Verse:Irta/Hebrew
Modern Hebrew (עברית מאדערנית, ivris modernis or ), 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 7 oral vowels and 6 nasal vowels, the largest vowel inventory of any Semitic language. Vowels tend to reduce in unstressed syllables.
Phoneme | Example | ||
---|---|---|---|
/a/ | /ʔäˈdø̃/ | אדון | 'lord, sir' |
/ã/ | /ʔãˈtsi/ | אמציא | 'I will invent' |
/ɛ/ | /ˈʔɛvẽ/ | אבן | 'stone' |
/e/ | /ˈʔezɛʁ/ | עזר | 'aid' |
/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 (an edge case is שניכם šnêchę 'you two (m)'/שתיכם štêchę 'you two (f)'). Gender in plural remains almost exclusively 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)).