Verse:Irta/Hebrew
Modern Hebrew (עברית מאדערנית ivris modernis /ʔivˈʀis moˈdɛʀnis/), also known as Israeli Hebrew (עברית ישראלית ivris yisre'eilis), was revived based on the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Tiberian vocalization.
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 | |||||
/ʔ/ and /h/ is often reduced to vowel voice 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). Vowels tend to reduce in unstressed syllables.
| Phoneme | Example | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /ɐ/ | /ʔɐˈdø̃/ | ʼadø̨ | אדון | 'lord, sir' |
| /ɐ̃/ | /ʔɐ̃ˈtsi/ | ʼątzi | אמציא | 'I will invent' |
| /ɛ/ | /ˈʔɛvẽ/ | ʼévę | אבן | 'stone' |
| /e/ | /ˈʔezɛʁ/ | ʼếzer | עזר | 'aid' |
| /ẽ/ | /ʔẽ/ | ʼę | אין | 'there is no' |
| /i/ | /ʔiʃ/ | ʼiš | איש | 'man' |
| /ɪ̃/ | /ʔɪ̃/ | ʼį | אם | 'if' |
| /o/ | /ʔov/ | ʼov | אב | 'father' |
| /ɔ̃/ | /ʔɔ̃/ | ʼǫ | עם | 'people, nation' |
| /ø/ | /ʔøʁ/ | ʼør | אור | 'light' |
| /ø̃/ | /ʔoˈsø̃/ | ʼosø̨ | אתון | 'jenny' |
| /u/ | /ʔäduˈmo/ | ʼadumo | אדומה | 'red' (f. sg.) |
| /ʊ̃/ | /ʔʊ̃ˈnɔ̃/ | ʼųnǫ | אומנם | 'indeed' |
Grammar
Modern Hebrew no longer observes the distinction between masculine plural and feminine plural pronouns, 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 hølchį/hølchøs 'y'all go' (mp/fp)).