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BASIC HEBREW ALPHABET See main article Hebrew Alphabet Consonants ''Note: dagesh and mappiq symbols, the dots in otherwise identical letters, are often omitted in writing. For instance, בּ is often written as ב. The use or omission of such marks is usually consistent throughout any given context.''
Vowels
NOTES ON WRITING # The Phoneme /v/ is represented by two letters: vet (ב, unemphasized bet) and vav (ו). Although modern Hebrew pronunciation does not differentiate between the two, the latter is historically weaker due to its being a semi-vowel (/w/). # The phoneme /k/ is represented by two letters: kaf (כ) and quf (ק). Although modern Israeli Hebrew pronunciation doesn't differentiate between the two, the latter is pronounced by some speakers like an Arabic / Q /. # The phoneme /t/ is represented by two letters: tet (ט) and tau (ת, compare to the Greek theta θ and tau τ). As mentioned earlier, the former was once pronounced with emphasis. However, it seems that the letter ''tau'', when intervocalic and non-doubled (i.e. without dagesh) once represented a Fricative phoneme . For example, what in Modern Hebrew sounds as "Beit Lexem" was transcribed (through Greek, which is ill-equipped to represent /h/) into English from Old Hebrew as "Bethleem", also demonstrating note nr. 5. The traditional Ashkenazi pronunciation of tau without dagesh as "s" appears to be a continuation of this former distinction. # Similar to Modern Arabic , old Hebrew had the phonemes and /t/ (written by the letter tet) emphasized. Currently, the only community of Hebrew-speakers which expresses this in speech are Yemenite Jew s, whose Hebrew is much-influenced by Arabic phonetics (or rather ''not'' influenced by Yiddish and other European languages); however the emphasis led to several types of phonetic change that still exist. The exact nature of the emphatic feature is a matter of debate; the most commonly suggested possibilities are pharyngealization (as in Arabic) and glottalization (as in Ethiopic ). # In the speech of Ashkenazi modern Hebrew speakers, the phoneme /x/ is represented by two letters: xet (ח) and khaf (כ). Xet is presumed to historically have been a Voiceless Pharyngeal Fricative (like Arabic ح). The voiceless pharyngeal fricative pronunciation is found in the speech of many Teimanim, Mizrachim and Sephardim, who, like Ashkenazim, pronounce khaf as /x/. |
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