[NFBJ] Reading Hebrew with VoiceOver

[Rachel Bodek]

How about reaching out to Apple with your concerns and suggestions?

This  message  was  sent  with  my  mobile  phone,  please  disregard  any  typos  or  grammatical  errors.  Thanks,  Rachel

On Jan 28, 2021, at 2:46 PM, Eric Harvey via NFBJ <nfbj at nfbnet.org> wrote:

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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> 
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-- 
————————————
Eric J. Harvey, Ph.D.
Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Brandeis University

www.blindscholar.com
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