Madam, - Your correspondent Edwin Kelly, writing from Jinhae City, South Korea (May 1st) asks: "Wots wrng wit textn . . .? N wots so gr8 bout vwls nway?"
He is perfectly correct. Ancient Hebrew never used vowels, and it was only in the ninth century AD that the Masoretes added vowels (awkwardly, above and below the line).
When the scholars of Israel resurrected the long-deceased Hebrew language in the 20th century, they dumped the vowels and seem to be doing quite well without them, apart from children's books.
After all, if you meet 'pt' in modern Hebrew, you will have great fun making out whether it is pat, pet, pit, pot or put. Incidentally, isn't it strange that 'p' is the only letter of the alphabet that can combine with each of the five vowels to form an English word another consonant? - Yours, etc,
JAMES GOOD, Parkview, Church Street, Douglas, Cork.