The following is my best reconstruction of the 'proper' way to pronounce Hebrew letters and vowels, according to the text and the Masoretic pronunciation notes (niqud). When I pray or read the Torah, this is how I do so. The pronunciation is based on several logical principles and not on historical research, but it turns out (with one exception) to be very close to scholars' reconstruction of the accent used by the Tiberian Baalei Hamesorah. (Note that it is very unlikely that there ever was one single 'correct' pronunciation used by all Jews - see the Book of Judges. However, since we rely on the Baalei Hamesorah already, I think it most correct to use the pronunciation most consistent with their notations and the actual letters.)
The principles used in this construction are as follows:
- Each symbol (letter or niqud) has a single sound, and vice versa.
- Dagesh hazaq has a consistent effect on the 6 letters it affects (beth, gimmel, daleth, kaph, peh, taw).
- All vowel sounds are pure monophthongs - there are no diphthongs. Similarly, there are no composite consonant sounds (such as /ts/).
- Letters that are frequently interchanged have similar sounds.
- Pronunciations must be similar to modern pronunciations in all modern dialects; whenever possible, there should be a clear explanation for each divergence.
Consonants
| Similar to English | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| א | 'Alef | ' |
the - in uh-oh |
| בּ | Beth | b |
b in boy |
| ב | v |
v in visit * | |
| גּ | Gimmel | g |
g in gum |
| ג | gh |
Voiced velar fricative * | |
| דּ | Daleth | d |
d with tongue touching back of teeth |
| ד | dh |
th in this or the (not thing or bath) | |
| ה | Heh | h |
h in happy |
| ו | Waw | w |
w in witch * |
| ז | Zayin | z |
z in zoo |
| ח | Heth | ch |
Voiceless pharyngeal fricative |
| ט | Teth | t |
t of Indian English * |
| י | Yodh | y |
y in yesterday |
| כּ ךּ | Kaph | k |
k in skin |
| כ ך | kh |
ch in loch and Chanukah :-) | |
| ל | Lamedh | l |
l with tongue more forward in the mouth |
| מ ם | Mem | m |
m in map |
| נ ן | Nun | n |
n in nine |
| ס | Samekh | s |
s in sit |
| ע | `Ayin | ` |
Voiced pharyngeal approximant |
| פּ ףּ | Peh | p |
p in occupant |
| פ ף | f |
f in five * | |
| צ ץ | Sadi | ts |
Voiceless pharyngealized alveolar fricative |
| ק | Qoph | q |
k with back of tongue near uvula |
| ר | Resh | r |
similar to d in rider or t in better * |
| שׁ | Shin | sh |
sh in shoe |
| שׂ | s |
s in sit * | |
| תּ | Taw | t |
t with tongue touching back of teeth |
| ת | th |
th in thing or bath (not this or the) |
Notes
- Undotted Beth (v) - ב: Although the more logical choice would might been the voiced bilabial fricative (as Ancient Greek "beta"), this is not at all attested in Hebrew; all modern pronunciations have /v/ (except Babylonian which has aspirated /b/, but this seems borrowed, since no other Semitic languages use aspiration).
- Undotted Gimmel (gh) - ג: The Yemenite "jimmel" seems a clear borrowing from Arabic, as no other Semitic languages have it, and it breaks the otherwise clear consistency of dagesh hazaq.
- Waw (w) - ו: This pronunciation is attested among Yemenites, and is the more plausible by the use of waw as a mater lectionis for shuruq and holam.
- Teth (t) - ט: This admittedly is a tricky one - the other contender was voiceless pharyngealized dental plosive, analogous to sade, but I couldn't pronounce it (so I'm not perfect!). (This is quite similar, in any case...).
- Undotted Peh (f) - פ: Although (as for beth) the more logical choice might have been the unvoiced bilabial fricative (as Ancient Greek "phi"), this is not at all attested in Hebrew; all modern pronunciations have /f/ (except Babylonian which has aspirated /p/, but this seems borrowed, since no other Semitic languages use aspiration).
- Resh (r) - ר: A trill is also acceptable.
- Sin (s) - שׂ: This violates the "one sound, one letter" principle, but what can I do? The close relation of samekh and shin is clear from the book of Judges, in any case. Perhaps sin should be a voiceless retroflex fricative, but this is not attested in any Semitic languages, to my knowledge.
Vowels
| Similar to English | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| בַ | Patah | a | first part of /ai/ in light; or /au/ in how |
| בָ | Qamas | a | Open back rounded vowel |
| בֵ | Sere | e | Close-mid central unrounded vowel |
| בֶ | Segol | e | first part of /ei/ in late or play |
| בֹ | Holam | o | first part of /ou/ in hope or go |
| בֻ | Shuruq | u | oo in boot |
| בִ | Hiriq | i | ee in beet |
| בְ | Shewa (na`) | a or e | a in about or o in synonym |
Note that there is no qamas qatan, since the Baalei Mesorah saw fit to use one symbol, not two. Further, there are no "full" vs. "incomplete" versions of vowels caused by the insertion of yod or waw, since those letters are simply matres lectiones, inserted to indicate (pretty much) what vowel is there.
Other pronunciation rules
There are a number of other important things about Hebrew pronunciation that are quite standard, but are not as widely known as they should be. Some of them are:
- Accents are usually on the last syllable of a word (milera`); when the accent is on the last-but-one syllable (mile`el), there is usually a small vertical line (meteg) placed next to the relevant vowel symbol.
- A dot in a letter other than BGD-KPT (and sometimes there) means that the letter is "doubled", i.e., both closes the preceding syllable and starts the following one. This is a subtle, but noticeable, difference.
- Some shwas are nah and are not pronounced at all, and others are pronounced. It's tricky to know which is which, but shwa is always pronounced at the start of a word (unlike in Modern Israeli Hebrew).