Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

It's amazing how posts on this subject by native Israeli speakers have been 
ignored. Modern Israeli Hebrew does not pronounce aleph and ayin as "silent 
letters". Both are usually stops. Many Israelis do distinguish an aleph from 
an ayin, although often the difference is sublte. Certainly in cases where 
the pronounciation is what makes the difference between m. and f., it will 
be emphasized. So the f. form is definately nat(a, while the m. is nata 
(which some would pronounce nata( ).

Yigal Levin
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Daniel Glas" <dannyams AT aol.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, June 06, 2008 1:59 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Past tense with gutterals


> Yes, in the standard Modern Hebrew pronunciation they sound the same - 
> nata
> and nata. This is because they don't pronounce the shwa na in nat'ah
> (feminine form) , distinguish between the patah and kamatz, nor 
> distinquish
> between the ayin and hei (silent).
>
>
>
> Also, the correct form in Modern Hebrew IS bahara, though many native
> speakers WOULD say it without the A, as I've experienced. You're right,
> technically the heth is a guttural, but it's not pronounced as such in
> Modern Hebrew; rather it's pronounced like the velar fricative khaf. The
> subtle A sound was there to begin with to facilitate the guttural sound 
> with
> a shwa na (hataf patah is regarded as a shwa na). But since the heth is 
> not
> pronounced as a guttural nor is the shwa na pronounced, the A effectively
> has no real function anymore in modern Hebrew. That might be why many
> pronounce it without since there's no practical reason why is should be 
> any
> different than akhla ("ate" - with a khaf). I've heard many say shohtim 
> (no
> A sound).
>
>
>
> In the case of the ayin and alef, however, which both have the same sound
> (or lack thereof), i.e. silent, the vowel sound cannot so easily be 
> omitted.
>
>
>
> Hope this helps.
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
> Daniel Glas
>
> Brooklyn, NY
>
>
>
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>
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>
>
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