[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/aclbulk-2020-azar-thesaurus-biblical-hebrew/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [docs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/) / [papers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/) / [Ancient Hebrew](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo/) / A Thesaurus for Biblical Hebrew # A Thesaurus for Biblical Hebrew **Authors:** Miriam Azar; Aliza Pahmer; Joshua Waxman · **Year:** 2020 · **Venue:** Proceedings of LT4HALA 2020 - 1st Workshop on Language Technologies for Historical and Ancient Languages (LREC 2020) **Link:** [aclanthology.org/2020.lt4hala-1.10](https://aclanthology.org/2020.lt4hala-1.10/) · library `aclbulk-2020-azar-thesaurus-biblical-hebrew` · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) — summary only [**0** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W3087939510) openalex-snapshot · 2026-10-14[Proceedings of LT4HALA 2020 - 1st Workshop on Language Technologies for Historical and Ancient Languages](https://aclanthology.org/volumes/2020.lt4hala-1/)[licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) - [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/2020.lt4hala-1.10/) - [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/2020.lt4hala-1.10.pdf) - [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W3087939510) **Authors (3)** 1. [Miriam Azar](https://openalex.org/A5021200276) [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/1737832670) · h 0 · 0 citations · 1 works 2. [Aliza Pahmer](https://openalex.org/A5063856120) [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/1738704599) · h 0 · 0 citations · 1 works 3. [Joshua Waxman](https://openalex.org/A5061490400) [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/2073757033) · h 0 · 0 citations · 6 works Citations and author metrics from openalex-snapshot (2026-10-14); authors with the same name are not always told apart. ## What it is about The authors build a graph thesaurus of Biblical Hebrew roots and lexemes, with three kinds of edges. Semantic edges link headwords in Klein's etymological dictionary, and in Brown-Driver-Briggs, whose English glosses have a tf-idf cosine above 0.33. Phonetic edges come from Clark's phonemic classes, which group roots after Hirsch's theory that similar-sounding roots are related, plus gradational variants (hollow, geminate) and single-letter substitutions. Distributional edges come from PPMI vectors over a lexeme window and from Word2Vec at a cosine of 0.9, both on the ETCBC lexeme text. Human review gives precision of about 0.91 for Klein's semantic edges (6,793 of 7,472), 0.76 for Brown-Driver-Briggs, 0.82 for PPMI and 0.98 for Word2Vec at the high threshold. The phonetic edges are weak: sibilant replacement reaches 0.24, gradational variants 0.11, and membership of a Clark class only 0.03. The graph is served from a Neo4j database. ## Ideas - I1. Test the gradational rules of hollow and geminate roots (yod, vav, he and the repeated middle letter) against a root table as a deterministic generator of candidate variants. The check belongs in the weak-verb chapter, where those rules are stated. - I2. Use the paper's per-type precision as a negative control: any "similar-sounding roots share meaning" feature has to beat these figures, and most phonetic classes do not. Write such a warning into the Hebrew test set before a phonetic feature is used. - I3. A review protocol: sample 200 neighbour pairs from a distributional graph, have a human judge them, and report precision by source, the way the paper does. Use it for any lexicon-neighbour suggestion before it is shown to a reader. ## For Mova I1 is a test for [The weak verbs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/07-weak-verbs/); I2 is a measurement in `tools/hbo` and in [The lexicon](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/10-lexicon/); I3 is a test protocol for [The lexicon](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/10-lexicon/). The data is non-commercial: it may be used for tests and measurements only, and nothing taken from it goes into what is built. ## Cite The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. ``` @inproceedings{azar2020thesaurus, title = {{A Thesaurus for Biblical Hebrew}}, author = {Azar, Miriam and Pahmer, Aliza and Waxman, Joshua}, booktitle = {Proceedings of LT4HALA 2020 - 1st Workshop on Language Technologies for Historical and Ancient Languages}, year = {2020}, url = {https://aclanthology.org/2020.lt4hala-1.10/} } ``` - [← previous What's Wrong with Hebrew NLP? And How to Make it Right](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/aclbulk-2019-tsarfaty-what-s-wrong-hebrew-nlp/) - [next → Nakdan: Professional Hebrew Diacritizer](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/aclbulk-2020-shmidman-nakdan-professional-hebrew-diacritizer/) - [↑ back to Ancient Hebrew](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo/) ## References 10 references, 1 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet. 1. Brown, F., Driver, S.M., Briggs, C.A. (1906). A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, England. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Brown%2C+F%2E%2C+Driver%2C+S%2EM%2E%2C+Briggs%2C+C%2EA%2E+%281906%29%2E+A+Hebrew+and+English+Lexicon+of+the+Old+Testament%2C+England%2E) 2. Clark, M. (1999). Etymological Dictionary of Biblical Hebrew: Based on the Commentaries of Samson Raphael Hirsch. Feldheim, Nanuet, NY. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Clark%2C+M%2E+%281999%29%2E+Etymological+Dictionary+of+Biblical+Hebrew%3A+Based+on+the+Commentaries+of+Samson+Raphael+Hirsch%2E+Feldheim%2C+Nanuet%2C+NY%2E) 3. Hirsch, S. (1867 – 1878). Uebersetzung und Erklärung des Pentateuchs, 5 vols. Frankfurt-on-Main, Germany. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Hirsch%2C+S%2E+%281867+%E2%80%93+1878%29%2E+Uebersetzung+und+Erkl%C3%A4rung+des+Pentateuchs%2C+5+vols%2E+Frankfurt%2Don%2DMain%2C+Germany%2E) 4. Klein, E. (1987). A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English. Carta, Jerusalem, Israel. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Klein%2C+E%2E+%281987%29%2E+A+Comprehensive+Etymological+Dictionary+of+the+Hebrew+Language+for+Readers+of+English%2E+Carta%2C+Jerusalem%2C+Israel%2E) 5. Mandelkern, S. (1896). Veteris Testamenti Concordantiæ Hebraicae Atque Chaldaicae. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Mandelkern%2C+S%2E+%281896%29%2E+Veteris+Testamenti+Concordanti%C3%A6+Hebraicae+Atque+Chaldaicae%2E) 6. Veit et Comp., New York Ordan, N., Wintner, S. (2007). Hebrew WordNet: a test case of aligning lexical databases across languages. International Journal of Translation 19(1):39-58, 2007. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Veit+et+Comp%2E%2C+New+York+Ordan%2C+N%2E%2C+Wintner%2C+S%2E+%282007%29%2E+Hebrew+WordNet%3A+a+test+case+of+aligning+lexical+databases+across+languages%2E+International+Journal+of+Translation+19%281%29%3A39%2D58%2C+2007%2E) 7. Roorda, D. (2015). The Hebrew Bible as Data: Laboratory - Sharing – Experiences, https://arxiv.org/pdf/1501.01866.pdf [↗](https://arxiv.org/abs/1501.01866) [our card](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/hbo-2015-roorda-hebrew-bible-data-laboratory-sharing/) 8. Sefaria, 2018. New Releases: Jastrow and Klein Dictionaries [https://blog.sefaria.org/blog/2018/11/12/jastrow-and-klein-dictionaries](https://blog.sefaria.org/blog/2018/11/12/jastrow-and-klein-dictionaries) [↗](https://blog.sefaria.org/blog/2018/11/12/jastrow-and-klein-dictionaries) 9. Strong, J. (1894). The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Hunt and Eaton, New York. 8. Language Resource References Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer. (2015). [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Strong%2C+J%2E+%281894%29%2E+The+Exhaustive+Concordance+of+the+Bible%2E+Hunt+and+Eaton%2C+New+York%2E+8%2E+Language+Resource+References+Eep+Talstra+Centre+for+Bible+and+Computer%2E+%282015%29%2E) 10. ETCBC Dataset Sefaria (2018). The Sefaria MongoDB. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=ETCBC+Dataset+Sefaria+%282018%29%2E+The+Sefaria+MongoDB%2E)