Biblical Hebrew Forum

["uri hurwitz" <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>]

     Liz, re your question," do you distinguish tet from tav" Of course
one should, since these are totally different letters in all Semitic
languages. The distinction is lost among  modern Heb. speakers, even among
 most of Non= Ashkenzi origin speakers.
     The tet is one of the emphatics, the others being  sad and dad, to
use their Arabic names; of the latter, the sad is the bib. Heb. Tsadi; the
dad was lost already in bib. Heb. where it appears as a Tsadi (in Early
Aram. as Q,in later Aram as ayin).
     The kof ,scholarly transliterated as Q, is also a totally different
letter from Kaf., and should be pronounced differently.                   
                 Uri