I. Am. Such. A. Jewish. Liturgical. Dork.

[mangosteen]

I finally have a recording of someone reading the Torah using Aleppo-Sephardic trope. The person's voice is nothing to write home about, but I can see how it would be absolutely beautiful, given some cleaning up.

I mean, think about it... Torah being recited in a major key! I'm learning it now. I hope to be able to do it from memory in a day or two. This makes me happy beyond all rational measure.

My Jewish cantiliating geeky heart is suffused with glee!

Hee!

Comments

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

Eek. A giddy gleeful mangosteen.

The world trembles.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

I'd be interested in hearing that... I'm also interested in the term 'Aleppo-Sephardic', as that produces exactly 2 hits on google, both referring to the same codex.

[sweetmmeblue.livejournal.com]

I'd love to hear it as well. I wonder if it's anything like what I grew up with.

[redcountess]

Aleppo - wasn't he the lost Marx Brother? ;-)

[mangosteen]

Pbbt.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Dude. You're going to come demonstrate at TBS, then, yes? ;-)

[mangosteen]

At some point, sure. That's part of the goal of the exercise. That, as well as making a really good recording of it, including a "munach pashtah" verse.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

wow, I totally misparsed TBS as "The superstation." you know, the TV channel. I was wondering what you were protesting there. sigh.

[armandae.livejournal.com]

I've always had a deep interest in languages, and seriously pursued Aramaic for a time. I wish I had the time to get back into it, but I'm learning Japanese, Sanskrit, and bits of Ancient Greek and Mandarin. NOt sure how my brain would cope with another language. That said, any good resources for a jewish language-newbie?

Would be nice to read religious scripts in the (as close to) original form...

[mangosteen]

I will admit some small amount of bias (as I learned it at an early age), but Hebrew is actually a fairly simple language to learn. It's alphabetic all the way down, with an enforced vowel-consonant ordering. That, and the three-letter root system of the language makes expanding one's vocabulary fairly easy. I'd wager any "Teach Yourself Modern Hebrew" book would give you what you need for starters. Modern Hebrew was reverse-engineered from Biblical Hebrew only about 85 years ago. They're quite similar.

After that, I'd get "How The Hebrew Language Grew" by Edward Horowitz. It helps to have some grounding in Hebrew first, but it will give you a great deal of insight into the structure of the language.

Good luck with reading the Torah in the original Klingon!

[armandae.livejournal.com]

Well, I've read the Tao and Confucius in Klngon so it can't be THAT much of a stretch =P

Ahh, so the consonant harmony and the 3 letter ordering where you change a word by changing the vowels between the consonants is similar to the arabic languages and whatnot? Go fig, considering they are all related....

It would be interesting to do a neologistic survey of modern hebrew to see if the root system allows for as much generation as say the Indo European languages or has a borrowing structure/pattern similar to the Altaic languages...

Any book preference for Aramaic?

85 years

[magid.livejournal.com]

Actually, a bit longer than that, since Eliezer ben Yehuda started working on it in the 1880s (if I'm remembering the kid biography of him).

And I'd love to hear the trope; you'll post when you'll be reading, yes?

[tayefeth.livejournal.com]

Sigh. You remind me of Gabe.

[mangosteen]

Now that I think about it, yeah.

*hugs*

[tayefeth.livejournal.com]

Hugs.

No dying before you're 30...

[awfief.livejournal.com]

The thing that gets me about that is . . . why? The minor key thing was great because the whole Jewish way is to always remember suffering, pain, etc, even in joyous moments.

Although I have to wonder if it makes it easier for children to swallow. . .what's the history? Maybe sometime over beer if it would take a while to write. . .

[mangosteen]

The thing that gets me about that is . . . why? The minor key thing was great because the whole Jewish way is to always remember suffering, pain, etc, even in joyous moments.

But yet, the Ashkenazic trope for the Book of Lamentations is in a major key, which would not make sense under those assumptions.

Also, I think the "minor key" thing is an Ashkenazic thing, more than anything else. I mean, of course the Sephardim would be happy. I'd be happy too if I could have rice on Passover. :)

(seriously, yes. beer. sure. it's an interesting topic.)

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

I vote the beer be at our place, so I can listen in. :) I, too, am very interested in this tale.

[tapuz.livejournal.com]

So how did you get your hands on the recording?

Have fun!