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.

Hebrew Pronunciation: Overview

Hebrew is one of the most ancient continuously used languages. Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. Canaanite languages were spoken in and around Canaan - the ancient name of the land of Israel. The most ancient inscriptions in a Canaanite languages date 3000 years back.
The Jewish religious history presents a different story. Hebrew in Hebrew is called ivrit - the language of Eber (Ever) the only descendant of Noah who preserved the language of Adam. The language was passed down to Abraham and through his son Isaac to Jacob (aka Israel) and all his descendants - the nation of Israel.
In both cases we have the text of Torah and those of us who observe and study it must know how to pronounce it correctly. Or not?
In the following brief articles I will outline the currently used Hebrew pronunciations and I will try to answer these questions:

• what is the root of the currently used pronunciations
• to what extent we can know the original pronunciation
• is it important to use the original pronunciation in the religious context

Hebrew Fonts

The first Hebrew books printed in the late XV century bear no dates but researchers believe that they were printed between 1469 and 1472 in Rome. Before that, Hebrew books were manually written using quite a number of styles.
Texts that must bear holiness, such as a Torah scroll, a mezuza, a tefillin, megillat Esther, are written using precisely defined letter shapes. Yet despite the precise rules, due to the large geographic distribution of the Jews as well as to the long history of the tradition, this standard has separated into two: Ashkenazi and Sefaradi, plus the styles of Ari (1500s by Ari) and Chabad (1700s by Alter Rebbe) that are not not a result of slow natural change but were set by the two great mystics.

Text that do not bear holiness but still require respect, such as the other religious books and non religious documents, were written either using the same letters as the holy texts but without the tags and written faster and with less precision.

In addition, Jews developed a variety of styles. In some cases the styles were just a natural development of the standard style

In other cases, the styles copied a local non Jewish style, such as Gothic in Europe

In addition, there was a number of cursive styles, usually local to a geographic area and period. See Hebrew Cursive
With the beginning of print, many of these styles were simply ported to print and over time many new fonts have been invented, especially with the invention of computer graphics.
On the web we usually see one font as defined in the browsers such as Times New Roman because non standard fonts would require time consuming upload. But in computer graphics and in the printed media the number of fonts is quite large and some of them are quite fancy and only remotely remind the biblical standards.
For example:

that says איזה פחד (how scary)

Hebrew Cursive

Throughout the Jewish history, Jews copied and wrote not only religious texts but also extensive amount of business documents and personal letters both in Hebrew and in the languages spoken by Jews in the daily life such as Arabic, Yiddish and Ladino.
When Jews wrote in these languages they also used the Hebrew alphabet. For example, Jews living between Spain and Iraq spoke and wrote in Arabic. But when they wrote Arabic, they wrote it using the Hebrew letters. Same goes for Yiddish, Ladino and I saw a Torah translation in Farsi written in Hebrew letters.
An example in Yiddish: היינט איז זונטאג - haynt iz zuntog - today is sunday
An example in Arabic: אליום הו יום אלאחד - al-yawmu huwa yawmu 'lahad

Naturally, the level of care in writing varied from high accuracy when copying a Torah to quick casual writing when writing a personal letter. In casual writing the letters were rounder, some letters were connected.

Here is an example of carefully handwritten sentence from a Torah scroll:

Here is the first sentence of Mishnah from a handwritten manuscript:

The letters are also written carefully because it is an important book but here a scribe omits 'tags' over letters, adds marks in and around the letters, does not keep distance between the letters and does not always observe the proportion within and among the letters.

And here is a draft of Rambam's Mishneh Torah written by Rambam himself:

As you see, Rambam was quickly writing a draft for himself, not for publication and this is how standard letters naturally develop into cursive.
The most extreme forms of cursive developed in the Muslim countries by the eleventh century CE in parallel with the development of the Arab scripts.
Here is an example by Yehuda Halevi:

Because Jews lived over vast territory stretching from Morocco and West Europe all the way to Central Asia, the casual (cursive) script varied from place to place.

One famous example of a local cursive is Rashi script based on the cursive of the Sephardi Jews.
Since most Jews who were instrumental in founding the State of Israel came from the Yiddish speaking areas of Eastern Europe, their cursive became the official cursive in Israel and the most, if not the only, cursive used by Jews worldwide.
You can find numerous samples by looking up כתב עברי רהוט in Google's image search.
In Hebrew the cursive is called רהוט (rahut). רהוט means 'smooth' in Hebrew and 'running','cursive' in Aramaic.
There is an outstanding book about this subject by an Israeli linguist Edna Yardeni: The Book of Hebrew Script.