Verse:Irta/Hebrew
Modern Hebrew (עברית מאָדערנית ʼivrís modérnis [(ʔ)ɪvˈʁis mɞˈdɛʁnɪs] or עברית בת זמננו ʼivrís bas zmanếnu), also known as Israeli Hebrew (עברית ישראלית ʼivrís yisreʼêlís), was revived based on the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Tiberian vocalization.
Phonology
Consonants
The Hebrew word for consonants is ʼitzurį́ (עיצורים). The following table lists the Hebrew consonants and their pronunciation in IPA transcription:
| Labial | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | [ɲ] | |||||
| Plosive | p b | t d | k ɡ | (ʔ) | ||||
| Affricate | ts | tʃ dʒ | ||||||
| Fricative | f v | s z | ʃ ʒ | χ | ʁ | (h) | ||
| Approximant | l | j | w | |||||
[ɲ] arises from sequences of nasal vowel + /j/: עניין ʼįyǫ́ [ɪ̃ˑɲɔ̃ˑ] 'matter, interest'.
[ʀ] is freely interchangeable with [ʁ].
/ʔ/ and /h/ are often reduced to vowel phonation distinctions (creakiness and breathiness respectively) or silenced altogether.
Vowels
Israeli Hebrew has 7 oral vowels and 6 nasal vowels, one of the largest vowel inventories to occur in any Semitic language and one of the few ones with nasal vowels (also cf. Inor). Nasal vowels arise from historical oral vowels before a nasal coda. Vowels are also nasalized allophonically before nasal consonants.
| Phoneme | Example | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /ɐ/ | /ʔɐˈdø̃/ | ʼadǫ̂́ | אדון | 'lord, sir' |
| /ɐ̃/ | /ʔɐ̃ˈtsi/ | ʼątzí | אמציא | 'I will invent' |
| /ɛ/ | /ˈʔɛvɛ̃/ | ʼévę | אבן | 'stone' |
| /e/ | /ˈʔezɛʁ/ | ʼếzer | עזר | 'aid' |
| /ɛ̃/ | /ʔɛ̃/ | ʼę́ | אין | 'there is no' |
| /i/ | /ʔiʃ/ | ʼíš | איש | 'man' |
| /ɪ̃/ | /ʔɪ̃/ | ʼį | אם | 'if' |
| /o/ | /ʔov/ | ʼóv | אב | 'father' |
| /ɔ̃/ | /ʔɔ̃/ | ʼǫ́ | עם | 'people, nation' |
| /ø/ | /ʔøʁ/ | ʼốr | אור | 'light' |
| /ø̃~ə̃/ | /ʔoˈsø̃/ | ʼosǫ̂́ | אתון | 'jenny' |
| /u/ | /ʔäduˈmo/ | ʼadumó | אדומה | 'red' (f. sg.) |
| /ʊ̃/ | /ʔʊ̃ˈnɔ̃/ | ʼųnǫ́ | אומנם | 'indeed' |
Vowels tend to reduce in unstressed syllables: /ɛ/ reduces to [ə], /o/ to [ɞ], /ø/ to [ʏ], /ø̃/ to [ə̃], /u/ to [ʉ], and /i/ and final /e/ to [ɪ].
Grammar
Modern Hebrew no longer observes the distinction between masculine plural and feminine plural pronouns or verbal affixes, phonetically or orthographically (an edge case remains in the numeral + pronoun complexes שנינו/שתינו šnếnu/štếnu 'we two (m/f)', שניכם/שתיכם šnếchę/štếchę 'you two (m/f)' and שניהם/שתיהם šnếhę/štếhę 'they two (m/f)'). Gender in plural remains almost exclusively in nouns, adjectives, and the (participial) present tense, and numerals. Hence הלכתם (holáchtę 'y'all went'); אתם הולכים\הולכות (atę hôlchį́/hôlchốs 'y'all go' (mp/fp)).
Deviation from "correct" speech. Or: Mutations mutandis
Many normative phonetic alterations and grammar rules are not followed in spontaneous speech. To the errors normally committed by real-world Hebrew speakers add:
- The definite article is invariably [(h)ɐ], contra prescriptivist Hebrew where > /ho/ / _{ʔ, r} or _ʕV[+stress], and > /hɛ/ / _ʕV[-stress] or _{h, χ}o.
Loanwords
Loanwords are usually spelt as in Yiddish (with the addition of chốlę for front rounded vowels; e.g. גּוֹדֶעל for Gödel), and the feminine ending -a in international words becomes -e, (spelled -ע).
Nouns ending in /o/ are mapped directly to feminine nouns: טַאקָה, טַאקוֹת táko, tákôs 'taco, tacos'. This applies also to nouns ending in the Latinate suffix -io: עוואלוציה evolútzyo 'evolution'.
Final /-m/ or /-n/ in foreign loanwords are spelt with a non-final מ and נ.
Arabic loanwords are normatively spelled with a special transliteration of Arabic letters into corresponding Hebrew letters (but some hyper-Arabisms are added colloquially, such as ע replacing א.). The Arabic feminine ending is spelled with a final ה pronounced -e. Back-borrowings from Yiddish are spelled with an apostrophe before the final letter.
Sample
רוח הצפון והשמש נכנסו פעם לויכוח, מי מהם חזקה יותר - והנה בא לקראתם הולך רגל, עטוף במעיל חם. השתים השכימו, שזאת אשר תצליח ראשונה להפשיט את האיש ממעילו, תיחשב כחזקה יותר. אז נשבה הרוח חזק ככל שייך לה - אבל ככל שנשבה יותר, כן התעטף האיש במעילו ביתר שאת, ולבסוף ויתרה הרוח על כל ניסיון נוסף. אז התחילה השמש להפיץ את קרניה החמות, ומיד פשט הולך הרגל את מעילו. וכך נאצלה הרוח להודות, שהשמש הזקה ממנה.
Phonetic transcription of everyday speech:
[ˌʁuɐχ ɐ t͡sɞˈfɔ̃ˑ və ɐ ˈʃɛ̃məʃ nɪχnəˈsu ˌpɐ̃ːˑ lə vɪˈkuɐχ ˈmi mɛ̃ːˑ χɐzɞˈko jʏˈseʁ | və ˈɪ̃nɪ ˈbo lɪkʁɐˌsɔ̃ˑ ʏˌleχ ˈʁɛgəl ɐˈtuf bə məˈil ˈχɐ̃ˑ | ɐ ʃˈtɐ̃ɪ̃ˑ ɪsˈkɪ̃mʉ ʃə ˈzøs ɐˌʃɛʁ tɐt͡sˈliɐχ ʁɪʃə̃ˈno ləɐfˈʃit əs ɐ ˈiʃ mɪ məɪˈlø teχɐˈʃev kɐ χɐzɞˈko jʏˈseʁ | ɞz nɞʃˈvo ɐ ˈʁuɐχ χɞˈzok kəˈχol ʃɐˈjoχ lɞ | ɐˌvol kəˈχol ʃə nɞˈʃvo jʏˈseʁ ˈkɛ̃ isɐˈtef ɐ ˈiʃ bə məɪˈlø bəˈjɛsəʁ seːs | və ləvɐˈsøf vɪtˈro ɐ ˈʁuɐχ ɐl ˈkol nɪsɞˈjø̃ˑ nʏˈsof | ɞz ɪsˈχilɞ ɐ ˈʃɛ̃məʃ ləɞˈfit͡s əs kɐʁˈneɞ ɐ χɐ̃ˈmøs | və mɪˈjod pɞˈʃɐt ʏˌleχ ɐ ˈʁɛgəl əs məɪˈlø | və ˈkoχ nɛːt͡sˈlo ɐ ˈʁuɐχ ləʏˈdøs ʃə ɐ ˈʃɛ̃məʃ χɐzɞˈko mɪˈmɛ̃nɞ]
Special words
- כָּחָנו'ת: a somewhat jocular phono-semantic interpretation of cojones (< AmE < Spanish), based on root K-Ḥ 'power', to be used interchangeably with חוצפ'ה (chútzpe; without stress shift, chutzpó means 'arrogance/gall'.)
- מָגִיבָן (mogivón): reactionary