Verse:Tdūrzů/Knench

Venetian Hebrew (ngiwrith /ˈɲiwriθ/) is a basilect of Hebrew spoken in Lõis's Northern Italy, Austria and Southern Germany. The phonology is similar to Allemañisch.

Numbers: 0-10: afs, ódh (m)/áth (f), hnay, hlusz, arbøng, homisz, szesz, szew, hmun, teszøng, ngaxør

11-20: ódh/áth ngaxør, hnay ngaxør, hlusz ngaxør, arbøng ngaxør, homisz ngaxør, szesz ngaxør, szew ngaxør, hmun ngaxør, teszøŋ ngaxør, ngaxre

40: stay ngaxre

60: hlusz ngaxre

...

120: merkø

14400: rúø

before: kkurm

Introduction

• Swadesh list
• bel-, ble- is a common prefix (conflation of ben- and ba3al-)
• Ni bø løhabiw ngiwrith, khozuth ni bø lødhabir akh ttipøth ngiwrith.
  • I like Hebrew, but I only know a little bit of Hebrew.

Phonology

Consonants

/m pʰ b f w n tʰ t˭ d θ ð ts s z ʂ j ŋ kʰ k˭ g x h l r/ ⟨m p b f w n t tt d th dh ts s/x z sz y ng k kk g kh h l r⟩

Allophonic palatalization occurs before /ɛ/, /i/ or /j/. /ŋ kʰ k˭ g x/ palatalize to alveolopalatals /ɲ tɕʰ tɕ˭ dʑ ɕ/.

Mutations

Words can undergo initial lenition, as in Irish and Tiberian Hebrew:

p- b- t- d- k- g- > f- w- th- dh- kh- Ø-

"Already lenited" consonants lenite as follows: f w th dh kh Ø > nf, nw, nth, ndh, nkh, n

Vowels

/a ɛ i ɔ u ə a: ɛ: i: ɔ: u: ə:/ = ⟨a e i o u ø á é í ó ú ǿ⟩

Word-final /i/ is silent and palatalizes the preceding consonant.

Prosody

Stress

Stress is always penultimate.

Morphology

Nouns and adjectives

Nouns are either masculine or feminine, and inflect for number. Adjectives agree with nouns in gender and number.

• The regular feminine singular suffix is -ø or -th.
• The regular masculine plural suffix is -i after consonants and -yø after vowels.
• The regular feminine plural is -uth.
• However, there are many irregular plurals, especially nouns derived from construct state constructions. e.g. benusz, blenusz = human

køfor, køfori (m) = village, villages

bagbøg, bagbøgi (m) = bottle, bottles

i, iyø (m) = island, islands

kkiszø, kkiszøyø (m) = squash, squashes

gøfø, gøfuth (f) = corpse, corpses

tagrith, tagriyuth (f) = incident, incidents

Verbs

Venetian Hebrew has an auxiliary verb system similar to Colloquial Welsh.

Auxiliaries

Inflection of the present auxiliary

→ Person ↓ Truth value	1sg	2sg.m	2sg.f	3sg.m	3sg.f	1pl.in	2pl	3pl	Non-pronominal
Affirmative	ni	to	te	u	i	nanu, onu, nu	tem	em	re, r'
Interrogative	ini	intø	inte	imu	imi	inan	inti	iyum	im
Negative	eni	ekhø	ekh	enu	enø	enen	ekhi	enøm	en

Inflection of the preterite auxiliary

→ Person ↓ Truth value	1sg	2sg.m	2sg.f	3sg.m	3sg.f	1pl.in	2pl	3pl
Affirmative	si ni	si tho	si the	so u	sto i	si nu	si them	su 'm
Interrogative	i si ni	i si tho	i si the	i so u	i sto i	i si nu	i si them	i su 'm
Negative	lu si ni	lu si tho	lu si the	lu so u	lu sto i	lu si nu	lu si them	lu su 'm

Inflection of the future auxiliary

→ Person ↓ Truth value	1sg	2sg.m	2sg.f	3sg.m	3sg.f	1pl.in	2pl	3pl
Affirmative	lekh ni	tlekh to	tlekh te	lekh u	lekh i	lekh nu	tlekh tem	lekh hem
Interrogative	i lekh ni	i tlekh to	i tlekh te	i lekh u	i lekh i	i lekh nu	i tlekh tem	i lekh hem
Negative	lu lekh ni	lu tlekh to	lu tlekh te	lu lekh u	lu lekh i	lu lekh nu	lu tlekh tem	lu lekh hem

Perfect: present copula + ár (negated: bli)

Syntax

Constituent order

The order is tense-subject-verb-object.

R' iszaz bø lékhul tapuhaz.

The man is eating the apple.

Re bethi ni bø dhe-rul kø liyothøn.

My house is as big as a whale.

Sto i lásuth halgbethø i bø rø-múhør.

/sto i 'la:suθ halg'beθə i bə rə'mu:hər/

sto i lásuth halgbeth-ø i bø-L rø-L-múhør/

She did her homework very late.

Noun phrase

The definite article is a clitic:

• Singular: -az (after C) or -zu (after V)
• Plural: -il

Examples:

• hadhør = a room
• hadhraz = the room
• hadhri = rooms
• hadhril = the rooms
• hadhør grul = a big room
• hadhør grulaz = the big room (< ha hadheor ha godhowl ha ze)
• boti gruli = big houses
• boti grulil = the big houses

• tøpuaz r' iszaz bø lékhul u = The apple, the man eats it

To say "this X" or "that X", X-az fu and X-az szom (lit. "the X here" and "the X there") are used. To say "this" and "that", you say ze fu and ze szom (where the ze can be inflected).

The abstract demonstrative is zuth.

Verb phrase

Isz li rangu "I'm hungry"

Example texts

UDHR, Article 1

Kku kol blenuszil ledhø kø wlehuri, hem szowi ngar kúdhaz ke skhøyuthil. Kku 'm lehangnig bø thwønø ke matspøn, ke re ngalem léthnágh ódh lø hni bø nøszomø ahwø.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Tower of Babel

Tower of Babel in Venetian Hebrew, a descendant of Hebrew influenced by Celtic and Germanic. A retranslation into English is provided.

1. Bø khol ngulømaz tho áth sofø bø kkáth ledhabir ke uthøm miluthil lisztamisz.

(In all the world one language was spoken and the same words were used.)

1. Wini ksze yu bø losangøth me mizroh, su 'm litakkil bø miszoraz Szinngor ke lithyaszew szom.

(But now, when they were migrating from the east, they happened upon the plain Shinar and settled there.)

1. Ke su 'm lemur: "Enø, bu tonu lásuth lwonuth ke léfuth em ettew." Ke su lwonuthil leszamisz lom em kø awnebniyø, ke hemør kø mald.

(And they said: "Come, let's (lit. come with us to...) make bricks and fire them well." And the bricks served as building-stones to them and the clay as mortar.)

1. Ke su 'm lemur: "Enø, bu tonu lewnuth ngir ke mídøl bo i, yás ruszu u laging le szomay, ki nás nu lásuth lonu szem, pen nás nu lithpazir ngal pni kol artsaz!"

(And they said: "Come, let's build a city with a tower - its top should reach the sky - so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the earth.")

1. Wini so El lowu matø, sze yás u listakil ngiraz ke mídølaz sze yu blenuszil bø lewnuth.

(But now God came down to look at the city and the tower that the humans were building.)

1. Ke so El lemur: "Ngeth sze em ár hatholø lásuth zuth kø ódh ngom sze bø ledhabir áth sofø, lu lekh liyuth szum mikhszul ngal ma u ma sze yásu 'm lithkawin lásuth!

(And God said, "Now that they have started to do this as one people who speak one language, there will be no obstacle to whatever they might plan to do!)

1. "Enø, bu tonu lolekht matø ke løwalbil soføthom em, pen yásu 'm láwin szuthif."

(Come, let's go down and confuse their language, so that they would not understand each other.")

1. Kokh so El løfazir em, ke su 'm ládul lewnuth ngiraz.

(Thus God scattered them, and they stopped building the city.)

1. Ke mi sibøzu fu sze i bø kkáth szemaz "Bovil" -- szom so El løwalbil sofø kol ngulømaz. Mi szom so El løfazir em ngal pni kol ngulømaz.

(And for this reason the city takes the name Babel - there God confused the language of the whole world. From there God scattered them across the whole world.)