Difference Between Hebrew & Arabic
Hebrew and Arabic come from the same ancient language source, proto-Semitic. Many Hebrew and Arabic words sound alike, such as the word for peace--"shalom" in Hebrew and "salaam" in Arabic. However, these two languages have fundamental differences.
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Alphabet
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The Hebrew and the Arabic alphabets differ in appearance. Hebrew letters are written individually in block or script. Arabic letters string together, comparable to cursive. The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters and Arabic has 28.
Letters
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Depending on their location in a word, Arabic letters can change shape. The only time a letter changes shape in Hebrew is at the end of a word, and this applies to just five letters.
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Sounds
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Arabic and Hebrew letters share most of the same guttural sounds. Arabic letters have more sound variations and "j" and "th" vocalizations that don't exist in Hebrew. While Hebrew uses a "p" and "f" sound, Arabic uses only "f." Vowel sounds also differ.
Grammar
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Although knowing Hebrew or Arabic will make learning the other easier, Arabic is considered more complex. Irregular plural nouns and grammatical cases differ from the more straightforward, logical grammar of Hebrew.
Dialects
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Hebrew has taken on other forms, such as Yiddish and Ladino, but there is just one standard Biblical and modern Hebrew. Spoken and literary Arabic differ, and spoken Arabic differs considerably between countries.
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Comments
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martybb
Jul 26, 2010
Yiddish is related to German; Ladino is related to Spanish. They are Indo-European languages written in the Hebrew alphabet, not "forms" of Hebrew. Modern dialects of Hebrew include Ashkenazic and Sephardic. The Sephardic dialect was adopted as the official language of Israel.
