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Grammaire de l'hébreu vivant
REVIEWS
- COXPTES-RENDUS
‘short’ and ‘long’ should change places (as may be ence to the table on p. 72). The George Author’s
Washington
address
c/oSwinaams
307
by refer-
University
:
Musewn,
Postbzts 2306, Parantara’bo-Zuid,
%&am.
D. COHEN et H. ZAFRANI, Grammaiz de 1 he’breu vivant. Presses Uc’persitaires de France, Paris 1968. xii, 317 pp. 45 F. This grammar is ct:rrainly a valuable aid to any student of modem Hebrew. It torches almost every grammatical aspect of this language and furnishes at least one example to each point discussed. Apart from a historical inrroduction to the Hebrew language the book consists of three main par:s: 1. Phonology and wriring, 2. Forms and their values, 3. Consiructions. The weakest part of the back is the phonology. Since it is only 2 small portion of tha book, this hardly diminishes its value. What is called ‘phoneme’ by t‘le authors should rather be called ‘sound’. This becomes particul.lrly clear when the authors state on p. 21 ‘L’assimilation est le ph&om&ne par lequel un phonhme impose certains de CLScaract&res B im phon&me proche’. For a description of modern Hebrew it is more important to establish a system of morphophonemes than a system of phonemes. This would justify a distinction between ‘alef’ and ‘nyin’, ‘kaf’ and ‘kof’ and ‘xaf’ and ‘xet’, and thus facilitate the description of verbal and nominal forms. It is all the more astonishing that the authors do not make this distinction in their transliteration, since this distinction is made by a large section of the Israeli popu!ation in their pronunciation. The chapt,:r dealing with the classification of verbs in the part on forms and their values is excellent. It deviates slightly from the traditional classification, but g+?f,esa clearer picture of the verbal system in modem I&brew than cne usually gets in a Hebrew grammar. The chapter on nominal forms is equally clear, discussing the various forms of nouns and adjectives with numerous examples.
306
REVIEWS
- COMPTES-RENDUS
There is no justification, however, for dealing with the ordinal numbers in the chapter on numerals. The function of an ordinal number differs in no way from that ot an adjective. Neither do I see any reason why some of the word cIasses are dealt with in the part on constructions. This may be justified in the case of prepositions or conjunctions, whose function ismainly syntactical, but not in the case of pronouns, demonstratives or adverbs. The rest of this section is very good, thanks to its extensive description of Hebrew constructions and the numerous examples. However, it would seem that most of the students would profit more from this grammar if all the examples were transliterated. last&t jtirS+rachwissmscRajt der UkvcrsaW, 5 KC%
PAUL
0. SAMUELSDORFP
- COXPTES-RENDUS
‘short’ and ‘long’ should change places (as may be ence to the table on p. 72). The George Author’s
Washington
address
c/oSwinaams
307
by refer-
University
:
Musewn,
Postbzts 2306, Parantara’bo-Zuid,
%&am.
D. COHEN et H. ZAFRANI, Grammaiz de 1 he’breu vivant. Presses Uc’persitaires de France, Paris 1968. xii, 317 pp. 45 F. This grammar is ct:rrainly a valuable aid to any student of modem Hebrew. It torches almost every grammatical aspect of this language and furnishes at least one example to each point discussed. Apart from a historical inrroduction to the Hebrew language the book consists of three main par:s: 1. Phonology and wriring, 2. Forms and their values, 3. Consiructions. The weakest part of the back is the phonology. Since it is only 2 small portion of tha book, this hardly diminishes its value. What is called ‘phoneme’ by t‘le authors should rather be called ‘sound’. This becomes particul.lrly clear when the authors state on p. 21 ‘L’assimilation est le ph&om&ne par lequel un phonhme impose certains de CLScaract&res B im phon&me proche’. For a description of modern Hebrew it is more important to establish a system of morphophonemes than a system of phonemes. This would justify a distinction between ‘alef’ and ‘nyin’, ‘kaf’ and ‘kof’ and ‘xaf’ and ‘xet’, and thus facilitate the description of verbal and nominal forms. It is all the more astonishing that the authors do not make this distinction in their transliteration, since this distinction is made by a large section of the Israeli popu!ation in their pronunciation. The chapt,:r dealing with the classification of verbs in the part on forms and their values is excellent. It deviates slightly from the traditional classification, but g+?f,esa clearer picture of the verbal system in modem I&brew than cne usually gets in a Hebrew grammar. The chapter on nominal forms is equally clear, discussing the various forms of nouns and adjectives with numerous examples.
306
REVIEWS
- COMPTES-RENDUS
There is no justification, however, for dealing with the ordinal numbers in the chapter on numerals. The function of an ordinal number differs in no way from that ot an adjective. Neither do I see any reason why some of the word cIasses are dealt with in the part on constructions. This may be justified in the case of prepositions or conjunctions, whose function ismainly syntactical, but not in the case of pronouns, demonstratives or adverbs. The rest of this section is very good, thanks to its extensive description of Hebrew constructions and the numerous examples. However, it would seem that most of the students would profit more from this grammar if all the examples were transliterated. last&t jtirS+rachwissmscRajt der UkvcrsaW, 5 KC%
PAUL
0. SAMUELSDORFP