I now have the opportunity of learning Biblical Hebrew as well! 
Can anyone who’s studied it please advise me on the following questions?
I hear that pronunciation and vocabulary are hard.
Somewhat.
- How does it compare to Latin and Greek
I feel it is much less difficult than either Latin or Greek, though some disagree with me on that. Hebrew had a very strong stress accent, and it likes to suffix things. The suffixing shifts the accent forward, and what happens at that point is a generalized vowel collapse in the syllables before the accent. This freaks people out.
Like all the Semitic languages, by far the majority of the vocabulary is generated from three consonant roots. For example, K-T-B provides the nucleus for all sorts of words having to do with writing (books, the verb “to write”, etc.) The derivations are created by certain vowel paterns, prefixes, suffixes and even infixes to the triconsonantal roots. With a root like K-T-B this is all fairly transparent once you get a feel for the system. Woe unto you when the root has a “weak” consonant: y, w, h, aleph (glottal stop). At that point you get more of those surprising vowel collapses. Much of your memorization time will be spent learning what happens to, say, a yod (y) in the middle of a 3C root in the verb conjugation. This is hard, but I think the unfamiliarity of it makes it seem harder than it really is.
(B.T.W, Arabic does this, too, and for a mind-destroying exercise, conjugating the verb “yayaya” is hard to beat.)
- What’s the literature like?
Um. Biblical?
A large body of secular poetry came out of Spain under the Andalusian Caliphate. Some quite, um, provocative.
I hear that pronunciation and vocabulary are hard.
Depends on who is teaching you. Ashkenazic pronunciation is quite easy, if occasionally eccentric. A philological approach will be harder, since there are plenty of consonants unknown to all IE languages (the so-called emphatics, het, `ayn). Not as bad as Arabic, but certainly trickier than Latin or Greek.
Thanks. As regards literature what I really meant was how does the OT rate as literature? Linguistically hard? Interesting? Poetic?
Alll of the above in places I imagine.
The OT has a diverse selection of various types of literature, so at least you’ll never get bored (poetry, history, etc). Those Hebrews liked poetry and tried to incorporate it everywhere, and had a number of different forms.
As for difficulty… I did only one semester of Hebrew in college and I am indeed one of those people who are “freaked out” by the things that William mentioned. I found it extremely difficult. But recently I have thought that I should try again, for the sake of the poetic devices. 
That topic is currently on the second page entitled “My First Time Here.”
I found Hebrew rather easy compared to any other languages I’ve attempted to learn.
I mentioned in the other message thread that nouns aren’t particularly inflected, no change in cases, just a different ending for masculine and feminine plural. Adjectives are the same. Verbs have only three tenses and really no moods, just plain past, present, and future. The verb “to be” is regular and isn’t used in the present so that simplifies things a lot. There is only one definite article, no change in cases.
The one thing some here have mentioned being difficult is the suffixes that are sometimes put on the ends of words, for example possessive suffixes at the end of nouns, and the vowels do shift, but since it’s a consonant-based language and the vowels are just tiny markings beneath the consonants, the vowel shifts don’t have any effect on my ability to read the words or understand them. It would be more difficult if I was trying to speak Biblical Hebrew fluently and remember the vowel shifts, but since generally one is reading it from the text, it’s right there. In Modern Hebrew the possessives are generally separate from the nouns which makes it easier. You CAN put them on the ends, but you don’t have to.
I love the language. I’m reading all kinds of Hebrew - Biblical, Rabbinic, and Modern, so if you have any questions, feel free to send a message. I think this system allows that?
Elisa
I’d love to learn Hebrew one day. Not now, of course; I have more than I can chew already. But some day.
I thought I’d post this link for those learning Hebrew or interested in doing so. This site has the entire Torah (Pentateuch) text, transliteration, and translation, as well as audio for each verse. For those new at this, keep in mind that the audio is in the chant that one would use if reading from the Torah scroll in a synagogue, but when learning, studying, and talking, one would speak normally.
The text includes cantillation marks which you can just skip over and focus on the consonants and vowels. Hebrew is usually accented on the ultima, sometimes on the penult. When it’s not on the ultima you’ll notice it in the audio, and you can also recognize it in the text when you see a tiny little vertical line under the accented syllable, or by the cantillation marks which also draw attention to the accent.
Thanks for your thoughts.
Really?! That’s a first! 
So, I was getting my taxes done today (yes, several months late…) and my accountant happens to be Israeli. He’s ethnically Jewish, speaks hebrew, etc, but I believe in practice is Muslim. He visits Israel every year.
Anyway, we had the coolest discussion about Judaism, Hebrew, their relationship to Christianity and the modern world, etc. It was fascinating. And he was showing me some things about Hebrew and certain words, etc. He even lent me a book written by another client of his who lives in town here and who is a Jewish Christian.
My accountant!
Now I am feeling inspired to make another attempt at Hebrew. He said that he recommends learning a bit of modern Hebrew first, since then it has some practical relation to today, and then making the conversion to ancient. Since Hebrew has changed very little since then, he thinks this would be an easier and better way to learn the language. He could be right.
Anyhoo, that’s my story for today. I am still afraid of the language though. 
edit: on second thought maybe he is not ethnically Jewish… I’m woefully ignorant of how that all works. Is it normal to have someone who is practicing Islam but speaks Hebrew and obviously had much exposure to Jewish customs and history? I thought there was more of a dichotomy between the two in Israel… ?
ps: He has studied latin too. very cool accountant.
I am kind of puzzled by the term Modern Hebrew.
Is Hebrew still used aside from in religous services?
I thought that there is a desperate attempt made to preserve Aramaic as a living language but that Hebrew is not used any more.
Klewlis, as an encouragement to you to start Hebrew study again:
I was speaking with our pastor about the relative difficulty of Greek and Hebrew.
He said that Hebrew is not harder than Greek but more intimidating.
Once you get over that hump it is not bad.
He also said that he can read (especially the history naratives) Hebrew and almost forget that he is not reading English, this is something he cannot do with Greek.
yes there is modern hebrew!
this guy speaks it as his first language. I also have met others who are bilingual.
they told me that once I got over the initial “wall” of hebrew I would be ok. but I took a whole semester of it and only got more and more frustrated, so unless that wall is further down the road (which I doubt, since we did all of the basic grammar in that one semester), I’m missing something.
Part of the problem may be that I was graduating that year and had too many things on my plate…
Well I’ve started now and…
WOW! This alphabet is mental!
lol
I actually like the alphabet. It’s very aesthetic. Pondering a hebrew tattoo for that reason.
Compared to what the Greeks managed to do with Phoenician, I’m don’t think it’s that good. It looks a bit blocky and boring to me…
But then again that’s probably just a result of not knowing the script. Within a few days I’ll be proclaiming its virtues no doubt.
It is interesting though! So different!
The square letters are from Aramaic variation. See the Phoenician and Old Hebrew letters : http://www.neara.org/topics/epigraph.htm I like these old forms better.
there’s also the fact that my hnadwirtten letters tend to look rather more blocky and boring that the more subtle printed ones.
Bert, about Modern Hebrew, yes it exists. It’s the language of the State of Israel. For that matter Hebrew’s been around throughout the last few millenia. After the Bible was the Mishnah, the Talmud is in a mix of Hebrew and Aramaic, Biblical commentaries through the middle-ages to the present are in Hebrew, as well as many other books on Judaism, halakhah (Torah law), Kabbalah, ethics, theology, spirituality. If you have access to a Jewish bookstore you’ll see wall to wall of thousands of years of books in Hebrew from ancient times straight up through to the present. The main difference between Ancient and Modern Hebrew is the size of the vocabulary.
Argh… Dagesh Forte 