Israel > The JTF Hebrew Club
More than one Hebrew
rhayat1:
The Hebrew used in Israel today (by and large) is mostly based on European Hebrew. It is a fallacy that it is based on Oriental Hebrew (sometimes mistakenly called "Sephardic"). Here are some examples of Europeanisms that have been adopted in Israel:
Ghimel - the soft (non-dagesh) form of this letter has been lost.
Dhalet - the soft (non-dagesh) form of this letter has been lost - though it was only maintained in Yemen and certain parts of Iraq, including Baghdad. This is necessary to conform to the requirement of "lengthening the dhalet" in the word "Ehadh" while reciting the Shema'
He - this letter is being replaced, in common speech, by the aleph. I have a treatise by a Jerusalem Ashkenazic rabbi bemoaning this fact. Very interesting but not actually a "Europeanism" still I thought I'd mention it here.
Waw - this letter, which should be pronounced as an English "w" has been replaced by "v" as in a German trying to say "I wish to thank you" but saying "I vish to sank you".
Het - A guttural letter, it has been replaced by the glottal soft "khaf". This changes the meaning of many words and even disguises the Semitic origins of Hebrew, making it sound more like German.
Tet - this is supposed to be a nasal "t", more blunt than the "t" we use in English. It has been replaced by the hard "Taw".
Ayin - this has been replaced by Alef. See comments on Het.
Sade - there are no diphthongs in Hebrew; each letter is a pure sound. But this letter has been transformed into the Germanic "ts". Also, the name of the letter is "Sade", not "tsadik".
Qof - should have a somewhat metallic sound and distinct from the hard "kaf". It has been rendered identical to "kaf".
Resh - like all Semitic languages, the resh is formed in the front part of the mouth as in Spanish, Russian and Arabic. Modern Israelis, having learned from their German and Polish school teachers, got in the habit of replacing it with the glottal soft gh sound. This transformation makes the language harder to understand and, at least when I was in Israel, radio speakers took pains to pronounce the resh correctly for this reason. It is sad to see so many Russian immigrants taking pains to forget their "r" in favor of the "Israeli" r when they had it right to begin with.
Thaw - this is the only letter where they adopted Sephardic tradition; but even so, it is incorrect. The soft thaw is English "th" as in "thirty".
The strong dagesh - completely ignored, it is the hallmark of a Semitic language. What a shame.
Metheg/G'ayah - the lengthening of certain vowels is also a hallmark of Semitic languages. It has been forgotten.
There is much more to this and I've only scratched the surface. My dear departed mentor, Ben Siyyon Cohen, wrote two books on the matter, "Sephath Emeth" and "Qosht Imre Emeth" where he proves what I've written (and more) beyond any shadow of a doubt.
Lisa:
Interesting.
Edward:
This is very interesting, I always thought that the Israeli accent does not represent the true ancient Hebrew. It sounds more like the Dutch accent.. especially their Khet and Shin.
rhayat1:
--- Quote from: Edward on January 28, 2010, 03:00:39 PM ---This is very interesting, I always thought that the Israeli accent does not represent the true ancient Hebrew. It sounds more like the Dutch accent.. especially their Khet and Shin.
--- End quote ---
Actually the shin is one of the few letters that have not been altered much over time (if at all).
I think it's worth noting that Eli'ezer ben Yehuda was all for restoring Hebrew to its former glory as a true Semitic language. He borrowed heavily from Arabic and favored the mideastern accent. Unfortunately, his opinion was not heeded in this matter and the vast majority of those with power and influence we Ashkenazim, amongst whom very few had either the will or the knowledge to restore Hebrew as a Mideastern language. For a long time, it was not permitted for anybody who spoke Hebrew with a Mideastern dialect to speak on television as an announcer. In a sense, there was a campaign to destroy Mideastern Hebrew - much as there is a campaign to destroy Southern English here in the U.S. As for radio, they did allow traces of mideastern Hebrew there - but not much. In schools, the children were taught only European Hebrew. Though there were (are?) societies for the preservation of the 'Ayin (for example), it is an uphill struggle partly because Israelis, by and large, hate Arabs and anything associated with them; hence, they do not want their language sounding anything like Arabic. They would rather it sound like German. Go figure. As for my experiences in Israel with Hebrew, I could tell you stories...
Edward:
They don't use the Ayin, because it makes their language to sound like Arabic?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version