Transliteration of Biblical Hebrew for the Role-Lexical Module

Abstract

The Role-Lexical Module (RLM) is a syntax-to-semantics mapping tool for Biblical Hebrew described in Winther-Nielsen (2008, 2009) and Wilson (2009). It is the first implementation of a multilingual database system for the theory of Role and Reference Grammar proposed by Van Valin (2005). In this technical report on work in progress we explain how we have improved on the transliteration of Biblical Hebrew for a new and updated version of the RLM-tool. Our goal is to allow fellow scholars and students to be able to copy-and-paste linguistically glossed text from Hebrew Bible into papers and books. The transliteration can also support online teaching and studies of the Hebrew characters for students at the introductory level of learning Biblical Hebrew.

This Technical Report will show how we have used the transliteration system develop by Nava Bergman for

The Cambridge Workbook of Biblical Hebrew (2005) and implemented this into an online-tool. We use the Hebrew Bible database produced by the Werkgroep Informatica of the Vrije Universiteit (WIVU) in Amsterdam, and commercially available in full in the commercial Bible Software product the Stuttgart Electronic Bible Study (SESB) 3.0. Our project has a license for research generously granted us by the German and Dutch Bible Societies.