Hebrew Pronunciation

7/27/2019 Hebrew Pronunciation

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/hebrew-pronunciation 1/62

A New Model of Transliteration



a silent breath (h in Fr. homme)

B B

b V (nearly; a soft B)

G, g GD, d D

h H

w V, O, W

z Z

j Ger. ich, Scot. loch; ~Eng. school

f T

y Y K K

k soft K (Kh)

l L

m M

n N

s S

u (glottal stop)

P P

p soft P ( ph = f )

x Tz (sibilant between

s and

z)

q Q

R, r R

v Sh

c S

T T

t Th



The seven Double Letters (b, g, d, k, p, r, t) each have two

sounds, one hard and one soft. Shin

(c or

v) also

has

two

sounds,

but

isn’t

a Double.

(? is

a Mother Letter, a “higher” classification that ‘trumps’ Double.)

General rule: These

letters

at

the

beginning of

a word

(or

following

an

internal pause such as x +), are hard. Otherwise, they are soft. Thus no Biblical names begin with our letter F : No god “Fred.” But there are exceptions: this “rule” is only a guideline.

The double

sound

hasn’t

been

preserved

for

all

seven

Double Letters, and “double” usage can vary significantly across dialects.



b All

Hebrew

dialects

use

two

sounds

for

Beth.

Hard Beth B = English b.

Soft Beth b has a sound resembling English v, but made with lips instead of teeth. (Labial, not dental.) “Softened” b.

g We make no distinction between the hard and soft Gimel.

g = English g.

Other than among Yemenite Jews, there is no used difference between the

hard and soft Gimel. To Yemenites, the soft g = English j.



d We

make

no

distinction

between

the

hard

and

soft

Daleth.

d = English d.

Other than among Yemenite Jews, there is no used difference between the

hard and soft Daleth.

To

Yemenites,

the

soft

Daleth

=

the

soft

English

th, as

in

“this.”

k All Hebrew dialects use two sounds for Kaph.

Hard K = English k.

Soft k is nearly the ch or kh sound of j. (k = English k with heavy breath.)

We’ll distinguish the k and j more carefully later.



p All

Hebrew

dialects

use

two

sounds

for

Peh.

Hard P = English p.

Soft Peh p = English f.

rNo Hebrew dialect preserves two sounds for Resh.

English r sound (currently used in Sephardic Hebrew) is probably the

original soft r.

The very rare hard sound (14 occurrences in O.T.) has been lost, possibly identical

to

Greek

r& (usually

transliterated

rh as

in

the

letter

‐name

Rho).

In practice, both r and R = English r.



?Not a double letter, but included here because of its two sounds.

Shin (c or v) has two sounds, but isn’t called a Double Letter. (Its categorization as a Mother Letter is a “higher” classification.)

v = English sh. c = English s, just like s.

t All

Hebrew

dialects

use

two

sounds

for

Tav,

but

differing

across

dialects.

Hard T = English t, just like f. (That’s the easy one.) Soft t varies more widely across dialects:

Ashkenazi Jews pronounce t like English s.

Some Sephardic

dialects

(including

modern

Hebrew),

pronounce

it like

a t, just

like hard T The more ancient usage, still common in some modern Sephardic dialects, is t =

English hard th, as in “thanks.” We adopt this.

Sephardic th vs. Ashkenazi s is the same linguistic migration that occurred from

Old English to Modern English: sayeth becomes says, or doeth becomes does.



All 22

Hebrew

letters

are

consonants (even

a, y, w, u,

which we sometimes transliterate as English vowels).

Hebrew vowels are indicated by diacritical marks

called

pointings. These

are

placed

usually

beneath

(but

sometimes beside, between, or above) the consonants.

In the examples following, x = any Hebrew letter.

Pointings

have

been

grouped

together

(e.g., all

that

approximate an English a) because their differences don’t matter for today’s immediate purposes.



A little digression to ancient Rome(onna counta their alphabet looks like ours)



² Like a in ago

³

Like

a in

f atherμ Like e in pet

¶ Like a in late

¹Like

i in

hitº Like ee in keen¼ Like o in often

½

Like

o in

hope¾ Like u in put

¿ Like u in rude

ae Like y in b y

ai Like y in

b y

au Like ow in now

ei Like ey in grey

ui Like uey in

gluey;

after q, like wee



‘A’ = ah x *

, x ^

, x &‘E’ = eh x @ , x # , x $

‘I’

=

ih x !‘O’ = oh o , x )

‘U’ = oo W , x %

y x @ ey they

y x ! iy knee, Ni

y x ^ ay m y, aye

yo oy toy, oil

Wa x ^

ow cow



An unaccented vowel (any vowel will do!)

Kinda sorta like

uh when

you

run

past

it

really

fast In English: alone, sof a, sev en, lesson

In Hebrew:

x +as

in

yn@B+b…ney, not Benny

Sometimes

rushed

past:

Ha*yr!B+,

Briah.

la@yr!B+G,

Gabriel . Sometimes pron0unced: hl*WdG+, G…dulah. dosy+, Y …sod .

Formally: Sounded @ start of syllable, silent @ end.



The Hebrew

words

that

we

find

in

books

often

don’t

look very much like their Hebrew pronunciations.

aurt throa? t’RA’a!

/tywl Leviathan? Liv’yaTHAN!

jk cock? koakh!

And, when these typical “book” spellings do help you

pronounce

it

right,

they

often

don’t

make

it

clear

what

the Hebrew spelling is. (As Qabalists, we want to know

the Hebrew letters!)



I set out to find a way to transliterate Hebrew words into

English characters

with

the

following

goals.

1. Simple characters: You could do it on a typewriter!

2. After transliteration, a native English speaker

would intuitively

know

how

to

pronounce

the

Hebrew word.

3. After transliteration, the Hebrew spelling would

still

be

obvious

at

a

glance.I succeeded in finding a method that met these goals about 99% of the time.



B B

gG

d D

h H

z Z

f T

y Y K K k Kh

l L

m M

n N

s S

P P p F (Ph)

x Tzq Q

r R

v Sh

t Th



b B Signals that non‐English sound halfway between B & V

c S v is sh but c is s just like s. Italics distinguish.

T T t is th but T is t just like f. Italics distinguish.



a ‘Aleph

is

an

unsounded

breath,

a silent exhalation

that

makes no sound. This ‘ covers it!

u‐

A’ayin is

a glottal

stop,

a brief

hiccough

in

the

middle

of

a word.

Using a hyphen makes this obvious and easy!

Both a and

u get their

vowel

‐like

sounds from their pointings.



w is

confusing

because

of

how

the

alphabet

developed.

That is, the problem is that English has more diverse and

complicated ways to make this sound‐set.

Most

simply,

w is

U.

But

it’s

a

consonant,

not

a

vowel.

Our U, V, W all emerged from a single letter, the Latin V (which, er, is their letter U but just looks like a V).

U at the beginning of a word has a consonantal quality

just like

our

W.

In

fact,

“double

‐U”

is

a U.

(But

in

French

it’s still “double‐ V,” which it looks like. But the Roman

‘V’ was really a ‘U,’ so…) [CONT.]



Yeah, so, U at the beginning is a consonant, W. If we write Waldo as Ualdo, you’ll probably pronounce it more

or less

correctly

(at

least

be

as

close

as

Oo

‐aldo).

In German, the V has our W sound. (See how it’s all mixed up? Don’t blame the Jews just because the

Germans did!)

So, the way to solve all of this confusion about whether it is our W or our U or our V, the solution is to transliterate

w as a V at the beginning, a W when we have to, and the

rest of

the

time

as…

O



Yes: O.

(Don’t hit me when I tell you it’s still not a vowel. It’s a

quasi‐ vowel rendering of the consonant we know as W. Don’t sweat it, just know that’s how you pronounce it.)

But what ab0ut that U sound? Where did the U go?

It’s all

in

the

dagesh.

(That’s

Hebrew

for

“a

dot

stuck

in

the middle of the letter.”) More on that later. Main point is, it doubles the O into OO. Instant U sound!

(O no! English ‘double‐U’ is French ‘double‐ V,’ and now

it’s really

a ‘double

‐O’…

and

it’s

not

even

a double

letter!)

Hanging my head in shame and moving on…



j can

be

written

on

a

standard

typewriter

as

CH. But that doesn’t meet one of the other criteria I set: that

a native English speaker would intuitively know how to

pronounce the Hebrew word. A

native

English

speaker

would

normally

pronounce

CH

not as in SCH OOL, but as in CH ICKEN! If I had $100 for every time I’ve heard Chokmah

pronounced “choke‐ma,” we could pay our rent for months.

Something had to be done about that…



Gotta get away from “choke‐mah” and “chia” [like the

plant] and “cheth” [like chess with a bad lisp]. And don’t get

me

started

on

the

4th Sephirah,

Cheese

‐head.

There is an international standard character for the

desired sound. You can’t make it on a typewriter, but it’s

a

unique

and

specific

character:ḥ or Ḥ

Worst problem (besides “can’t make it with a typewriter,”

which nobody

uses

anymore

anyway)

is

that

you

might

mistake it for the letter H. Of all the j sins, that’s the least offensive.



Six Hebrew letters start deep in your throat & work

their

way

forward

toward

your

lips.

(I

gag

you

not!)A h j k K q In one sense, these are all the same letter! The main

difference is

that

they

fall

a different

place

in

your

mouth. Deep in the throat, without sound Deep in the throat, allowing sound

Top

back

corner

of

the

throat Soft palate Front of soft palate Slightly forward



a ‘B B

b B

G, g GD, d D

h H

w V, O

z Z

j Ḥ

f T

y Y K K

k Kh

l L

m M

n N

s S

u ‐P P

p F

xTz

q Q

R, r R

v Sh

c S

T T

t Th



Hebrew has dozens of rules for what syllable to

accent in

a word.

You

only

need

to

know

a few.

ALL Hebrew words have the accent either on

the final (ultimate) syllable, or the next‐to‐last

( penultimate) syllable.

No

exceptions.

These are called “below” and “above,” respectively.

Most of the time, it’s on the final (“below”).

If

the

last

two

syllables

both

have

the

“e”

vowel

x #, accent the penultimate syllable (“above”). Examples follow…



Familiar words where the last two syllables both

have the “e” vowel x #. (I call these eh‐eh words.)

rt#K# Kether tr#a#p+T! TiferethJr#a# Eretz El#m# Melekvp#n# Nephesh qd#x# Tzedektv#q# Qesheth vm#v# Shemeshds#j# Chesed jxn# Netzach

Oops! Netzach? That’s not eh‐eh, it’s eh‐ah, right?Sorta…



Next rule: If in the ROOT of a word, the last two syllables both

have the

“e”

vowel

x #, accent

the

penultimate (“above”)

– the accent is kept as in the root.

jx^n#, netzach, comes fromthe root jx#n#, netzech.

Similarly,

when

prefixing

the

article

h (ha‐

) to

Jr#a#, eretz, the vowel changes – it becomes ha‐

aretz – but the accent stays “above.”



Next rule (advanced ): If

you

learn

the

Hebrew

vowels,

it will

be

obvious

when the ultimate has a shorter vowel and the

penultimate has a longer vowel. The penultimate

then

has

the

accent.

H^wl)a$ Eloah [l#a* Aleph

dm# l* Lamed im#s* Samekh tl#d* Daleth



As in

English…

just learn the exceptions!



1. ALL Hebrew words have the accent either on the

final (ultimate) syllable, or the next‐to‐last ( penultimate).

No

exceptions.

2. Most of the time, it’s on the final.3. If the last two syllables both have an “e” vowel x #

(eh‐eh words ), accent

the

penultimate.

4. If the ROOT of a word has the last two syllables both

an “e” vowel x #, accent the penultimate. 5. When the ultimate has a shorter vowel than the

penultimate, the penultimate has

the

accent.

6. Learn the exceptions.



DAGESH: The “dot in the middle of the letter”

B G D K P R T The primary use is to distinguish hard vs. soft sounds in double letters. (Dagesh = hard.) This is called a “weak dagesh.”

Additionally,

the dagesh indicates

that

a letter

is

doubled. For example, n = n but N = nn (as in

Italian). This is called a “strong dagesh.”

a,

h,

j,

u never

take

a

dagesh.

(You

really

can’t

“double” their sounds.) No doubling at START of a word or after schwa.



<yN!p^oaOfanniym

aM*a! ImmarwB)G! Gibbor

hL*K Kall ah Also, it turns a Vav (as an O sound) into a U sound

by making it OO:

o = o,

but W = oo =

u



EXAMPLES



la@pr* RF‘L RaFa‘eL

la@yr!B+G^ GBRY‘L GaB’RiY‘eL

la@k*ym! MYKh‘L MiYKha‘eL

la@yr!Wa ‘ORY‘L ‘OoRiY‘eL

Rafael ~ Gabriyel ~ Miykhael ~ Ooriyel



rt#K# KThR KeTheR

hm*k+j* ḤKhMH ḤaKh’MaH

hn*yB! BYNH BiYNaHds#j# ḤSD ḤeSeD

hr*WbG+ GBORH

G’BOoRaH



tr#a#p+T! T F‘RTh T iF’‘eReTh

jx^n# NTzḤ NeTzaḤ

doh HOD HODdosy+ YSOD Y’SOD

tWkl+m^ MLKhOTh MaL’KhOoTh



<d*a* ‘DM ‘aDaM

yn*d)a& ‘DNI ‘aDoNaI

<yN!p^oa ‘OFNYM ‘OFaNniYM

roa ‘OR ‘OR

tm#a$ ‘MTh ‘eMeTh/m@a* ‘MN ‘aMeN



aM*ya!‘YM‘ ‘iYMma‘

aM*a! ‘M‘ ‘iMma‘

la@ ‘L ‘eLHwl)a$ ‘LOH ‘eLOaH

<yh! l)a$ ‘LHYM ‘eLoHiYM



tWlyx!a&‘TzYLOTh ‘aTziYLOoTh

Jr#a# ‘RTz ‘eReTz

va@ ‘Sh ‘eSh<yv!a@ ‘ShYM ‘eShiYM

rv#a& ‘ShR ‘aSheR



/Ya^ ‘YN ‘aYiN

[os SOF SOF

roa ‘OR ‘OR

Ayin Sof Or



/B@ BN BeN

<yh!l)a$ yn@B+ BNY ‘LHYM

B’NeY ‘eLoHiYMHa*yr!B+ BRY‘H B’RiY‘aH



rwB)G! GBOR GiBbOR

hl*WdG+ GDOLH G’DOoLaH

[WG GOF

GOoF/wj)yG! GY ḤON GiY ḤON



tuD^ D‐Th Da‐aTh

la@yn!ah^ H‘NY‘L Ha‘NiY‘eL

/yP!n+a^ ryu!z* Z‐ YR

‘NPYN

Za‐iYR ‘aN’PiYN



hy*j^ Ḥ YH ḤaYaH

vd@q)h* tWYj^ Ḥ YOTh HQDSh

ḤaYyOoTh HaQoDeSh



hy* YH YaH

hd*yj!y+ Y Ḥ YDH Y’ḤiYDaH

hr*yx!y+ YTzYRH Y’TziYRaH



bk*oK KOKB KOKhaB

hL*K^ KLH KaLlaH

bWrK+ KROB K’ROoB<yb!WrK+ KROB YM K’ROoBiYM



hn*b* l+ LBNH L’BaNaH

/t*y*w+ l! LVYThN LiV’YaThaN

<l*oul+ L‐OLM L’

‐OLaM



<yd!a+m^ M‘DYM Ma‘’DiYM

<ym@ MYM

MeYM<Ym^ MYM MaYiM

El#m# MLK MeLeKhhK* l+m^ MLKH MaL’KaH

jyv!m* MShY Ḥ MaShiYaḤ



vj*n* NḤSh NaḤaSh

vp#n# NFSh NeFeSh

hm*v*n+ NShMH N’ShaMaH



la@m*s^ SM‘L SaMa‘eL

hr*yp!s+ SFYRH S’FiYRaH

toryp!s+ SFYROTh S’FiYROTh



<l*ou ‐OLM ‐OLaM

hy*c!u& ‐SYH ‐aSiYaH

rc#u# ‐SR

‐eSeR



ab*x* TzB‘ TzaBa‘

twa)b*x+ TzB‘OTh TzaBa‘OThqd#x# TzDQ TzeDeQ

la@yq!d+x^ TzDQY‘L TzaD’QiY‘eL

la@yq!p+x^ TzFQY‘L TzaF’QiY‘eL



hl*B*q^ QBLH QaBbaLaH

hP*l!q+ QLPH Q’LiPpaHtoPl!q+ QLPOTh Q’LiPpOTh

u^ym@q* QMY ‐ QaMeY ‐a

tv#q# QShTh QeSheTh



<yl!G^ l+Gh* tyv!ar@R‘ShYTh HGLGLYMRe‘ShiYTh HaGaL’GaLiYM

j* *Wr ROḤ ROoaḤ

la@yz!r* RZY‘L RaZiY‘eL



yatB+v^ ShBTh‘I ShaB’Tha‘I

hn*yk!v+ ShKhYNH Sh’KhiYNaHru^v^ Sh‐R Sha‐aR

/wr)v* ShRON ShaRON

[r*c* SRF SaRaF<yp!r*c+ SRFYM S’RaFiYM



au^rT+ TR ‐‘ T’Ra‐a‘



SOME NEW SPELLINGS

TO GET

USED

TO?



Kether Tif’ereth

Ḥakh’mah NetzaḥBiynah Hod

Ḥesed Y’sodG’boorah Mal’khooth

Rafael ~ Gabriyel ~

Miykhael ~

Ooriyel



‘Ofanniym ‘Elohiym

Ayin Sof Or Da‐ath

‘Iymma‘ & ‘Imma‘ K’roob

‘Atziylooth B’riyah Y’tziyrah‐ Asiyah

‘Eshiym Goof Ḥayah

G’doolah Y’ḥiydah L’‐olam



Meym Mayim Mal’kahNaḥash Nefesh N’shamah

Tzad’qiy‘el Tzaf’qiy‘el Raziy‘elQ’lippoth Rooaḥ T’ra‐a‘

Sh’khiynah S’rafiym Sha‐ar



a^rBa*d+a*ha&rBa*



znf+va#Wq yn!u@(‐eNiY QOo‘eShT’NZ?)

Documents

Hebrew Pronunciation