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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Phonetics of Ayin

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  • From: Vadim Cherny <him AT vadimcherny.org>
  • To: David Kolinsky <yishalom AT sbcglobal.net>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Phonetics of Ayin
  • Date: Tue, 26 May 2009 21:00:45 +0300

Hebrew certainly has the features of place-sensitive phonetics: the sophits. They are written differently because they were pronounced differently in the word-end position. Clearly, pronouncing final m, n, c is not an easy job.

Vadim Cherny

David Kolinsky wrote:
With regard to the softened Gimmel - My wife is from Mexico city and has the most
difficult time pronouncing a final G - dog and fog (and other words) are invariably dogh
and fogh and not doj or foj. It seems to me that this is also consistent with the other
letters that become softened in Hebrew at the end of a syllable after a vowel - Beth >
Bhet (not Vet), Dalet > Dhalet, Kaph > Khaph (being different from the
pronunciation of either Chet), Peh > Pheh, and Tabh to Thabh. The plossive nature of
the letter is simply turned into a fricative and slightly lenthened and not wholly
shifted in the mouth as a different point of articulation. This of course could be
entirely wrong - shifts obviously do occur (for whatever reason). But it seems rather
logical to me that the reason here has to do with accents and emphasis - meaning that the
way that Hebrew was spoken, not unlike Mexican Spanish, made it difficult, uncomfortable
or unnatural to make
these letters plossive in this position. Perhaps the emphasis is shifted
backward?
With regard to the Ayin / Gayin - I believe (personal opinion as above) that these are two different letters (even though the Gayin developed from the Ayin) using the same marker. Because as I understand it, at the time that the Hebrew alphabet was developing, the sister language from which it borrowed its alphabet was limited to the 22 letters (of our current Hebrew) and rather than adding 7 more letters for a full semitic compliment, they simply used what was available (Hebrew probably didn't need 7 anyway - probably just 2 additional for a soft Chet and hard Chet and Ayin - Gayin). As for the pronunciation - Ayin is a fricative gag that doesn't hurt - Gayin a gag that for us hurts because it is plossive in nature.
Curious to know what you think,
David Kolinsky






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