How the Hebrew Language Grew

This quickly rose to the top of my collection of Hebrew books. It's accessible to anyone who has a solid first-year course in the language, but the more you know the more you can get out of it. That means it's the kind of book you will come back to several times. It's not just a history of the language, in fact, history is not its primary focus. It's a vocabulary book, and a superb one. It groups words by their structural or pattern similarities and shows how various roots acuire shades of meaning as projected through each pattern. It has large lists of structurally related words, and many roots are repeatedly represented, horizontally if you like, across multiple patterns. It prompted me to make a spreadsheet, in fact, laying out this rich vocabulary in the implied two dimensions. It presents plenty of etymological relationships, also, implying a third dimension. It has lots of exercises and puzzles to engage you and test your absorption of the material. I don't know of a better presentation of vocabulary, built-up from and built-in to the grammatical framework. Along with R. Matityahu Clark's Etymological Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew, it's almost as though one can "calculate" vocabulary words.

After living in Israel for going on 3 years, taking 5 months of intensive Ulpan and several part-time follow-up Hebrew Ulpanim, I am now speaking Hebrew fairly decently. However, it wasn't until I just read this book that it all started to make sense, everything has now fallen into place. The most important thing that I learned was the secret behind those "irregular" verbs that always give so much trouble when learning a new language. The author also shows the evolution of various words and how and why the spellings and pronounciations of many Hebrew words have changed over time. In almost all cases, the author gives clear examples that show how the same concepts run parallel in English and other languages. He sheds light on many different aspects of language and communication, all in an entertaining and easy to read manner.

One of the best books I have ever read on the Hebrew language. This book is a great tool for understanding the mechanics of the language as well as its history. Each chapter is a new insight into words and roots in a way that is easily read and understood. Highly recommended.

``How the Hebrew Language Grew'' is absolutely fascinating. It will teach you a lot about Hebrew--but also about how linguists think, especially semitic linguists. Horowitz explains the major ways that new words are invented, with lots of examples from Hebrew down through the ages.Yet Horowitz is never dull or scholarly. He never gets bogged down in details, and explains everything in clear, simple language. Linguistics can be a dull subject, but Horowitz makes it come alive.Maybe that's because linguistics isn't really what Horowitz cares about. He is really a Hebrew teacher, and he wants you to actually learn some Hebrew as you go along. By telling you how different words were invented, he helps you remember them. Even better, he helps you figure out new words that came about in the same way. If you're interested in learning Hebrew, then ``How the Hebrew Language Grew'' will be a real vocabulary builder!I do have two warnings for you, although I loved the book. First, Horowitz assumes that you understand some very basic Hebrew. I didn't, when I read it, and still thoroughly enjoyed it. But you will get more out of the book if you at least know the alphabet, and can read it phonetically. If you can understand simple sentences, that's even better.Second, if you are trying to learn Hebrew then this book will make you work a little. You CAN just read it through--it is fascinating--but to make it stick, you'll need to chew on it pretty carefully. Each chapter does have some questions at the end to help you study. I ignored them the first time through, many years ago, but now I'm using it almost like a textbook.You'll definitely keep coming back! This is NOT a ``read once, throw away'' kind of book!

Horowitz take us to a trip into the language land. With anacdotes, and funny stories we meet the hebrew - and languages - origins. excellent book!