Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Paul Zellmer <zellmer AT cag.pworld.net.ph>]

Glen Sample wrote:

> Could someone phonetically tell me how to pronounce the hebrew word:
> tse'dheq?
>
> Glen Sample

Glen,

Is this the word for "justice, righteousness"?  I only ask because I am not 
quite sure
what the apostrophe is symbolizing.  What verse are you taking it from?  It 
appears as
if it might be in pause, which would lengthen the nikkud (pointing).  If this 
is the
case, the base word has two segols, which has the approximate pronunciation 
of the
short /e/ in the English word /met/.  If I understand your transcription, 
this form
appears to have a lengthened vowel in the first syllable, all the way to a 
sere plene,
which I learned to pronounce almost like the English dipthong /ey/ in /they/. 
 The
/ts/ you recognize, I'm sure, as a tsadeh, /ts/ as in /its/.  The /dh/ is the 
soft
daleth, which some pronunciation schemes pronounce as /d/, but which I 
learned as a
voiced /th/ like /those/.  And the /q/ is the qoph, which I learned as a /k/ 
made by
touching the base of the tongue to the back of the throat at a lower point 
than the
kaph.  Assuming I read your transcription correctly then, the word would be 
pronounced
/ts//ey//th(voiced)//e//k(low)/.  I apologize for using non-standard 
phonetics, but
the IPA and SIL schemes don't play well in the constraints we have on the 
list.

HTH,

Paul

--
Paul and Dee Zellmer, Jimmy Guingab, Geoffrey Beltran
Ibanag Translation Project
Cabagan, Philippines

zellmer AT faith.edu.ph