| Table of contents |
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2 Notes: 3 Vowels ("tnuo't") 4 Writing |
| Labial | Velar | Alveolar |
|---|---|---|
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/b/ (1) /v/ (1, 2) /m/ /p/ (1) /f/ (1)
| /g/ /j/ (semi-vowel; weak) /k/ (1, 3)
| /d/ /t/ (4, 5) /l/ (Always pronounced as the "l" in "learn", not "land") /n/ /r/ |
| Glottal | Dental | Foreign Borrowings |
|
/h/ (semi-vowel, a voiced aspirate, akin to the American pronunciation of /h/ in "hot") /x/ (1, 6) /a'/ (7) | /z/ (pronounced as the "x" in "Xena") /ts/ (5) /s/ /S/ (Read like the "s" in "sure"; in the examples written as "sh") | /dZ/ (Sounds like the "j" in "Jill") /Z/ (Sounds like the "j" in the French "Jacqueline") /tS/ (Sounds like the "ch" in "Chill")
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The Hebrew language has 5 vowels:
Ancient Hebrew did not have diphthongs. Although diphthongs do exist in modern spoken Hebrew, grammar rules discourage their use. Thus, the root Y-Kh-L, 2nd person singular, future should have been conjugated "tuykhal", however the correct form is "tukhal".
Hebrew phonetics include a special feature called schwa. There are two kinds of schwa: resting ("nah") and moving ("na'"). The resting schwa is pronounced as a brief stop of speech. The moving schwa sounds much like the English schwa.
Hebrew also has "dagesh," a strengthening. There are two kinds of strengthenings: light ("qal", known also as "dagesh lene") and heavy ("xazaq" or "dagesh fortis"). There are two sub-categories of the heavy dagesh: structural heavy ("xazaq tavniti") and complementing heavy ("xazaq mashlim"). The light affects the phonemes /v/ /g/ /d/ /kh/ /f/ /t/ in the beginning of a word, or after a resting schwa. Structural heavy emphases belong to certain vowel patterns ("mishkalim" and "binyanim", see Hebrew morphology). Complementing strengthening is added when vowel assimilation takes place. As mentioned before, the emphasis influences which of a pair of allophones is pronounced. Interestingly enough, historical evidence indicates that /g/, /d/ and /t/ used to have strengthened versions of their own, however they had disappeared from virtually all the spoken dialects of Hebrew. All other consonants except aspirates may receive an emphasis, but their sound will not change.
Hebrew has two kinds of stress ("taa'm"): on the last syllable ("milra'") and on the penultimate syllable (the one preceding the last, "mile'l"). The former is more frequent. Specific rules connect the location of the stress with the length of the vowels in the last syllable; however due to the fact that Modern Hebrew does not distinguish between long and short vowels, these rules are often ignored in everyday speech. Interestingly enough, the rules that specify the vowel length are different for verbs and nouns, which influences the stress; thus the mile'l-stressed "ókhel" ("food") and milra'-stressed "okhèl" ("eats", masculine) are written in the same way. Little ambiguity exists, however, due to nouns and verbs having incompatible roles in normal sentences.
One-letter words are always attached to the following word. Such words include: the definite article; prepositions "b" ("in"), "m" ("from"), "l" ("to"); conjunctions "sh" ("that"), "k" ("as", "like"), "v" ("and"). The vowel which follows the letter thus attached depends in general on the beginning of the next word and the presence of a definite article which may be swallowed by the one-letter word. The rules for the prepositions are as follows: in most cases they are followed by a moving schwa, and for that reason they're pronounced as "be", "me" and "le". If preposition is put before a word which begins from a moving schwa, then the preposition receives the vowel /i/. For example, *"be-khlal" becomes "bi-khlal", "in general". If "l" or "b" are followed by the definite article "ha", their vowel changes to /a/. Thus *"be-ha-matos" becomes "ba-matos", "in the plane". However it does not happen to "m", therefore "me-ha-matos" is a valid form, which means "from the plane".
Modern Hebrew is written from right to left. Modern scripts are based on the "square" letter form, in which most of the letters are made by adding lines to the letter resh (ר). In handwriting, a similar concept is used, however where printed letters have right angles, scripts have arcs. All Hebrew consonant phonemes are represented by a single letter. Although a single letter might represent two phonemes (thus the letter "bet" represents both /b/ and /v/), they always differ only in the stress, and so can be considered a single consonant.
Vowels are optional and written as dots and dashes under the text. Different combinations of dots and dashes signify different types of vowels. A convenient rule to remember is that long vowels have an even number of dots and dashes. The semi-vowels hei, vav and yud can represent both a consonant (/h/, /v/ and /y/, respectively) or a vowel, which presence is ambiguous. In the latter case, these letters are called "emot qria" ("matres lectionis" in Latin, "mothers of reading" in English). With a vowel, the letter alef is mute. When a vowel is absent, alef stands for /a/. The letter hei in the end of a word also sounds like /a/ and signifies the feminine gender. The letter waw standing after the vowels /u/ and /o/ lengthens them, and so does the letter yud after the vowel /i/.
Emphases are written as a dot inside the letter. There is no written differentiation between different types of emphases and schwas.
Notes:
Vowels ("tnuo't")
Each vowel has three forms: short, long and interrupted ("hataf"). There is no audible distinction between the three, and the type of a vowel is determined entirely by its position inside a word. Writing