One such prescriptive version in indeed what Yitzhak Sapir provides:
>This system in short is as follows:
>qamats is pronounced like the vowel in the word 'bought'
>patach like the vowel in the word 'bat'
>holam like the vowel in the word 'boat'
>hirik like the vowel in the word 'bit'
>tsere like the vowel in the word 'bait'
>segol like the vowel in the word 'bet'
>qubuts and shuruk like the vowel in the word 'boot'
But there is little reason to think that this is an entirely accurate
representation of how people pronounced Hebrew 1,000 years ago.
(Also, is this "bought" in America in in England?)
There is less evidence for this:
>A mobile schewa is pronounced 'a' in most cases. But when followed
>by a yod it is pronounced 'i' and when followed by alef, he, het, or ayin,
>it is pronounced with the same value as the guttural's vowel. It is always
>short unless stressed. hataf-qamats/patah/segol are pronounced like
>the qamats/patah/segol and are short.
And this:
>A schewa is mobile if it is at the beginning of the word, follows another
>schewa in the middle of the word (but not in the end), if it is under a
>letter that takes a dagesh hazak/forte, or if it both follows a long vowel
>and if the consonants that are separated by the schewa are the same.
while widely accepted, almost has to be wrong, because of words like
SHTAIM ("two"). The sh'va under the SHIN would have to be mobile by
these rules, but then the DAGESH in the DALED would have to drop.
These rules, and others that you may encounter, reflect modern systems
based upon the Masoretic work.
So how you pronounce Hebrew depends in large part upon what you want
to do and upon your personal philosophy.
I do have a reading list:
http://www.exc.com/JoelHoffman/ReadingList.html
if you really want to make a project out of this.
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