Hebrew phonology

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Hebrew phonology must take into account that the Hebrew language has been used primarily for liturgical purposes for most of the past two millennia. As a consequence, its pronunciation has been strongly influenced by the vernacular of each individual Jewish community. In contrast to the varied development of these pronunciations is the relatively rapid development of modern Israeli Hebrew.

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.

• א   alef   silent (traditionally, /ʔ/ when before a vowel)
• בּ   bet   /b/
• ב   vet   /v/ (/b/ among Egyptian Jews)
• ג   ghimel   /g/ (/ɣ/ among Teimanim, Mizrachim and some Sephardim)
• גּ   gimel   /g/ (/dʒ/ among some Teimanim)
• ’ג   djimel   /ʤ/ (used only in loanwords)
• ד   dhalet   /d/ (/ð/ among Teimanim, Mirahim and some Sephardim)
• דּ   dalet   /d/
• ה   he   /h/, silent in word-final position.
• הּ   he   silent (traditionally /h/; the dot in the middle is called mappiq, not dagesh)
• ו   vav   /v/ (/w/ among Teimanim and some Mizrahim)
• ז   zayin /z/
• ’ז   zhayin   /ʒ/ (used only in loanwords)
• ח   chet   /x/ (/ḥ/ among Oriental Hebrew speakers)
• ט   tet   /t/ (/t̴/ among Teimanim)
• י   yod   /j/
• כ   xaf   /x/
• ך   xaf sofit   /x/
• כּ   kaf   /k/
• ךּ   kaf sofit   /k/
• ל   lamed   /l/
• מ   mem   /m/
• ם   mem sofit   /m/
• נ   nun   /n/
• ן   nun sofit   /n/
• ס   samex   /s/
• ע   ayin   silent, like א (/ʕ/ among Oriental Hebrew speakers)
• פ   fe   /f/
• ף   fe sofit   /f/
• פּ   pe   /p/
• ףּ   pe sofit  /p/
• צ   tzadi   /ʦ/
• ץ   tzadi sofit   /ʦ/
• ’צ   tshadi   /ʧ/ (used only in loanwords)
• ק   qof   /k/ (pronounced /q/ by many Israelis as well as speakers hailing from the Arab world, /g/ by some Teimanim)
• ר   reish   /ʁ/ (/r/ among Oriental Hebrew speakers)
• שׁ   shin   /ʃ/
• שׂ   sin   /s/
• ת   thav   /t/ (/θ/ among Teimanim, Mizrahim and some Sephardim, /s/ by some Ashkenazim)
• תּ   tav   /t/

Vowels

• ְ   sh'va   (silent), Template:IPA (traditionally Template:IPA) (depending on position in word, and position of word in phrase)
• ִ   ḥiriq   /i/
• ֵ   tzeire   Template:IPA (traditionally Template:IPA)
• ֶ   segol   Template:IPA
• ֱ   chataf segol   Template:IPA (traditionally also Template:IPA)
• ַ   patach   Template:IPA
• ֲ   chataf patach   Template:IPA (traditionally also Template:IPA)
• ָ   qamatz   Template:IPA, (according to complex stress rules, this vowel is sometimes pronounced /o/ as well. In positions where it is pronounced /a/ in "Standard Modern Israeli Hebrew", it is pronounced Template:IPA by some Ashkenazim and Teimanim)
• ֳ   chataf qamatz   Template:IPA
• ֻ   qubutz   Template:IPA
• ׂ   ḥolam ḥaser Template:IPA
• וּ   shuruq   Template:IPA
•    ḥolam   Template:IPA

Notes on writing

1. 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/).
2. 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/.
3. 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 Template:IPA. 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.
4. Similar to Modern Arabic, old Hebrew had the phonemes Template:IPA and /t/ (written by the letter tet) emphasized. Currently, the only community of Hebrew-speakers which expresses this in speech are Yemenite Jews, 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).
5. 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 /ḥ/ is found in the speech of many Teimanim, Mizrachim and Sephardim, who, like Ashkenazim, pronounce khaf as /x/.he:הגיית העברית