A Rosetta Stone

While on holiday, in the early hours of the morning, I heard it said to me, Do a Rosetta Stone. 

Show the future and the past a new way of learning that is 1 to 1 (isomorphic) with the modern texts. No vowels, no music, just a full spelling.

viamr alohim nywh adm bxlmnu cdmutnu,

 ויאמר אלוֹהים נעשה אדם בצלמנוּ כדמוּתנוּ,

virdu bdgt him ubyof hwmiim ubbhmh ubcl-harx ubcl-hrmw hromw yl-harx.

וירדוּ בדגת הים וּבעוֹף השמיים וּבבהמה וּבכל-הארץ וּבכל-הרמש הרוֹמש על-הארץו.

That is somewhere in Genesis. I'm sure you can find it. 

But this seemed too little - so I asked - How will I include the pointed as well as the full text - and the music?

Start with the music and show its relationship to the text and its pronunciation. Then move to the 'full spelling' and SimHebrew - somehow get the four ways in which real people deal with language and beauty onto a single decodable image.

Here is Psalms 117 as the study object.

Psalms 117 - Top line: Original Hebrew with vowels and cantillation signs.
Musical score is completely derivable from the cantillation signs.
Lyrics below the music are a rough guide to pronunciation.
The third line of text is the SimHebrew.

The above image has all you need to begin to learn what is in the Leningrad codex. The top words are left to right but each word is right to left. I have only once read a right to left hymn book (At St George's in Jerusalem at the Arabic service.) and I couldn't go there with the English based software that I have available. Here are the words in their traditional form:

הַֽלְל֣וּ אֶת־יְ֭הוָה כָּל־גּוֹיִ֑ם (1)

שַׁ֝בְּח֗וּהוּ כָּל־הָאֻמִּֽים

כִּ֥י גָ֘בַ֤ר עָלֵ֨ינוּ ׀ חַסְדּ֗וֹ וֶֽאֱמֶת־יְהוָ֥ה לְעוֹלָ֗ם הַֽלְלוּ־יָֽהּ (2)

These signs and symbols completely determine the content of the music and the syllable by syllable transcription into rough pronunciation. The music is generated by a computer program  and expressed in Music XML (according to the musical transformation inferred by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura). The rough pronunciation is from a transcription algorithm made up by me (also in Music XML). The whole is then rendered by Musescore. There is no information lost in the transformations. (There is the odd bug in my syllabic transcription.) 

The SimHebrew is the identical Hebrew text transformed by an algorithm into consonants only (and a dot or two to allow the variation on vav that is o and u). It is possible to learn how to pronounce this transformation the same way that a modern Hebrew child learns to read -- except that it is in Latin characters and not square text. 

It can be transformed into square text without loss of any consonants. (See here for an online transformation.)

א הללוּ את-יהוה כל-גוֹיים 

שבחוּהוּ כל-האוּמימ

ב כי גבר עלינוּ חסדוֹ ואמת-יהוה לעוֹלם הללוּ-יה

It is therefore a left-to-right version of the standard malé (full spelling) Hebrew text that a Hebrew child would learn. I am not a Hebrew child but now I can learn and see the Hebrew word structures without compromise and learn Hebrew using left to right reading and in the alphabet that I am familiar with. (Of course I have to learn a slight variation on pronouncing that alphabet - but every language does that to you!)

Notice there are only three lines in the poem: two verses, three musical lines. True there is a mordent (revia) half way through the third line, but it is a slight pause, compared to the cadence on the subdominant in verse 1. 

Praise Yahweh, all nations.

Commend him, all the clans.

For his mercy has prevailed over us, and the truth of Yahweh is forever. Praise Yah.

The whole second verse is the rationale - that mercy and truth will prevail - for ever. You could expand on this allusion to the theophany of Exodus 34 and cover the theology of Tanach. (This was Jonah's problem - wasn't it - that there are always going to be those who will take advantage of mercy - perhaps he anticipated game theory.)

Theology is a worthwhile endeavour within the bounds of our eras and within reach - not so far away that we must ascend to heaven or cross over beyond the seas ...

la bwmiim hia ... 

vla-mybr lim hia ... 

ci-qrob aliç hdbr maod 

bpiç ublbbç lywoto s

See Deuteronomy 30:14 - and the SimHebrew Bible will not impose the unnecessary burden of right to left strange letters on you - you can have the matter near to you utterly, in your mouth and in your heart to do it.

Tell your friends - the book will be out soon and available at your favorite distributor.