# Ox house camel door (Hebrew alphabet) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 16, 2013, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ox-house-camel-door-hebrew-alphabet/650490 "2013-02-16T11:41:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2019, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ox-house-camel-door-hebrew-alphabet/650490/41 "2019-01-21T07:42:21Z")
It’s not much different in approach from an English children’s alphabet - A is for Apple, B is for Ball, C is for Cat… ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2019, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ox-house-camel-door-hebrew-alphabet/650490/42 "2019-01-21T16:12:19Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > It’s not much different in approach from an English children’s alphabet - A is for Apple, B is for Ball, C is for Cat… With the addition that B is a picture of a ball and so on, and also why does the Apple come before the Ball? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ox-house-camel-door-hebrew-alphabet/650490/43 "2019-01-22T06:37:36Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > As long as we reopened this can of worms, here’s [Richard Salomon on alphabetical ordering principles](http://www.scripta.kr/scripta_v0010/?module=file&act=procFileDownload&file_srl=914&sid=d9cb5325180a8fb8ab0e60933187009a) (warning: PDF auto-download): Well, finally a clear idea about the rationale. Thanks, **Kimstu**! ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ox-house-camel-door-hebrew-alphabet/650490/44 "2019-01-22T15:08:49Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Bear in mind that Hebrew, or a language very much like it, was spoken by a large number of nations along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. This includes the Phoenicians, who were definitely not a nomadic tribe. [tangent] This makes me wonder whether or not Punic was mutually intelligible with contemporaneous eastern-Mediterranean Hebrew? Or if there was noted divergence even then (Carthage did last a while, after all). More tangent: is written Punic at all accessible to modern Hebrew readers (given any necessary transliteration)? [/tangent] ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ox-house-camel-door-hebrew-alphabet/650490/45 "2019-01-22T15:37:46Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > [tangent] > > This makes me wonder whether or not Punic was mutually intelligible with contemporaneous eastern-Mediterranean Hebrew? Or if there was noted divergence even then (Carthage did last a while, after all). > > More tangent: is written Punic at all accessible to modern Hebrew readers (given any necessary transliteration)? > > [/tangent] I’d like to know these things too. Good question. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ox-house-camel-door-hebrew-alphabet/650490/46 "2019-01-22T16:33:59Z")
I don’t know about “modern Hebrew readers” - how comfortable are they with say Biblical Hebrew? - but the Wikipedia snippets of 5th-century Phoenician and 1st century BC “Late Punic” seem definitely still pretty close to Hebrew to me. It’s the later AD Punic that would raise intelligibility questions. I am not familiar with it therefore cannot comment. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ox-house-camel-door-hebrew-alphabet/650490/47 "2019-01-22T17:03:29Z")
And of course, mutual intelligibility is a squishy criterion to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ox-house-camel-door-hebrew-alphabet/650490/48 "2019-01-22T22:35:03Z")
[How many Israelis have those four words as their computer password?](https://xkcd.com/936/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ox-house-camel-door-hebrew-alphabet/650490.md?page=2)