Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

shalom Mathias

>
>Although the Israelis of European origin do not distinguish 
>khaf from het, Hebrew speakers of biblical times certainly did. 

And many today.

>Is it a widespread use in the academic community to call "khet" 
>the letter whose name was pronounced something like [He:t] with 
>"pharyngal h", or is there an alternative widespread name like 
>"hhet" or "h.et" or anything else ? It is a precision which can 
>have a strong teaching impact, isn't it ? <

Many people still correctly pronounce the Het as a pharyngeal fricative
here in Israel and abroad, especially when reading scripture.
(Our teachers and recorded materials for the courses at 
www.biblicalulpan.org all distinguish Het from xaf in pronunciation.) 

shabbat shalom

Randall Buth