[NFBJ] Reading Hebrew with VoiceOver

[Eric Harvey]

Thank you, Ryan. I find I have more issues when reading Hebrew with
niqqudot, but you'd think that would be easier to set pronunciation rules
for than without! I guess this one doesn't have an easy fix. I just wish I
could be part of the development process sometimes!

On Tue, Jan 26, 2021 at 9:59 AM Ryan L. Silveira via NFBJ <nfbj at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

> Greeting and Blessing:
>
> I use Voiceover on a Mac. The Hebrew voice does have some issues with
> pronunciation, but it’s mostly because generally Hebrew is written without
> nikudot, so Voiceover often gets confused. For example, the word “at”
> (spelled aleph tav) and meaning the feminine form of “you” can also be
> pronounced “et” which is the direct object indicator. Voiceover often
> pronounces the word “at”, especially when one is reading word by word. I
> have had the issue that you’re talking about and there are two reasons for
> it. Firstly, if you are reading simple text, like a website in Hebrew or a
> text message and  Voiceover says “Le-Hebrew-letter-aleph”, try going back
> to your English voice and then back to the Hebrew voice. That usually works
> for me. The other reason that this mispronunciation could happen is if you
> are reading texts like the Tanakh or a rabbinic source such as the mishna
> or Gemarah. In these texts, especially the Torah, certain letters are
> written bigger than others, such as the daled in the word “echad” in the
> shemah. Voiceover will pronounce that letter separately, simply because it
> looks different. As there is really no way to fix this issue as yet, other
> than reading in Braille on a display, if you are using speech only, I would
> probably stick to English if you can, unless you absolutely have to read in
> Hebrew. I obviously would prefer to read texts in the original Hebrew, like
> any good Yid, but with the formatting difficulty that I have just
> mentioned, it can be very cumbersome.
>
> Please let me know if there is anything more I can do to help.
>
> Ryan L. Silveira
> Chaim Ben Avraham-Silveira
>
> > On Jan 26, 2021, at 1:55 AM, Eric Harvey via NFBJ <nfbj at nfbnet.org>
> wrote:
> >
> > Dear all,
> >
> > Does anyone on this list use a Mac with voiceOver to read Hebrew text? I
> > would like to be able to use the text-to-speech when i don't have Braille
> > available, but I am having major issues with pronunciation, and it is
> > unusable. For example, every time an aleph appears it says "Hebrew Letter
> > Aleph" instead of pronouncing it. So lo turns into
> > "le-Hebrew-Letter-Aleph."
> >
> > Any help or leads on other helpful resources would be appreciated!
> >
> > Thank you,
> > Eric
> >
> > --
> > ————————————
> > Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D.
> > Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
> > Brandeis University
> >
> > www.blindscholar.com
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-- 
————————————
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D.
Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Brandeis University

www.blindscholar.com