This is what I learned after taking a Biblical Hebrew course online with native Israeli speakers: 1) they vigorously discouraged me from using "Waw" the wanted "Vav" 1) I was told it was unnecessary to attempt to pronounce the "Alef" 3) they would not even attempt demonstrate the how an "Ayin" would sound. Now mind you I had been speaking some conversational Hebrew for some time. Even though in one instance I pointed out that the approximation of pronouncing the "Alef" came from Jouon-Muraoka - A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew.
Many Mizrahi Israelis pronounce the soft Gimel as Ghimel in their prayers. Some pronounce Tet and Quf like in Arabic in their prayers. Many old people from north Africa continue to pronounce Vav as a W in their prayers. Every one uses the European Tzade now days for everything. Iraqi Jews used to pronounce Arab R like in German, and 45 years ago, I heard in Jerusalem some Mizrahi Jews pronounce Hebrew Resh like the Ashkenazim.
Subscribed 🙂 It's rather difficult to find someone online, even on this platform, who knows how to speak ancient biblical Hebrew. May you consider additional videos on how to pronounce these more difficult letters like Tsade, Ayin, Tet, Khet (Chet), etc. There's an interested audience out there, but it so difficult to find these type of videos on this platform, who are truly knowledgeable in this area. This platform search engine is horrible and it's done on purpose. Blessings be upon you!
Thanks for the subscribe! You can also check out the introduction to the Hebrew alphabet I've done. I put a playlist together for Hebrew language videos and the first two videos contain the different ways these letters are articulated: ru-vid.com/group/PLvgnVQd6A_Oa4RavdR4d4CxmJhSUIdpEh
We should make it clear that no one knows the original pronunciation of biblical Hebrew.. we can only reconstruct it based on similar modern languages. The Yemenite pronunciation is influenced by Arabic, as the Ashkenazi is influenced by German.. so no pronunciation is exactly the original form. We don't even know if the gutteral letters were ejective like in Amharic or pharyngeal as in Arabic.
@@Abilliph The Ashkenazi pronunciation is certainly not the original! Hebrew is a Semitic language so it makes no sense to say that it was similar to German pronunciation, so there is nothing at all to compare between an influence from an Arabic language and an influence from a German language. Biblical Hebrew existed long before German existed
The pronunciation of the consonants in the various traditions isnt really a matter of tradition but rather of whether you speak arabic or not. The conservation of the consonants among sephardim and mizrahim in the diaspora who werent speaking arabic wasnt much better that that of the ashkenazim. As an israeli with a fair understanding of literary hebrew I think that your pronunciation should not be based on tradition but on how high your speech register is or what form of hebrew you learn. The common modern pronunciation with its extremely simplified pronunciation only fits the common extremely simplified speech because only then it doesnt create many homophones. Applying the common modern pronunciation to biblical hebrew would make the language hard to understand because it would create a ton of homophones. modern speakers avoid these homophones by adding words of description, adding prepostions instead of using conjugations, opting for synonyms and alternate forms which dont create homophones and using a very small veriety of words. so in short if you want to speak common medern hebrew I would recommend using the common modern pronunciation while if you want to speak biblical hebrew or poetic modern hebrew I would recommend using a conservative sephardi pronunciation which distinguishes the emphatics, gutturals, gemination and mobile shwa.
as an Arab I find the common modern Hebrew very odd to my ears it sounds not Semitic at all it is more resembling Dutch or German but when I read biblical Hebrew and pronounce the sounds as Arabic sounds all the sudden I feel comfy in speaking and hearing even understanding very good large part of the passages and realize more evidently that Arabs and Israelites was indeed cosines
Professor Wingert, how many languages can a student of theology/ancient languages realistically learn at the same time? I am currently working on Greek and Arabic, but plan to eventually add Syriac and Hebrew to my repertoire
I would say that it depends on which level of the language you're at. If you've hit intermediate (B1-B2) level comprehension, you can always continue improving those languages. I believe the most I studied at one time was 5, but I was not initially doing 5 at once. Since you stated you're a student of theology, I imaging you'll be learning Greek continually, from New Testament Koine and into Patristic and Attic at different points in your own growth. Two is probably sufficient for a formal student of theology. Sometimes it is effective to focus only on one language. You'll know as you find success or challenges through your experiences. I'm encouraged to know that you will take up Syriac! That's wonderful.
@@ProfessorMichaelWingert one more question, how mutually intelligible are Biblical Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew? Or classical Syriac and the Aramaic of, say, the Bavli?
@@TheCopticParabolanos Biblical Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew might be like comparing Arabic dialects. Someone who knows one dialect might easily know both but it isn't always the case when that system is reversed (Masri vs. Shami for example). If one knows Syriac, the Jewish Aramaic dialects are close enough to understand (once we get used to spelling differences). Should I make a video on this question?
I follow the Semitic one with some modifications I made chiefly to some vowels as to make every different niqqud distinct and not to confuse them, e.g. I read holem-waw as [ow] and the hatef shewas as ǝa etc. I know that's not conventional but it helps my knowing exactly how it is written.
You illustrate a good point for Hebrew language learners: being able to vocalize Hebrew when many sounds (consonantal or vowel) become flattened into one sound in Modern pronunciation.
That's a really good question, and something I would need to consult with a specialist about. There might be (and probably is) some commentary on Arabic pronunciation from the era of Late Antiquity. I know that these days, we can listen to the way Saudis and Khaleejis speak and compare that with places like the Syria, Lebanon, the Holy Land, Egypt, etc. and observe noticeable differences in the pronunciation of common letters. We also can use historical linguistics to theorize ancestors to some pronunciation traditions and use human phonological habits to discern where divergence occurs. From this we can have a very good idea about how pronunciation would have been, but without having been there or having reliable accounts of the pronunciation, it is likely that there is some margin of error. [This also applies to Ancient Greek.]
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