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