---
title: "Resources for processing Israeli Hebrew — Wintner 2003"
description: "Wintner and Yona, at Haifa, describe work in progress on a set of Hebrew resources: newspaper corpora… 11 references."
authors: ["Shuly Wintner", "Shlomo Yona"]
year: 2003
venue: "Workshop on Machine Translation for Semitic languages: issues and approaches"
source: "https://aclanthology.org/2003.mtsummit-semit.12/"
licence: "CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 (ACL Anthology, before 2016)"
licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/"
summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License"
canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/wintner-2003-resources-processing-israeli-hebrew/"
---
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# Resources for processing Israeli Hebrew

**Authors:** [Shuly Wintner](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/shuly-wintner/); [Shlomo Yona](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/shlomo-yona/) · **Year:** 2003 · **Venue:** Workshop on Machine Translation for Semitic languages: issues and approaches **Link:** [aclanthology.org/2003.mtsummit-semit.12](https://aclanthology.org/2003.mtsummit-semit.12/) · library `lingbulk-2003-wintner-resources-processing-israeli-hebrew` · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) (ACL Anthology, before 2016) — summary only

[**1** citations](https://openalex.org/works?filter=cites:W3214497464) OpenAlex, 2026-10-14 · [Workshop on Machine Translation for Semitic languages: issues and approaches](https://aclanthology.org/volumes/2003.mtsummit-semit/) · [licence](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)

- [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/2003.mtsummit-semit.12/)
- [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/2003.mtsummit-semit.12.pdf)
- [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W3214497464)

**Authors (2)**

1. [Shuly Wintner](https://openalex.org/A5032082399) [ORCID](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7154-4764) · [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/2524073) · h 27 · 2,368 citations · 164 works
2. [Shlomo Yona](https://openalex.org/A5038577520) [Semantic Scholar](https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/14805018) · h 3 · 56 citations · 5 works

Citations and author metrics: OpenAlex, 2026-10-14; authors with the same name are not always told apart.

## What it is about

Wintner and Yona, at Haifa, describe work in progress on a set of Hebrew resources: newspaper corpora (about 1.3 million tokens from 2,500 articles, and a larger Arutz 7 set of 55,310 articles and about 6.35 million tokens), a cleaning and sentence-splitting pipeline, a tokeniser that treats any non-alphabetic character as a boundary, an XML lexicon, a finite-state morphological analyser built with XFST that produces all analyses of a word, and a plan for a Hebrew WordNet within MultiWordNet. At the time the lexicon held about 350 nouns and 50 verbs, and the verb weak paradigms were not yet tested. The planned next steps are learned lexicon extension from unseen forms, and a cascade of finite-state transducers for numerals, dates, names and phrase boundaries. The paper is a status report and gives no accuracy figures.

## Ideas

- I2. Exceptions in the lexicon, not the rules: store only the idiosyncratic plural endings (the default is im for masculine and wt for feminine) and the secondary verb bases that are hard to generate. Check the Biblical noun and verb chapters against this split.

## For Mova

- I1. A finite-state cascade before the parser: small transducers for numerals, dates, addresses, names and phrase boundaries, run in order. For `tools/hbo`, run the same kind of cascade over unpointed text before `gparse`.
- I3. Cleaning policy: prefer accuracy over coverage, and skip a span when unsure. Tokenise by alphabetic runs and keep the known failures (for example a multi-word place name split into two tokens) as a test set for `tools/langseg` and `tools/ocrfix`.
- I4. Undotted spelling variants: one word appears in several spellings, sometimes within one document. The analyser should map the variants to one lexeme. This is a rule for [languages/he/02-script-and-spelling.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/02-script-and-spelling/).

I1 goes into `tools/hbo` pre-processing. I2 goes into [languages/hbo/04-noun.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/04-noun/) and [languages/hbo/06-verb.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/hbo/06-verb/). I3 is a test for `tools/langseg` and `tools/ocrfix`. I4 goes into [languages/he/02-script-and-spelling.md](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/02-script-and-spelling/).

Topics[Hebrew & Aramaic](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/hebrew-aramaic/) · [Semitic languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/semitic-languages/)

## Cite

Cite as Shuly Wintner and Shlomo Yona. 2003. Resources for processing Israeli Hebrew. Workshop on Machine Translation for Semitic languages: issues and approaches.

The paper itself, not this card. BibTeX from the library's record of the work.

```bibtex
@inproceedings{wintner2003resources,
  title = {{Resources for processing Israeli Hebrew}},
  author = {Shuly Wintner and Shlomo Yona},
  booktitle = {Workshop on Machine Translation for Semitic languages: issues and approaches},
  year = {2003},
  url = {https://aclanthology.org/2003.mtsummit-semit.12/}
}
```

- [← previous High quality machine translation using a machine-learned sentence realization component](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/smets-2003-high-quality-machine-translation-machine/)
- [next → Roots & patterns vs. stems plus grammar-lexis specifications: on what basis should a multilingual database centred on Arabic be built?](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/dichy-2003-roots-patterns-vs-stems-plus/)
- [↑ back to papers of 2003](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/2003/)

## References

11 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

1. Abney, Steven. 1996. Partial parsing via finite-state cascades. In Workshop on Robust Parsing, 8th European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information, pages 8–15, Prague, Czech Republic. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Abney%2C+Steven%2E+1996%2E+Partial+parsing+via+finite%2Dstate+cascades%2E+In+Workshop+on+Robust+Parsing%2C+8th+European+Summer+School+in+Logic%2C+Language+and+Information%2C+pages+8%E2%80%9315%2C+Prague%2C+Czech+Republic%2E)
2. Beesley, Kenneth R. and Lauri Karttunen. 2003. Finite-State Morphology: Xerox Tools and Techniques. CSLI, Stanford. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Beesley%2C+Kenneth+R%2E+and+Lauri+Karttunen%2E+2003%2E+Finite%2DState+Morphology%3A+Xerox+Tools+and+Techniques%2E+CSLI%2C+Stanford%2E)
3. Bentivogli, Luisa, Emanuele Pianta, and Christian Girardi. 2002. MultiWordNet: developing an aligned multilingual database. In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Global WordNet, Mysore, India, January. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Bentivogli%2C+Luisa%2C+Emanuele+Pianta%2C+and+Christian+Girardi%2E+2002%2E+MultiWordNet%3A+developing+an+aligned+multilingual+database%2E+In+Proceedings+of+the+First+International+Conference+on+Global+WordNet%2C+Myso)
4. Bentur, Esther, Aviella Angel, and Danit Segev. 1992. Computerized analysis of Hebrew words. Hebrew Linguistics, 36:33–38, December. In Hebrew. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Bentur%2C+Esther%2C+Aviella+Angel%2C+and+Danit+Segev%2E+1992%2E+Computerized+analysis+of+Hebrew+words%2E+Hebrew+Linguistics%2C+36%3A33%E2%80%9338%2C+December%2E+In+Hebrew%2E)
5. Choueka, Yaacov. 1980. Computerized full-text retrieval systems and research in the humanities: The Responsa project. Computers and the Humanities, 14:153–169. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Choueka%2C+Yaacov%2E+1980%2E+Computerized+full%2Dtext+retrieval+systems+and+research+in+the+humanities%3A+The+Responsa+project%2E+Computers+and+the+Humanities%2C+14%3A153%E2%80%93169%2E)
6. Choueka, Yaacov. 1993. Response to “Computerized analysis of Hebrew words”. Hebrew Linguistics, 37:87, December. In Hebrew. Choueka, Yaacov and Yoni Ne’eman. “Nakdan-T”, a text vocalizer for modern Hebrew. In Proceedings of the Fourth Bar-Ilan Symposium on Foundations of Artificial Intelligence, June. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Choueka%2C+Yaacov%2E+1993%2E+Response+to+%E2%80%9CComputerized+analysis+of+Hebrew+words%E2%80%9D%2E+Hebrew+Linguistics%2C+37%3A87%2C+December%2E+In+Hebrew%2E+Choueka%2C+Yaacov+and+Yoni+Ne%E2%80%99eman%2E+%E2%80%9CNakdan%2DT%E2%80%9D%2C+a+text+vocalizer+for+modern+He)
7. Dahan, Hiya. 1997. Hebrew–English English– Hebrew Dictionary. Academon, Jerusalem. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Dahan%2C+Hiya%2E+1997%2E+Hebrew%E2%80%93English+English%E2%80%93+Hebrew+Dictionary%2E+Academon%2C+Jerusalem%2E)
8. Fellbaum, Christiane, editor. 1998. WordNet: An Electronic Lexical Database. Language, Speech and Communication. MIT Press. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Fellbaum%2C+Christiane%2C+editor%2E+1998%2E+WordNet%3A+An+Electronic+Lexical+Database%2E+Language%2C+Speech+and+Communication%2E+MIT+Press%2E)
9. Horvath, Julia and Paul Wexler. 1997. Relexification in Creole and Non-Creole Languages – With Special Attention to Haitian Creole, Modern Hebrew, Romani, and Rumanian, volume xiii of Mediterranean Language and Culture Monograph Series. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Horvath%2C+Julia+and+Paul+Wexler%2E+1997%2E+Relexification+in+Creole+and+Non%2DCreole+Languages+%E2%80%93+With+Special+Attention+to+Haitian+Creole%2C+Modern+Hebrew%2C+Romani%2C+and+Rumanian%2C+volume+xiii+of+Mediterranean+La)
10. Izre’el, Shlomo, Benjamin Hary, and Giora Rahav. 2002. Designing CoSIH: The corpus of Spoken Israeli Hebrew. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 6(2):171–197. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Izre%E2%80%99el%2C+Shlomo%2C+Benjamin+Hary%2C+and+Giora+Rahav%2E+2002%2E+Designing+CoSIH%3A+The+corpus+of+Spoken+Israeli+Hebrew%2E+International+Journal+of+Corpus+Linguistics%2C+6%282%29%3A171%E2%80%93197%2E)
11. Kaplan, Ronald M. and Martin Kay. 1994. Regular models of phonological rule systems. Computational Linguistics, 20(3):331–378, September. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Kaplan%2C+Ronald+M%2E+and+Martin+Kay%2E+1994%2E+Regular+models+of+phonological+rule+systems%2E+Computational+Linguistics%2C+20%283%29%3A331%E2%80%93378%2C+September%2E)