Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Trevor Peterson <06PETERSON AT cua.edu>]

>===== Original Message From "Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu> =====
>If the het is a pharingial fricative, what is the kaf?

I think khaf would be considered a velar fricative. I'm by no means a native 
speaker of any Semitic language, but if I understand them correctly, it may 
help to think of the two different German ch sounds, as in ich and buch, and 
add to that the pharyngeal fricative het. They're all formed by slowing the 
flow of air through the oral cavity, but the sound in ich is furthest forward 
on the hard palate, then buch (which I take to be basically the same sound as 
khaf) on the soft palate, then het furthest back in the pharynx. The sound is 
made similarly to the way that you pretend you're choking (at least in 
essentially the same position). Just make sure that you release the 
constriction enough to still let the air pass through. There actually is one 
more distinction to make, which is between glottal consonants and pharyngeal. 
Glottal consonants are actually pronounced at the opening of the windpipe, 
while pharyngeals are just above it. Aleph is really the only glottal 
consonant in West Semitic, but the emphatics in other Semitic languages 
(South 
Semitic, like Ethiopic, and possibly East Semitic, like Akkadian) are 
glottalized.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics