Greek and Hebrew Alphabet Songs

[forty-two]

I made these up for my daughter, who kept asking for a song when I was reading her Greek and Hebrew alphabet books. They are quite simple, but I thought they might be useful to others. They are both to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," aka the traditional English Alphabet song, as that is the only proper alphabet song as far as my dd is concerned :giggle.

Greek Alphabet song:

Al-pha ___ Be-ta ____ Gam-ma _ Del-ta
Twin-kle _ twin-kle ___ lit-tle ____ star

E-psi-lon _ Dze-ta __ E-ta ____ The-ta
How I ____ won-der _ what you _ are

I-o-ta _ Kap-pa __ Lamb-da __ Mu
Up a- _ bove the _ world so __ high

Nu ____ Xi ______ O-mi-cron _ Pi
Like a _ dia-mond _ in the ____ sky

Rho ____ Sig-ma _ Tau __ U-psi-lon
Twin-kle _ twin-kle _ lit-tle _ star

Phi and _ Chi and __ Psi and _ O-me-ga
How I ___ won-der _ what you _ are

Pronunciation:
'a' is always /ah/ (as in drama)
'e' is /A/ (as in cake), except in epsilon and omega, where it is /e/ (as in pet)
'i' is /E/ (as in week), except in epsilon, sigma, and upsilon, where it is /i/ (as in pit)
'o' is always /O/ (as in boat and snow)
'u' is always /U/ (as in fruit)


Hebrew Alphabet Song:
(the new and improved version - thanks Heather!)

A-lef ____ Bet ___ Gi-mel _ Da-let
Twin-kle _ twin-kle _ lit-tle __ star

He ___ Vav _____ Za- _____ yin
How I _ won-der _ what you _ are

Chet __ Tet _____ Yod ____ Kaf
Up a- _ bove the _ world so _ high

La-med _ Mem ____ Nun __ Sam-ek
Like a __ dia-mond _ in the _ sky

A- ______ yin _____ Pe __ Tsa-di
Twin-kle _ twin-kle _ lit-tle _ star

Qof ___ Resh ____ Shin ___ Tav
How I _ won-der _ what you _ are

Pronunciation:
The first syllable is always accented.
'a' is always /ah/ (as in drama)
'e' is /A/ (as in cake), except in alef, gimel, dalet, and samek, where it is /e/ (as in pet)
'i' is always /E/ (as in week)
'o' is always /O/ (as in boat)
'u' is always /U/ (as in fruit)

[Blueberrybabies]

:rockon
I want to start teaching these to my oldest.

[Heather Micaela]

Great job :rockon - I may use this! But your transliteration is off a bit. Don't go by the webster version. The unicode is more accurate and common. It should be a hard t not a th ,and v not W (and using an f makes it look less Greek :giggle)

So:

Hebrew Alphabet Song:

A-lef ___ Bet __ Gi-mel _ Da-let
Twin-kle _ twin-kle _ lit-tle __ star

He ___ Vav ____ Za- _____ yin
How I _ won-der _ what you _ are

Het _ Tet _____ Yod ____ Kaf
Up a- __ bove the _ world so _ high

La-med _ Mem ____ Nun __ Sam-ek
Like a __ dia-mond _ in the _ sky

A- ______ yin _____ Pe __ Tsa-di
Twin-kle _ twin-kle _ lit-tle _ star

Qof _ Resh ____ Shin ____ Tav
How I _ won-der _ what you _ are




I am wondering though if there is a way to add in the letters when the dagesh changes thier sound, so it shows shin and sin (ans so forth) :heart :think

[forty-two]

Thanks for the corrections - I was going by the pronunciations and transliterations given in the Hebrew alphabet book I have. I thought about adding in the "extras" (so to speak), but it when I tried it threw off my ability to memorize the letters in order. Plus, at the moment I cannot for the life of me pronounce most of them correctly - like kaf and khaf (assuming that's the right transliteration) - I just cannot "hear" the difference - they sound the same when I say them. So I figured it was best to wait till I could say them right.

[Heather Micaela]

kh or ch is to let you know it is gutteral - imagine you are clearing your throat when you say it. And transliteration is an approximation at best. That is why there are so many ways to spell Chanukah. Plus you add in regional dialects and it complicates things even more.

Here is a great site if you are interested :heart
http://www.akhlah.com/aleph_bet/aleph-bet.php

[forty-two]

Thanks for that site - I actually hadn't seen the Hebrew letter names written out in Hebrew letters yet. It made *such* a difference when I saw the Greek letter names written out in Greek (since, as you pointed out, all transliterations are approximations) - gave me much more confidence in how to say them, since I could check any given transliteration for myself.

[Living My Dream]

ooooooooooo thats good!!!!! thanks for sharing!