Questions tagged [pronunciation]
How or why words are pronounced in certain ways.
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Relationship between Samekh and Sin
What is the relationship between the letters samekh and sin? Did they ever have distinct sounds? Why do they exist as separate letters?
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Why so many vocalized shvas in Siddur Tehillat Hashem?
I prayed using a Siddur Tehillat Hashem the other day, and I noticed that many more shvas were marked with an asterisk above, indicating that they should be vocalized, than I'd expect. In particular, ...
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Different traditions in Hebrew pronunciation [closed]
The theme of Hebrew pronunciation is one that facinates me and, as such, I want to get some feedback on some issues I've been thinking about for years. I have already discussed some of these issues ...
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Why is there a dagesh in second camocha, but not in first?
In "Mi chamocha ba'elim H', Mi camocha nedar bakodesh" (from the Az Yashir song by the sea, but also between the shma and the amidah in the morning, and elsewhere):
מִֽי-כָמֹ֤כָה בָּֽאֵלִם֙ יְ-ק-...
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Aleph with a Dagesh
In four places in Tanakh, our text has an aleph with a dagesh: Gen 43:26, Lev 23:17, Job 33:21, and Ezra 8:18. What is the significance of this, and for the first two examples, how would you indicate ...
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Were our symbols for trope and nekudos created by the Masoretes, or transmitted by them?
It is commonly said in secular sources that the shapes of the trope and nekudos we use today were invented by the Masoretes (7th to 11th Century CE), but I cannot find any source in our mesorah to ...
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Whispering prayers?
Can one whisper t'fila (prayer)? I'm thinking of obligatory t'filos like sh'mone esre and "Sh'ma".
I know one can speak t'fila quietly, even very quietly; in fact, sh'mone esre is said quietly. I'm ...
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Yisgadal or Yisgadel?
I've noticed that some people, when reciting kaddish, pronounce the first words as "yisgadal v'yiskadash" with a patach under the dalet of both words, while others say "yisgadel v'yisgadesh" with a ...
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What is the correct pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton?
I come from Christianity.SE, where I asked almost the same question. Isaac Moses assured me that the question would not be disrespectful and could be asked here.
God's name is written as the ...
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Where did the sing-song chant that Jews often use while contrasting points come from?
I am having a very hard time coming up with a good way to describe the phenomenon that I am thinking of, but many people will recognize it. I am talking about the kind of singing rhythm that people ...
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Inhaling prayers?
Elsewhere I ask whether it's sufficient to pray in a whisper. See there, please, for a description of whispering and how it differs from speaking quietly.
Answers to that question indicate that ...
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Why doesn't Chabad differentiate between Ches and Chaf, and Ayin and Aleph?
The Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe writes that the Shabbos before the great debate in Minsk, the Alter Rebbe served as the chazzan and baal koreh for his minyan. Furthermore, although the Alter Rebbe used ...
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Meaning and pronunciation of יישר כחך
What is the exact meaning of the phrase "יישר כחך", and what is the gramatically-correct way to pronounce it?
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What does it mean to pronounce לו as opposed to לא
Maseches Sofrim 6:5 [4] says that there are 3 places where the word is written as לא but read as לו. This seems to mean that there is a difference in how the word would be pronounced if it were לא as ...
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Disparity between male and female pronunciation of Cholam
In many Yeshivish communities in the US, the male segment of the population vocalizes the cholam as "oi," while their female counterparts vocalize it as a long "o". How did this come about? Does the ...
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May one mix-and-match to create their own Hebrew pronunciation?
In the introduction to his siddur (down the bottom of the linked page), Rabbi Yaakov Emden emphasises the strict importance of a proper Hebrew pronunciation when davening. In particular, he ...
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words often mispronounced [closed]
What are some words commonly mispronounced? (Not by elision/reduction (like ה׳→אדְני) or assimilation (like תזכרו→תשׂכרו), but rather words that are pronounced wrong ...
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How do you extend the sound of a daleth in Shema?
How does one extend the sound of the daleth in the echod of the shema as prescribed in OC 61 (6)?. The letter as we say it does not seem to allow extension. See Dalet (Wikipedia) which defines it as a ...
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Have any of you ever heard anyone pronouncing ayin as "ng"?
I have read that historically the letter ayin was pronounced by some Dutch, Portuguese, and Italian Jews as a velar nasal consonant (ng as in sing). Reference to this can be found here, here, and here....
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Is the bracha pronounced "ha-MO-tzee" or "ha-mo-TZEE"?
The blessing we say on bread, "hamotzee lechem min ha'aretz" -- on what syllable is the stress in the word "hamotzee"?
Is the bracha pronounced "ha-MO-tzee" or "ha-mo-TZEE"?
In Psalms 104:14 we find ...
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Kubutz and shuruk in Polish/Hungarian pronunciation
What is the origin or basis of the Polish and Hungarian prevalence for pronouncing "oo" vowels as "ee"? The variants of other vowels are easier to understand in the context of phonological shifting, ...
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If a Mesorah for letter pronunciation is rediscovered, would we have to change our pronunciations?
Let's say that someone finds some historical evidence that a particular system of pronunciations, whether it be currently extant or not, is the one which Klal Yisrael used at the time of Kabalas ...
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Jewish names commonly used in a different form than found in Tanach
Some names are popularly used in a different form than the way they're spelled or pronounced in Tanach. A few that I can think of are:
Nochum (נָחוּם) - is written in Tanach (Nah. 1:1) as נַחוּם (...
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Should I say "amen" to a malformed bracha?
If I hear somebody substantially mispronounce a bracha, should I say amen anyway (recognizing the intent) or remain silent? I'm not talking about nuances like pronouncing 'ayin or distinguishing ...
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Zeicher vs Zecher
Why do many Ashkenazic congregations repeat (at least a portion of) the last verse (Devarim 25:19) of Parashat Zachor twice, once saying "zeikher" and the other "zekher" (flipping the first vowel from ...
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Prounciation - IM vs YIM? with ים ending
I've read that ידים is to be pronounced ya- DAI - im, yet שמים is to be pronounced sha-MAI-yim.
Both end the same, but are pronounced differently. (This was from a text purporting to teach "Biblical ...
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Pronunciation guide by a Gerer Rebbe?
I heard from a friend years ago that one of the Rebbes from Gur (the S'fas Emes) wrote a book describing the proper pronunciation of Hebrew letters and words. I am not able to find any trace of such a ...
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Pronunciation of הגפן when drinking alone
The blessing over wine, בורא פרי הגפן is pronounced differently between Ashkenazim and Sefardim. Ashkenazim say hagafen; Sfardim hagefen.
There seem to be a couple possibilities for why. According to ...
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Pronunciation of God's Name in the Bach
The Bach, writing on the Tur OC 5:1, says that when pronouncing the tetragrammaton (שם הויה) as the שם אדנות, some people say the first vowel as a patach and some as tending toward tseirei. His words:...
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Why shin and sin?
Why does Hebrew use the same letter to represent two different sounds: shin and sin? As far as I know, with the exception of when using a dagesh kal, no other Hebrew letter has this property.
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How to learn Amidah, Shma and others?
I live 3000km from shul and take conversion classes remotely. I am learning from Koren Siddur. Because I do not ever hear how the words should be spoken, I sometimes wonder if it is a waste of time. I ...
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Why do many (most?) people call the upcoming holiday "Peysach"? [closed]
In some Ashkenazic dialects, lots of words in which the first syllable is accented and the vowel is segol are pronounced as though they had a tzeirei. Examples include "meylech," "tzeydek," and "...
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A Lubavitch custom of reciting zecher and zeicher in "Ashrei"?
My cousin, a Lubavitcher, says both zecher and zeicher (that is, both זֶכֶר with a segol and זֵכֶר with a tzeire) in "Ashrei". I noticed this when I visited him a good few years ago, and assumed it ...
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Pronunciation of חשמונאי
A friend today told me that the word חשמונאי traditionally pronounced "Chashmonai" should really be pronounced "Chashmunai" with the vav being read as a shuruk vowel instead of a cholom.
Is this true?...
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Pronunciation of "Two"s in Hebrew
Thomas O. Lambdin calls out the words שְנַיִם and שְתַּיִם as exceptions to "shewa as the initial vowel in a word is always vocalized," i.e. it is "shtayim" and "shnayim". That's a secular expert's ...
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מֶה, מָה, מַה - mɛ, mʌ, ma - What's the difference?
What causes the difference in vowelization of the Hebrew word for "what" in the Bible and classical Jewish texts? In some contexts it is מֶה, in others - מָה, and in yet others - מַה. The hypothesis ...
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Are there any recordings of the Tanakh read or chanted according to reconstructed Ancient Hebrew pronunciation?
I'm looking for audio recordings of the Tanakh, but without modern or Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciations - rather an attempt to recreate what Ancient (and Archaic) Hebrew actually sounded like.
I'm also ...
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מרדכי = Mord'chi?
When learning with Jews of the Syrian community, I noticed that they pronounced מרדכי (the name of the halachic commentary on the g'mara) as "mord'chi", as if the final vowel were a chirik. Why is ...
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Is it Rabbeinu Bachya or Bechaye?
Whether people are referring to רבינו בחיי בן אשר or רבינו בחיי אבן פקודה, you will always find people who pronounce their names as either Bachya or Bechaye (Even Wikipedia uses both!). Is there any ...
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Stress of הושיעה and הצליחה in Hallel
Why is הושיעה Mileel (penultimately stressed) whereas הצליחה is Milra (ultimately stressed) in Psalms 118:25?
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Was Pharoh's daughter named Basya or Bisya?
Was Pharoh's daughter named Basya or Bisya? Sources please!
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A child's tendency to skip words corrected/prompted by an instructor
When I am helping my young child say Birkat Hamazon or other prayers, I sometimes correct her pronunciation of a word or prompt her when she forgets what the next word is. In these situations, she ...
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How to pronounce the name of the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet?
I have heard mixed answers as to how to pronounce the letter תּ
Is it taf or tav?
(I'm referring to the halachic pronunciation not the common street way.)
Is there a difference between Ashkenazi or ...
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How does one read words with a "yud" in Targum?
While doing "Shenayim Mikrah" I encounter many words that have a "yud" as second to last letter. For example the word "cities" is "קִרְוָיךְ". Is the yud pronounced during reading? I.e. is this read ...
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How to pronounce the name of the sefer "Bnei Yso(s)cher"
How does one pronounce the name of the sefer בני יששכר ?
I've heard people pronounce both sins -- so it is Ysoscher. (There is also a common custom to pronounce the name יששכר with both sins the ...
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How do people daven so quickly, and what's the support for it?
I learned that one must clearly enunciate every word of tefila. At the least this would include Shemoneh Esreh and Shema, but one might presume it includes the entire prayer service. This question ...
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רָקִיאַע or רָקִיַע
The Minchas Shay at the beginning of B'reshis cites a dispute whether the word 'רָקִיעַ' (and likewise for other words with a furtive patach) is pronounced as רָקִיאַע or as רָקִיַע, that is, with a ...
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Rava and Rabbah? Differentiating between two (?) amoraim
Inspired by this question, I have often heard people pronounce the name רבא as Rava and the name רבה as Rabbah. Is there a basis for this differentiation? Does anybody know where it comes from?
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Pronunciation of משנה הלכות
Are R' Menashe Klein's volumes of responsa pronounced "Mishna Halachos" or "Mishaneh Halachos"? Can someone provide the grammatical explanation please?
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