Questions tagged [pronunciation]
How or why words are pronounced in certain ways.
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Hebrew texts (like the Torah) with IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transliteration of each term?
Is there a mapping of Hebrew terms in the Torah (or any other key Hebrew text like you'd find on Sefaria), to the IPA pronunciation? Ideally even there would be at least two transliterations, one to ...
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Should I only pronounce alef as glottal stop only when there is a vowel attached to it?
(In correct pronunciation of Hebrew Bible)
According to matres lectionis alef acts as a vowel at times and not as a consonant (that is, it doesn’t produce a glottal stop) - for example: לַאדֹנִי
Is ...
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לא vs לו and other homophones - what can we do to avoid unwanted meaning in our prayers
There is a lot about pronouncing things correctly so we don't say the wrong thing, especially in tefilla. Eg in shema: we are to pronounce the ayin in "שמע" so it doesn't sound like "...
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Are there any corrections one might suggest to this table of different Hebrew pronounciations? [closed]
Sound
Modern Israeli (Based on Sephardic pronounciation)
Ashkenazi Chabad (inc. other non-Oberland / Unterland Chassidim.
Ashkenazi Chassidic (Oberlander, Unterlander and Galitzer, e.g. Satmar)
...
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How to pronounce Hebrew with the Chassidic pronunciation?
First of all, I'm not Jewish but I love Judaism and feel a strong connection to the Jewish people and faith.
My question is regarding the Chassidic way of Hebrew pronunciation when praying and reading ...
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Kamatz Katan Question
Can someone kindly confirm if שׁלוֹמָךְ and אַמָךְ have a kamatz katan in them? I do not believe they do, but I’m still working on my ability to spot the kamatz katan in some words.
I would pronounce ...
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Pronunciation of YHVH in the Pesel Micha story
The Minchas Shai on Shoftim 17:3 quotes the Gemara (Shevuos 35a) and Maseches Sofrim (4:6) regarding if the names יהוה and אלהים in the story of Micha's idol are holy or not. The Tanna Kama says that ...
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Why does the pronunciation of names change? [closed]
I am surprised I couldn’t find an answer to this. As we’ve seen in the first few parshiyos (Bereishis, Noach Lech Lecha) there are times when the Torah will write a name with one set of Nikkudot, and ...
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Ashkenazi Pronunciation
There is a different thread that said the Ashkenazi pronunciation does not have an “oh” sound for the kamatz katan. Is that correct? I suppose it would make sense given the difference in how they ...
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וִירוּשָׁלָֽ ִם in Siddur Avodat Halev? [duplicate]
Recently, I switched to Siddur Avodat Halev and noticed a different spelling of וִירוּשָׁלָֽיִם in places like יְהִי רַצוֹן at the end of the amidah. There they spell it וִירוּשָׁלָֽ ִם without the yod. ...
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Pronunciation Question
Recently, I was talking to someone about how to properly pronounce a yod that follows a patach when it is not at the end of a word. For example, we know that words like חַי are pronounced as chai with ...
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Chazal on pronounciation (according to Koren)
In his introduction to the Koren siddur, Eliyahu Koren claims:
A window thou shalt make to the ark,” says God to Noah, and our
sages took this also to mean that the correct pronunciation of the
words ...
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Changing Beitza to Bei'a [duplicate]
I understand that there’s a yeshivish tradition of referring to Masekhes Beitza as “Bei’a”, by way of using the Aramaic word for ‘egg’ in place of the Hebrew. In two separate online shiurim that I ...
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Another pronunciation question
On rosh chodesh we read from the Torah (Numbers 28:14):
וְנִסְכֵּיהֶ֗ם חֲצִ֣י הַהִין֩ יִֽהְיֶ֨ה לַפָּ֜ר וּשְׁלִישִׁ֧ת הַהִ֣ין לָאַ֗יִל וּרְבִיעִ֥ת הַהִ֛ין לַכֶּ֖בֶשׂ יָ֑יִן זֹ֣את עֹלַ֥ת חֹ֨דֶשׁ֙ ...
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How is וּמֵיהוה pronounced
This might be a stupid question, but I want to confirm וּמֵיהוה is pronounced u-may-adoni. The reason I ask is לַייָ is kind of blended to be la-donoi (the English letters might be a bit off but ...
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Kamatz with yod in פָּנָיו?
In the Aaronic blessings, should פָּנָיו be pronounced as PANAIW or PANAW? The yod can't be redundant right?
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How is a "ד" without a דגש קל pronounced? [duplicate]
According to many books I have read, a דגש קל can only be present in the letters ב, ג, ד, כ, פ and ת. The Ashkenazi מסורה for pronunciations of the letters ג and ד without a דגש קל has been lost. I ...
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Is וּכְתַבְתָּ֛ם in Shema with Shva Na or Shva Nach
My daughter goes to a chabad school (nusach ari?) and has been taught in class that וּכְתַבְתָּ֛ם in the shema (end of first paragraph) is with a shvah na on the כְ. She also says it has the asterisk ...
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Similarity between atonement in Leviticus 4:20 & cover in Genesis 6:14 in terms of semantics, wording/phrasing, lettering/grammer, pronunciation?
I apologize but I do not know any Old Testament Hebrew so I'll have to rely on the responders to this post when it comes to analyzing the Old Testament Hebrew.
Leviticus 4:20 (NASB 1995)
20 He shall ...
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Ribono Shel Olam pronunciation
I haven't studied Hebrew in 50 years and cannot read it anymore. I wonder if anyone has any suggestions on how I can get the pronunciation of Rabbi Nachman's phrase "Ribono Shel Olam" both ...
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Yeshayahu 40:31: Where does "vekovei" come from?
Yeshayahu 40:31:
וְקוֹיֵ֤ יְהוָה֙ יַחֲלִ֣יפוּ כֹ֔חַ יַעֲל֥וּ אֵ֖בֶר כַּנְּשָׁרִ֑ים יָר֙וּצוּ֙ וְלֹ֣א יִיגָ֔עוּ יֵלְכ֖וּ וְלֹ֥א יִיעָֽפוּ׃
It seems that the oldest surviving manuscripts have the ...
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Chirik: the long and short of it
My understanding is that (according to at least some Hebrew grammarians) a chirik is classified as a short vowel if it is part of a closed unstressed syllable, and otherwise it is long. A 'short' ...
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Isaiah 40:4 -- is the word pronounced "geh" or "gay"?
כָּל גֶּיא יִנָּשֵׂא
(In Isaiah 40:4, and therefore also the Haftarah for Nachamu, just after Tisha B'Av.)
It's a segol under the gimmel so I'd say "geh" ... but then there's a yud, but it's ...
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Correct pronunciation of Kaddish
The opening two words of Kaddish begin with the words:
יִתְגַּדַּל וְיִתְקַדַּשׁ
Both the gimmel and the dalet of 'Yisgadal' carry a dagesh as does the dalet in 'veyiskadash' - normally a function ...
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Distinguishing kamatz and patach in tefillin blessing
About the blessing when donning the tefillin Orach Chayim 25:7 says:
יברך להניח בקמץ תחת הה"א ולא בפתח ובדגש:
He should bless lehaniach with kamatz under the hei and not with patach and dagesh.
...
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What is a 'potential convert' called in hebrew/yiddish?
I know that a convert is called a ger tzedek. While a righteous non-Jew/goy is called a goy tzedek. From what I have found so far online, most just say/use "potential convert" when referring to ...
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קָמָץ vs. קָמַץ in Ashkenazi pronunciation
All Ashkenazi readers/minhagim/etc. I've seen call this vowel קָמַץ, while there is considerable variation on whether the second syllables of the other vowel names (except for סֶגּוֹל, though there is ...
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Silent sheva after long vowels
I assume most have heard about the 5 famous rules of Elia Levita regarding the vocal sheva. His rules tend to work well in practice, even the third, much debated rule about the concept of long vowels (...
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How do you pronounce the name אֱלוֹהַּ? [duplicate]
Is the word אֱלוֹהַּ pronounced as:
"Elo-ha" or
"Elo-ah"?
DonielF pointed out a similar question. It seems to me that that question was asking for the reasoning of how Patach ...
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Does Hebrew allow for this conception of the pronunciation of the "Tetragammaton"?
Disclaimer: I know no Hebrew.
I'm trying to find out if the Hebrew argument that this article makes concerning the pronunciation of the divine Name is cogent or not. As an outsider they seem to know ...
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What is the proper way to pronounce אלוה? [duplicate]
I remember reading something by Rabbi Phil Chernofsky in a recent Torah Tidbits in which he stated it should be pronounced “e-LO-wah”. On Mi Yodeya, I’ve read that that’s a Sephardic pronunciation, ...
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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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How to pronounce ראב"ד [closed]
I know this seems like a funny question, but it has always bothered me. What is the proper way to pronounce ראב"ד ? From a simple reading it would seem Ravaad makes the most sense ,but in the yeshiva ...
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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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What different pronunciation should a Kohen give to each letter to be strict in halacha? (SA 128:33)
When Halacha says that a Kohen should distinguish between all the Hebrew letters in Siman 128 Seif 33 from where it says "similar examples":
מי שאינו יודע לחתוך האותיות כגון שאומר לאלפי"ן עייני"ן ...
user17175
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Distinction between Samekh and Sin in the Yemenite tradition [closed]
As far as I know, in the Yemenite tradition there is a distinct sound for all consonants for the exception of Samakh and Sin. In the Wikipedia, it says that both sin and samakh are pronounced ...
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List of places where Elokim is written as tetragrammaton
Can someone point me to a list of all places in Tanach where the tetragrammaton is pronounced as "Elokim" (as in, e.g., Yechezkel 28:25)? For some reason, my concordance does not list these under ...
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How do the Israeli Ultra-Yeshivish and Briskers pronounce resh and cholam when they daven and during Torah readings?
I just want to get confirmation if both groups pronounce resh as a velar fricative, uvular fricative, or uvular trill. Also if they pronounce cholam as "oi" for all Hebrew words when they daven and ...
user17175
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Pronouncing "O" (Cholam) as "Oy"?
Typically in the Yeshivish world, the "O" sound is pronounced as "Oy" (i.e. "Moydim Anachnu Loch"). Where does this come from?
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Should you make an extra effort to pronounce prayers and blessings clearly?
Should someone make an extra effort to pronounce prayers and blessings clealry? Someone I know commented on how I "pronounced each word very clearly and didn't slur" (to put it in their own words) and ...
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What is the proper pronunciation: Tz'lafechad or Tz'lofchad?
Is the first vowel in Tz'lfchd (Bamidbar 27:1) a kamatz katan or a kamatz gadol? If it is the first, should it not be Tz'lof-chad (Ashkenazic: Tz'lof-chod) and if it is the latter, should it not be Tz'...
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Did you fulfill your obligation if you pronounced the Name of G-d differently from your custom?
Would you have fulfilled your obligation to recite a blessing if you pronounced the Name of G-d in a way that was against your custom? For example, if an Ashkenazi has the custom to say "Adonoy" and ...
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Is it true that Yerushalmi Briskers pronounce Ayin as a velar nasal when they daven?
I read a post in a forum that Briskers, apart from following the conventional Yeshivish pronunciation of Hebrew including oy for cholam, pronounce Ayin as a velar nasal. I just want to get this ...
user17175
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2
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Can you pronounce Yehuda the way it is spelled?
I heard because there is HaShem's name in Yehuda that I should pronounce it more like "youda".
does anyone know a source for this practice?
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How to pronounce ישראל - Yisroel or Yisrael? [closed]
Why do many people spell, and pronounce, the name ישראל as Yisroel, as if it had an americanized cholem? Isn't it spelled with a kamatz? Do such people still pronounce it as Yisroel in Shema?
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Arnold Schoenberg's Survivor from Warsaw [closed]
This is kind of a music question, and kind of a Judaism question. Several years ago, when I was assistant director of the Nashville Symphony Chorus, I sang with a men's chorus on the Arnold Schoenberg ...
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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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Ayin or Aleph, blessing or curse?
This site:
https://www.torahmusings.com/2014/08/mispronouncing-hebrew-2/
quotes Rashi as saying:
"By using an ayin sound rather than an alef in birkas kohanim, they change the blessing into a curse."
...
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Why does the Midrash single out these names?
Shir HaShirim Rabbah 2:13, expounding Shir HaShirim 2:4 (ודגלו עלי אהבה, literally translated as "his banner is beloved upon me"):
אמר רבי יששכר תינוק שקרא למֹשה מַשה לאהרֹן אהרַן לעפרֹן עפרַן אמר ...
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How Do Yemenites Read Yissachar?
I was reading Torah recently and someone came up and asked me how I pronounced Yissachar. I didn't realize there were multiple ways of reading the name. He told me there was a dispute and so he wanted ...
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