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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Dagesh - a different sound or aspiration?

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  • From: James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>
  • To: Petr Tomasek <tomasek AT etf.cuni.cz>
  • Cc: Vadim Cherny <him AT vadimcherny.org>, B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Dagesh - a different sound or aspiration?
  • Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:49:22 +0100

Hi,

Quoting Petr Tomasek <tomasek AT etf.cuni.cz>:

On Sat, Aug 22, 2009 at 02:48:20PM +0300, Vadim Cherny wrote:
What is the consensus opinion of the original functioning of begedkefet
pairs:

1. A difference in aspiration b/bh, or
2. Completely different sounds b/v ?

Well, b/v are not "completely different" sounds neither. :)


Yep. See the Spanish language as an interesting example of this. The Spanish letter 'v' to the untrained English ear will sometimes sound like a 'v' and sometimes sound like a 'b'. There is also a Spanish 'b' which is distinguishable enough (to the trained ear) to never be confused with the Spanish 'v' when it sounds like an English 'b'.

Some don't really hear or distinguish the difference between a 'w' and a 'v'. And some don't distinguish the difference between an 'l' and an 'r'. In Ukrainian there is a hard 'l' and a soft 'l'. The difference is as minute as making a small space between your tongue and the roof of you mouth.

James Christian

What is clear, is that letters of bega"d kefa"t with and without dagesh
do not present two different phonemes but rather are alophones
(in masoretic biblical hebrew). The reason why they are at all marked
is likely due to the fact, that hebrew was not the mother tongue of the
masoretes, in which a phonemic distinction existed between b/v (or whatever
fonetic value they had).

BTW, I'd recommend reading the following article:

Richard L. Goerwitz. "Is Tiberian Səgôl a Phoneme?" in: Proceedings of the Twelfth International Congress of the International Organization for Masoretic Studies. E. J. Revell (ed.). Cambrigde University: Scholars Press 1995. pp. 155-170.

P.T.

--
Petr Tomasek <http://www.etf.cuni.cz/~tomasek>
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