Verse:Irta/Hebrew
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Modern Hebrew (עברית חדשה, ivris chadosho), also known as Israeli Hebrew (עברית ישראלית ivris yisre'eilis), was revived based on the Ashkenazi pronunciation.
Phonology
Consonants
The Hebrew word for consonants is ‘itzurį́ (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 | ||||||
| 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 | |||||
Vowels
Israeli Hebrew has 6 oral vowels and just as many nasal vowels. Vowels tend to reduce in unstressed syllables.
| Phoneme | Example | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| /a/ | /ʔäˈdø̃/ | אדון | 'lord, sir' |
| /ã/ | /ʔãˈtsi/ | אמציא | 'I will invent' |
| /e/ | /ˈʔevẽ/ | אבן | 'stone' |
| /ẽ/ | /ʔẽ/ | אין | 'there is no' |
| /i/ | /ʔiʃ/ | איש | 'man' |
| /ɪ̃/ | /ʔɪ̃/ | אם | 'if' |
| /o/ | /ʔov/ | אב | 'father' |
| /ɔ̃/ | /ʔɔ̃/ | עם | 'people, nation' |
| /ø/ | /ʔøʁ/ | אור | 'light' |
| /ø̃/ | /ʔoˈsø̃/ | אתון | 'she-donkey' |
| /u/ | /ʔäduˈmo/ | אדומה | 'red' (f. sg.) |
| /ʊ̃/ | /ʔʊ̃ˈnɔ̃/ | אומנם | 'indeed' |
Grammar
Modern Hebrew no longer observes the distinction between masculine plural and feminine plural pronouns, phonetically or orthographically. Gender in plural remains only in nouns, adjectives, and the (participial) present tense. Hence הלכתם (holáchtę 'y'all went'); אתם הולכים\הולכות (atę hølchį́/hølchǿs 'y'all go' (mp/fp)).