew showed better text reading ability and significant correlations between phonological awareness and reading scores. Children reading Arabic showed a slight advantage in single word and nonword reading over the two Hebrew reading groups, and very weak relationships between phonological abilities and reading performance. We conclude that native Arabic speakers have more difficulty in processing Arabic orthography than Hebrew monolinguals and bilinguals have in processing Hebrew orthography, and suggest that this is due to the additional visual complexity of Arabic orthography.

Becoming literate in Hebrew: the grain size hypothesis and Semitic orthographic systems

Ziegler and Goswami (2006, see also Ziegler & Goswami, 2005) offer a cross-language reading theory that focuses on the grain size of lexical units which are converted into phonological structures during visual word recognition in different orthographic systems. Two axioms provide the basis for the grain size theory: first, that reading for meaning in any orthography primarily entails the recovery of the phonological information that is conveyed by the printed symbols; second, that any cross-language theory of reading should, therefore, focus on the ease or the difficulty of grapheme-to-phoneme computation given the consistency by which graphemic units represent phonological units in a given language. Ziegler and Goswami propose that reading in consistent orthographies involves small linguistic units, whereas reading in inconsistent orthographies requires the use of larger units as well. Hence, the grain size theory seems to present an improved and modern alternative to the Orthographic Depth Hypothesis (e.g. Frost, Katz & Bentin, 1987), which historically emerged from the classical dual-route models. The clear advantage of grain size over dualroute theory is that it examines the size of the computed phonological units and thereby allows the use of a continuous measure rather than a dichotomous concept such as ‘lexical’ or ‘prelexical’ phonology (see also Frost, 1998, for a discussion of skilled reading and grain size, according to the Strong Phonological Theory). Hebrew represents a very intriguing case for examining the theory promoted by Ziegler and Goswami. In Hebrew, the letters mostly represent consonants while most of the vowels can optionally be superimposed on the consonants as diacritical marks (‘points’). However, these diacritical marks are omitted from most adult reading material. Therefore, since different vowels may be inserted into the same string of consonants to form different words or nonwords, Hebrew unpointed print cannot specify a unique phonological unit, and a printed consonant string is phonologically ambiguous, often representing more than one word. English and Hebrew are both considered deep orthographies, but the ‘depth’ of the Hebrew orthography is different in character from that of English orthography. Whereas in English the opaque relations of spelling-to-sound are related to the inconsistency of letter clusters, in Hebrew opaque spelling-tosound connections arise simply from missing phonemic information, mainly vowel information. Note that when the diacritical marks are presented in the text, Hebrew orthography is entirely shallow, as the phonemic structure of the printed word can be easily assembled using simple grapheme-to-phoneme conversion rules. Extensive research has consistently revealed that reading in Hebrew involves an interplay of two computational processes which are defined by the size of the computed units. The first process is characterized by the conversion of units of single letters into consonantal information. The second process involves the use of morphological information, mainly word-pattern morphemes, which provide the missing vowels. Frost (1994) examined the effect of delaying the presentation of vowel marks under unpointed words in a naming task. The results showed that the Hebrew readers were willing to delay naming and wait for the vowel (pointed) information to appear,

Syllable splitting in literate and preliterate Hebrew speakers: Onsets and rimes or bodies and codas?

This study examined consonant–vowel–consonant (CVC) syllable splitting among literate (Grade 2) and preliterate (kindergarten) Hebrew speakers. Consideration of both the architecture of Hebrew orthography and phonology led to the prediction that a body–coda rather than an onset–rime subdivision would predominate. Structured and unstructured tasks confirmed the claim that there exists a subsyllabic, supraphonemic level of phonological awareness that is more accessible than individual phonemes. However, as predicted, the syllable body rather than the rime was found to be the more accessible biphonemic unit. Moreover, this preference did not appear to be solely the product of orthographic structure; rather it was also inherent in spoken phonology. Access to single phonemes, in contrast, shifted from an early preliteracy advantage for (monophonemic) onsets to a literacy-based preference for codas.