Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dr. Joel M. Hoffman" <joel AT exc.com>]

>I understand that the Yemenite Jews pronounce the UnDageshed Dalet as a soft 
>[...]
>explanation dissappointingly), and that was QUOTE"....this is an ancient, 
>correct and pure pronounciation".

You are entirely correct to distrust this sort of unfounded hyperbole.

While there is solid evidence to suggest that all six BEGED KEFET
letters had alternating pronunciations in Masoretic Hebrew (roughly
1100 years ago), there is scant evidence to push the distinction back
further.

There is, furthermore, no reason to think that Yemenite is more pure
or more historically authentic than other Sephardic dialects.  Rather,
Yemenite is more *Arabic* than some other dialects, and for a while it
was in vogue to suppose that Hebrew used to sound like Arabic.  (For
example, the "Yemenite Hebrew" word for "yes" is AIWA, not KEN.)

I go through all of the evidence about ancient Hebrew pronunciation in
my NYU book (_In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew
Language_).  Most libraries have it, and now it's available
inexpensively in paperback.

-Joel

Joel M. Hoffman, PhD
http://www.exc.com/JoelHoffman