Proper Names in Written Hebrew

[Lama_Pacos]

In written Hebrew, without visible vowels, how do people parse unfamiliar proper nouns? I’d imagine this would be fairly rampant in fantasy novels and the like. If a Hebrew reader sees fei-reish-dalet (or whatever), without knowing Lord of the Rings, how do they know it’s supposed to be Frodo and not Freedee or Fruda or Farud or Forad or any number of other possibilities? I guess this would also be relevant for history books with lots of names and places.

[bordelond]

Vowels can be represented in Hebrew:

A pointing system (nikud, from the root word meaning “points” or “dots”) developed around the 5th Century C.E. is used to indicate vowels and syllabic stresses in some religious books, and is almost always found in modern poetry, children’s literature, and texts for beginning students of Hebrew. The system is also used sparingly to avoid certain ambiguities of meaning — such as when context is insufficient to distinguish between two identically spelled words — and in the transliteration of foreign names.

Now, whether or not pointing would typically be used, say, to transliterate names in a fantasy novel aimed at adults, I can’t say.

[Lama_Pacos]

Thanks, yeah, I am aware of the vowel system, but I can’t picture a book being written in the standard vowel-less way with a few incongruous vowelful word sprinkled in here and there-- maybe so, though.

[Alessan]

@Lama Pacos

In written Hebrew, without visible vowels, how do people parse unfamiliar proper nouns? I’d imagine this would be fairly rampant in fantasy novels and the like. If a Hebrew reader sees fei-reish-dalet (or whatever), without knowing Lord of the Rings, how do they know it’s supposed to be Frodo and not Freedee or Fruda or Farud or Forad or any number of other possibilities? I guess this would also be relevant for history books with lots of names and places.

Genrally, the first time they intruduce a name they use nikud, and afterwards you have to either remember, leaf back, or wing it. For years - until I picked up a copy in English - I thought the hero of LotR was named Prudo Baggins.

Seriously.

[JMEB]

It is done by knowledge of the word and context. Although one does get the knack of it. You may not realise that you point can be addressed in a more powerful way; Biblical Hebrew is translated by its vowel networking, as Modern Hebrew is derived from it, the way of reading in modern hebrew does not make sense in the slightest.
your point does still stand strong nevertheless as hebrew is built around root letters, many words un vowelled can mean many different things