User:IlL/Spare pages 1/55
A-Tiberian Hebrew is the same as ours but with ejectives for emphatics instead of pharyngealized consonants.
As in our timeline, Hebrew accents in the AETHER timeline can be divided into three major types:
- Ashkenazi-type: segol, pataħ, and qamatz are all distinct; tav is lenited (e.g. Modern Standard, Gaelic)
- Sephardi-type: segol != pataħ = qamatz; tav is not lenited (e.g. Vertlandic)
- Babylonian-type: segol = pataħ != qamatz (e.g. Indian)
The standard and most commonly taught Hebrew accent is the same as the Lõisian "Revived Holy Land" accent (see Verse:Lõis/Hebrew).
Standard
Hebrew in Lõis was first revived by English-speaking Jewish immigrants in the Holy Land. Most speakers in the Holy Land today use a simplified version of English Hebrew but with a bit of a Vertlandic touch.
- Stressed vowels are slightly longer than unstressed syllables.
- TibH /p t k/ are aspirated except after fricatives; voicing assimilation works like in English
- "overuse" of glottal reinforcement relative to Vertlandic Hebrew: the Revived Hebrew phonemes /p t k ts/ are realized as [ʔp ʔt ʔk ʔts] after a vowel or /m n l/.
- beth, kaf, pe, tav without dagesh are [v, x, f, θ].
- vav is [v], like in Israeli Hebrew
- lamed not before a vowel is dark [ɫ] and is often vocalized to [w].
- A six-vowel system: /i e ɛ a ɔ o u/ = [i ɛ ɛ a o ø u~ü]. /ø/ is lowered to [œ] before [χ].
- Diphthongal realizations of /i e o/ as [ɪj~eɪ ɛɪ~aɪ ɑːʏ̯̈~aː] are often used in mockery of pretentious or Ultra-Orthodox people.
- resh is [ɹ], and sometimes [ɾ] in careful liturgical accents. in basilectal speech, non-prevocalic [ɹ] is dropped with compensatory lengthening or diphthongization. It causes the following phonetic changes to vowels.
- patakh + resh: קר TibH /kʼar/ 'cold' becomes [kʰɑɹ] car
- kamatz + resh: דבר TibH /dɔˈvɔr/ 'thing' becomes [dovoɹ] dovor
- segol + resh: כתר TibH /ˈkɛθɛr/ 'crown' becomes [ˈkʰɛθeəɹ] cether
- tzere + resh: חצר TibH /ħɔˈtsʼer/ 'yard' becomes [xoˈtseəɹ] chotser
- khiriq + resh: עיר TibH /ʕir/ 'city, town' becomes [iəɹ] ir
- kholam + resh: חור TibH /ħor/ 'hole' becomes [xœɹ~xɞɹ~xɜɹ] chœr
- shuruq + resh: סגור TibH /sɔˈɣur/ 'closed (state)' becomes [soˈguəɹ] sogur
- Shva is dropped using similar rules to Israeli Hebrew. If shva is pronounced as a vowel, it is pronounced as [ə].
- Obstruent + /θ/ clusters are allowed, e.g. סתיו /sθov/ sthov 'autumn', שתה /ʃθɛ/ shthe 'drink! (m. sg.)'
- Ayin not before a vowel (whether shva, chataf or final) behaves much like in Israeli Hebrew: /aʕ eʕ ɔʕ oʕ iʕ uʕ/ = [ɑ: ea oa~o øa ia ua]. Nasal realizations [ɑ̃ː ɛ̃ː ɔ̃ː œ̃ː iɑ̃~ẽː uɑ̃~õː] or pharyngeal realizations (pronouncing a pharyngeal ayin) may be present in proper and formal speech.
- /h/-dropping does not occur word-initially or on the onset of a stressed syllable, except possibly in function words. The /h/ in the definite article /ha/ is not dropped phrase-initially.
The original normative standard for the accent was the Hăvohróh Măcubéleth accent. However, Hăvohróh Măcubéleth today is usually regarded as antiquated, pretentious or overly religious. HM is standard in some styles of singing, such as classical music, religious music, or more rarely in more elevated popular music.
The grammar is nearly identical to our Israeli Hebrew (using suffix conjugation = past, participle = present, prefix conjugation = future/imperative, l- + infinitive construct = infinitive), but different phonological simplifications are made than in Israeli Hebrew and there are calques from English not used in Israeli Hebrew, such as מה מעלה /ma ˈmaːlo/ = "what's up?"
- The compensatory lengthening rule /a/ (patakh) to /o/ (kholam), /i/ (khiriq) to /e/ (tzere) is usually observed before an underlying geminate /ʔ/ (aleph or ayin) and /r/.
- In particular, the definite article is usually ha, but always ho before Revived phonemes /ʔ r/.
- The /ʔu-/ allomorph for ו 'and' may be used hypercorrectly. In normative Hebrew this allomorph is only found before labials and C + shva where C != yud.
- Instead of vusvusím (from Yiddish which doesn't exist in the Lõis timeline) the derogatory term wotwotím (from English 'what, what') is used for Ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Vertlandic
Vertlandic Jews (called "Sephardim" in-universe) should have an original accent, with
- begadkefat acts on /b d k p/ → /v ð x f/; /g ɣ/ are always [ŋ]
- glottal reinforcement before tet, tsadi, and kuf
- segol = ə, pataħ = QG = a, tsere = əy, ħolam = əw, ħiriq = i, QQ = shuruq = u
Gaelic/"Galician"
Similar to our Ashkenazi Hebrew, except
- /e ɔ o u/ are pronounced like Judeo-Gaelic ea o u î
- undageshed gimel is pronounced like Judeo-Gaelic gh
- /r/ is an alveolar flap
- /z/ is [ʒ]. It is [z] in the Southern accent.
Revived Galician Hebrew (revived by some secular L-Galician Jews) prefers Celtic syntax, such as VSO word order and expressions for feelings and modals. It also prefers some coincidentally Gaelic-sounding words (e.g. אַךְ ach 'but' and שָׂשׂ sos 'happy' instead of the synonyms אֲבָל avol and שָׂמֵחַ someach). For these reasons other Hebrew speakers may perceive Revived Galician Hebrew as higher-register. Religious Jews prefer to speak Judeo-Gaelic and refuse to speak any form of Revived Hebrew, because they view Hebrew as a sacred language.
Sample (Dror Yikra)
| Hebrew | Standard | Judeo-Gaelic | Vertlandic |
|---|---|---|---|
|
דְּרוֹר יִקְרָא לְבֵן עִם בַּת
וְיִנְצָרְכֶם כְּמוֹ בָבַת |
[dɹœɹ jiʔˈkɹo ləˈvɛn (ʔ)im baθ] |
[dəˈɾuɾ jiˈkʰɹo ləˈveən ʔim bas] |
[dəˈrəwr jiʔˈkra ləˈvəjn ʕim bat] |