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b-hebrew - alef, ayin, (hearing)

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  • From: Randall Buth <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>
  • To: "Jason Limbers" <hebrew2day AT hotmail.com>
  • Cc: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: alef, ayin, (hearing)
  • Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 03:30:25 -0500


shalom Jason,

Your question represents a common perspective that needs a better
answer than you've been taught.

>I was taught that Alef and ayin should be thaught of as silent until I get
>fluent. Where can I hear them pronounced on the WEB?<

First of all, `ayin is very much vocal in the speech of someone who
fluently uses it in their dialect. It is the voiced counterpart to a
true Het (voiceless pharyngeal fricative with retracted tongue root).
But if you were taught that `ayin is silent you were probably taught a khaf
as
a substitute for Het.

Secondly, if you became fluent in your system, then you would be fluent in
a dialect without `ayin or Het.

If you want to hear Het distinguished from khaf, there is now a Demo
available on our website:

www.biblicalulpan.org

You will need RealPlayer/RealMedia on your computer, though you can
download it from the site above. The demo lesson does not have `ayin by
accident of the examples chosen and maybe we'll remedy that, too, in the
near futures. (The course it is describing has both `ayin and Het from the
beginning, correctly, on CD, with very clear `ayin.)

blessings
Randall Buth




  • alef, ayin, (hearing), Randall Buth, 01/23/2002

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