Hebrew Pronunciation: Yemenite

The Yemenite Jews are one of the earliest Jewish communities outside of Israel. Historic sources indicate that this community was in touch with the Jewish communities in Egypt, Israel, Mesopotamia and Persia but had its own legal decisions and traditions, including the pronunciation of Hebrew. Now most Yemenite Jews live in Israel, speak Israeli Hebrew and use the Yemenite pronunciation in the religious context only.

The best source for the Yemenite Hebrew that I've come across is The Hebrew Language Tradition of the Yemenite Jews by Shelomo Morag. Although the book contains precise information, it is written in a condensed and technical language.

Here I will only present how the Hebrew letters and vowel marks were pronounced in different areas of Yemen. The book goes far beyond and presents the various ways to vocalize and pronounce the Bible, the Mishna and other texts.

Let us start with the pronunciation of the Sana'a area.

Pronunciation in Sana'a

Consonants

The Yemenite pronunciations are notorious for assigning a distinct sound to each letter including the בגדכפת except שֹ שמאלית which is pronounced as ס in all Jewish communities.

The following text presumes the familiarity with the Hebrew alphabet and phonetic terms.

א is pronounced as a glottal stop, this is how Cockneys pronounce t in water: wa'ah. Here it will be marked by an apostrophe. When א is between 2 vowels, א is not pronounced at all like in the other varieties of Hebrew: רְפָאִים sounds like rafoim and not rafo'im.

בּ - b, ב - v

גּ - j in job

ג - as the Arabic ق [q] followed by خ [x]. In Standard Arabic ق is pronounced like k deep in the throat. Click here for an example. Here it will be marked by q and خ is pronounced as ch in loch, as j in Spanish. Here it will be marked by x. So ג is pronounced as qx.

Some pronounce ג as the Arabic غ (French r, German r) but without the friction (like a ch above but voiced, or like g in go but with air passing through the throat) when it is in the beginning of a word or between vowels. Click here for an example. Phonetically it will be marked by ɣ

In the end of a syllable before a voiced consonant some pronounce it as غ: ברגליו [baraɣlow] - on his feet. Source.

דּ - d, ד - th in this (phonetically it will be written as ð)

ה - h

ו - w

ז - z

ח - as the Arabic ح (like ch in loch or like j in Spanish but pronounced deep in the throat with a breath). Click here for an example. Phonetically it will be written as ħ.

ט - as the Arabic ط - t pronounced with constricted pharynx. Click here for an example. Phonetically it will be written as tˤ.

י - y

כּ - k, כ - as the Arabic خ, ch in loch, as j in Spanish. Phonetically it will be written as x.

ל - l

מ - m

נ - n

ס - s

ע - as the Arabic ﻉ (pronounced by a spasm in the throat). A more scientific description is given here. Phonetically it can be written as ʕ

פּ - p, פ - f

צ - as the Arabic ص - s pronounced with pharynx or epiglottis constricted. Click here for the example. Phonetically it will be written as sˤ

ק - g as in good

ר - r (not as in English ! but as in Spanish)

שׁ - sh, שֹ - s

תּ - t, ת - th in thanks (phonetically will be written as θ)


As you see no 2 consonants are the same and every letter in בגדכפת is distinct except ש as explained above. This matches the description of Hebrew laid out in ספר היצירה - a pre-Talmudic book - the earliest description of Hebrew that I know. This fact however does not mean that the Yemenite Hebrew has preserved the sounds as they were pronounced at the time when Jews settled in Yemen either from Israel or through Mesopotamia.


Dagesh - דגש


Dagesh is a dot placed inside a letter. When a letter with dagesh is surrounded by vowels, the dagesh is called דגש חזק - strong dagesh and the letter is doubled.

Example:

בַּיִת bayith house: here the dagesh inside ב is not a strong dagesh because ב is not surrounded by vowels.

הַבַּיִת - habbayith - the house : here the dagesh is strong because בּ has vowels on both sides.

Unlike some other communities, the Yemenite Jews do pronounce the strong dagesh.


Vowels

אַ sounds as the Arabic fatha or like the French a. Click here for examples. Yemenites living in Israel pronounce it the same way the Israelis pronounce it which in fact is based on the Yiddish and Russian 'a' of the revivers of the modern spoken Hebrew. It sounds like a in father but shorter. Phonetically it will be written as a.

ָא is pronounced as  אֹ of Israeli Hebrew and of Hebrew of Jews from the Arab countries (Mizrahim as well as Sefaradim). English does not have this sound but the Spanish o is a good match. Phonetically it will be written as o.

אֹ has the same sound as אָ in Yemenite Hebrew, the same sound as in Israeli Hebrew, the same sound
as in the Hebrew of Jews from the Arab countries (Mizrahim as well as Sefaradim). English does not have this sound but the Spanish o is a good match. Phonetically it will be written as o. Some Sana'a Jews pronounce it as o in work but without r in the end, as eu in the French word feu, as the German ö in Dankeschön. Phonetically it will be written as ö. Pay attention that only אֹ can be pronounced as ö whereas ָא is always o.


אוּ and אֻ are pronounced as in all other forms of Hebrew (except Ukrainian). English does not have this sound precisely but the Spanish u is a good match. Phonetically written as u. But when it is in a closed syllable, it has 2 pronunciations:
- when it stands before a labial (b v m w p f) or before/after ג, ה, ח, ט, כּ, כ, ע, צ, ק, ר it is pronounced u as above.
- otherwise it is pronounced as the French u, German ü. Phonetically written as ü:
יֻלַּד - yüllad - was born
וּתְנַחֲמֵנִי - üθanaħameni - and you will console me


אִ is pronounced as in all other forms of Hebrew [i]

אֵ is pronounced as in Israeli Hebrew, as in Hebrew of Jews from Arab countries [e]

ֶא is pronounced the same as אַ which is different from all other traditions of Hebrew [a]

The reduced variants are pronounced shorter: אֲ אֱ

אֳ is the same as  אָ [o]

Pronunciation of הַּ, חַ, עַ in the end of words following a vowel lead to the insertion of w or y before them depending on the preceding vowel.

רוּחַ is pronounced as ruwaħ or ruwwaħ instead of ruaħ in the other traditions of Hebrew.
רֵיחַ is pronounced as reyaħ or reyyaħ instead of reaħ.


Shewa שוא

Here I describe when shewa is pronounced. The sound of shewa is described in a different section.

Shewa are two vertical dots under a letter: אְ

Although shewa is a part of the vowel system, it deserves a special discussion because unlike the other vowel marks, it is pronounced or not pronounced depending on the environment.

There are two types of shewa: pronounced (נע) and silent (נח).

Shewa is silent except the following cases:

Shewa is always pronounced in the beginning of a word:

מְדַבֵּר - madabber - he speaks, סְפָרים - saforim - books

Shewa is always pronounced under a strong dagesh, i.e a dagesh that doubles the letter:

הספרים - hassaforim - the books

Shewa is always pronounced when preceded by a shewa:וּבְשָכְבְּךָ - uwashokhbakho - and when you lie (lie down / go to sleep)

Shewa is always pronounced after an open syllable. An open syllable is a syllable that ends in a vowel. For example, אנֹכי o-nö-xi has 3 open syllables. Example: תֹאמְרוּן tömarun - they will say.

Shewa is pronounced under two consecutive identical consonants in some places:
 הַלְלִי - halali - praise! (you singular female) (ישעיהו סו טז) but in other places it is not pronounced and the 2 consonants are pronounced with a pause. The specific places where it is pronounced or not are described in the book I mentioned above.

Pronunciation of shewa

In the other traditions (Ashkenazi, Mizrakhi et al), the default pronunciation of shewa (when it is pronounced) is a short [e] sound (like both e in phenomenal) whereas in the Yemeni tradition the default is a short [a] similar to u in unimportant. Therefore shewa in Yemeni is pronounced [shawo].

Special cases

When shewa is not under א, ע, ה, ח but is followed by א, ע, ה, ח then shewa is pronounced as a short version of the following vowel:
וְאֵת - we'eth (th as in thanks)
יְאֹרֵי - yö'öre - rivers of
וְאָמַרתָּ - wo'omarto - and you said
יְהוּדָה - yuhudo - Yehuda (name)
וְאִמִּי - wi'immi - and my mother - in this case shewa can be followed by י as well: וְיוֹשֵב - wiyöshev

Pronunciation of Aden

Some letters (consonants) and vocalizations (vowels) are pronounced differently in Aden than in Sana'a

גּ - g as in guard (versus j as in job in Sana'a)

ג - whereas in Sana'a gimel without dagesh is pronounced as  as the Arabic ق followed by خ, in Aden it is pronounced as the Arabic غ. See the explanation of these Arabic sounds above.

ק - as the standard Arabic ق which sounds as k pronounced by the throat. When ק is between vowels or at the end of a word, it sounds as g in guard but not so 'tight' (half way from g to غ)

אֹ - is pronounced as אֵ [e] in Aden versus [o] or [ö] in Sana'a. For example, תורה sounds as [tero]  in Aden versus [töro] in Sana'a.

Pronunciation of Sa'ada and Haydan

Pronunciation of Sa'a'da and Haydan versus Sana'a

There used to be Jewish communities in and around Sa'ada in northern Yemen.

Consonants

גּ - in some places גּ is pronounced as j in job, in other places it is pronounced as a palatal g (gy pronounced together, like гь in Russian). Chapter 5 of the book mentioned above gives the list of places. (j in majz, gim'a, nuni, 'aru, tallan, no'a, surma, shafye, hajar, nadir, sagen, gef; gy in nshur, tawile, 'akwan, shalil, talh, bir 'ali, zor, sabar, sha'af, sahat baswab, saga, hash'a, madde, 'ungug)

ג - pronounced the same as in Aden: as the Arabic غ. See the explanation of these Arabic sounds above.

ק - g as in good

Vowels


אֹ - as o in work but without r in the end, as eu in the French word feu, as the German ö in Dankeschön. [ö]

ּאו - u as in the Israeli/Sefaradi/Mizrahi/Ashkenazi (except Ukrainian) Hebrew but in the end of a word it is pronounced as uw: עָלוּ - oluw - they went up

אִי - i as in the other forms of Hebrew in the end of a word it is pronounced as iy: כי [kiy]

Pronunciation of Hujariyya

גּ - g as in guard

ג - pronounced the same as in Aden: as the Arabic غ. See the explanation of these Arabic sounds above.

ק - as the standard Arabic ق which sounds as k pronounced by the throat. Phonetically written as q

אוּ and אֻ are pronounced as in all other forms of Hebrew (except Ukrainian). English does not have this sound precisely but the Spanish u is a good match. Phonetically written as u. The author of the book mentioned above also registered the ü pronunciation described above but did not have enough data to generalize a rule.
In the end of a word it is pronounced as uw: עָלוּ - oluw - they went up

אֹ - is pronounced as אֵ [e] as in Aden versus [o] or [ö] in Sana'a. For example, תורה sounds as [tero]  versus [töro] in Sana'a.

Pronunciation of Habban

ג - as in Sana'a gimel without dagesh is pronounced as  as the Arabic ق followed by خ. See Sana'a above.



TODO: habban, summary, table of differences, table of sounds, stress in mishna, w- (ch 13), reading niqqud vs their niqqudim (bavli, teymani, oral), wiki

Hebrew Pronunciation: Major Types

Currently we have the following major types:

Samaritan
Used by Samaritans in the religious context. I will not describe this pronunciation because I am focusing on the Jewish topics.

Teymani
Yemen in Hebrew is called Teyman.

The Jewish community in Yemen is one of the earliest geographic offshoots of the Jewish nation. There are various legendary and historic opinions regarding the antiquity of the Jewish settlement in Yemen. The Teymani Jews have 5 regional pronunciations that will be described in a following article. At the moment most Teymani Jews are in Israel and they use the Teymani pronunciations only in the religious context. In daily life they use the common Israeli pronunciation.

Mizrahi
'Mizrahi' (מזרחי) means 'eastern'. This applies to Jews living in the Muslim lands from Morocco all the way to India, which used to be under the Muslim rule until the British took over.
In 1492 Jews were expelled from Spain and in 1497 from Portugal. These Jews, called sefaradim (Sephardic), settled in Europe all the way to the Slavic lands and along North Africa all the way to Israel, and in the Ottoman empire. Sephardic Jews formed a distinct community and their pronunciation existed in parallel with the local pronunciations. It is not correct to classify the Sephardic pronunciation under Mizrahi but practically both correlate with Arabic and with the local languages and both differ from Ashkenazi and Teymani in the same points.
It is also incorrect but practical to classify the pronunciation of Georgian, Kavkazi (Jews of Caucasus), Persian and Bukhari (Jews of Bukhara and Samarkand) Jews under Mizrakhi for the same reasons, except correlation with Arabic.
Most Mizrahi Jews have left the Muslim lands and settled in Israel, in France and in North America.
The official pronunciation of the State of Israel is based on the pronunciation of the Sephardic community in Jerusalem. This Israeli pronunciation is used by many non-Mizrahi Israelis in prayer and studying of Torah, especially among Israelis who return to religious observance and among the Modern Orthodox (כיפות סרוגות). The Israeli pronunciation is also widely used in the non-Orthodox communities in the US (Conservative, Reform)
I will dedicate an article to these pronunciations.

Ashkenazi
Ashkenaz is the nickname for the German lands. Nickname and not a real name because in the Bible Ashkenaz refers to a different location.
Jews in the German lands and later in the Slavic lands have 2 distinct pronunciations: the Ashkenazi proper and a pronunciation that was common in Ukraine.
Most European Jews have been exterminated by the Nazis and their local collaborators.
Most surviving Ashkenazi Jews who are not religious have switched to the Israeli pronunciation.
The Ashkenazi pronunciations survive in the Orthodox and Hasidic communities mostly in Israel and the US.
I will dedicate and article about these pronunciations.