trb@masscomp.UUCP (02/28/84)
clyde!lda writes (in personal communication, he didn't have the nerve to post such ridiculousity to such a serious and honorable type group as net.religion.jewish, so I did it for him): What's a wombat mitzvah? (I hope you're embarrassed, Larry.) Clearly a crude attempt at humor, but it suggests that perhaps the "bat" should be pronounced as in Batman. (I envision Batman reaching for the trusty "bat mitzvah" on his utility belt...) So, it's time for trb's minute primer in Hebrew pronunciation! I'm not going to talk about pronouncing actual Hebrew, rather about transliterated Hebrew (that's Hebrew words written in our English (Roman?) alphabet). Hebrew pronunciation is very regular. The vowel sounds are as follows, much like in Spanish: A rhymes with whAt E rhymes with mEt I rhymes with magazIne O rhymes with mOde U rhymes with tUbe If you are speaking lazily, these might be E rhymes with ablE I rhymes with hIm O rhymes with clOth U rhymes with pUt There are more vowels in Hebrew, the other common one is a schwa, usually transliterated as an apostrophe, or sometimes as an "e". Most of the consonants get pronounced like you'd expect, but always the same way - no choice of hard or soft sound. G is always hard - always Game, never Gender. There is no J sound in Hebrew, if you want J, you have to make to with DSH. There is no TH sound in Hebrew! When you see TH in a transliteration, it means that the Hebrew letter was an S sound, but they want you to pronounce it like a T sound. This is because there are two major ways to pronounce Hebrew, as there are two major places where Jews have lived in the old world: The Ashkenazim (the right way - the way I was taught ;-) pronounce the S as S. Ashkenazim are Eastern European Jews. The Sephardim (the other way) are Middle Eastern and Spanish (African) Jews. They pronounce the S like a T. As I said, there is no TH sound in Hebrew. When you see a Beth Israel Hospital, it's not named after a rich woman named Beth, it's really Beis (say base, or bet) Israel (pronounce that Yis-ra-el if you wanna be hip). Beth means "House (of)" here. There are other minor differences between Sephardic and Ashkenazic pronunciations, but they are also minor. Then there's the old favorite CH sound which causes no end of grief to people who you'd think have never cleared their throats before. Polite people call this the guttural H sound, I was, however, taught to stay out of the gutter as a youth in the Bronx. Anyway, this is the CH sound in aCHtung, which should be familiar if you've ever watched Hogan's Heroes on TV. There is no CH sound like in "chain." The word life in Hebrew is "chaim." That's does not rhyme with "chain," it rhymes with "tie in." There are many famous Jews named Chaim, like Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel. Primarily, this explanation is here because part of my Hebrew name is Chaim. One more, there's no W consonant sound in Hebrew, when you see a W in a transliteration, it often means V, though you have to be careful that they just weren't talking about the O sound as in clOth (like sAw, see?). Anyway, if clyde!lda knew this before, he'd know that the "bat" in "bat mitzvah" did not rhyme with "bat," or "cat" in the "hat," but rather with "what." I might as well say a few words about Yiddish while I'm here. Yiddish is written with the Hebrew alphabet, but is somewhat similar to German. Some people use "Yiddish" and "Jewish" interchangeably, and that's not really wrong, but usually these days, Yiddish is a language, Jewish is a religion, at least when talking in English. In Yiddish, "Yiddish" means "Jewish." Hebrew is alive mostly through the efforts of people who emigrate to Israel, where it's the state language. Yiddish is NOT the state language of Israel, it was the language of the Jewish common people of Europe, often taking on the flavor of the local language. Since most of those people came to the US over the past 100 years, Yiddish, and to a lesser extent, Judaism itself, has become quite diluted. The Yiddish language is entirely different from Hebrew, and the fact that it's falling into disuse is too bad, because it's quite fun and expressive. See Leo Rosten's "The Joys of Yiddish," which should be available at bookstores and libraries, for an hysterical look at Yiddish language and associated culture and history. Andy Tannenbaum Masscomp Inc Westford MA (617) 692-6200 x274 Abba Chaim ben Rev Yaakov (which you should be able to pronounce having read this article.
rao@utcsstat.UUCP (Eli Posner) (02/29/84)
[] Andy Tannenbaum states: >>There is no TH sound in Hebrew! When you see TH in a transliteration, >>it means that the Hebrew letter was an S sound, but they want you to >>pronounce it like a T sound. This is because there are two major >>ways to pronounce Hebrew, as there are two major places where Jews >>have lived in the old world: >> >> The Ashkenazim (the right way - the way I was taught ;-) >> pronounce the S as S. Ashkenazim are Eastern European Jews. >> >> The Sephardim (the other way) are Middle Eastern and Spanish >> (African) Jews. They pronounce the S like a T. >> Although I know that you were joking when you said that Ashkenazit was 'the right way', I still would like to comment. First of all, Ashkenazit AND Sepahrdit are BOTH WRONG. They are both distant imitations of the real 'loshen haKodesh'. The Sephardic way is MUCH closer though. (Since they pronounce the 'ayeen' and 'chet' and other letters, distinct to the 'aleph and 'chof' respectively; in addition to other reasons). Personally, I was brought up to talk and read like the Ashkenazim (my parents), but I have recently changed to the Sepahrdic pronunciation. Andy mentioned that 'th' was really 's'. NOT CORRECT!!!!!!! This past year I learned 'in depth' about the Hebrew language. Here are some things I learned that are relevant to this discussion: Letter Old Hebrew Pronunciation ___________________________________________________________ 'Taf' with DAGESH (dot in it) 'Th' as in 'THing' 'Taf' without Dagesh (known as 'Suf') 'Th' as in 'THe' BELIEVE IT OR NOT!!! I now consider myself a 'boki' in 'dikduk' (:-)). Any questions or comments? -- Eli Posner {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!utcsstat!rao