Mizrahi Hebrew language
Encyclopedia
Mizrahi Hebrew or Oriental Hebrew refers to any of the pronunciation systems for Biblical Hebrew used liturgically by Mizrahi Jews
, that is, Jews originating in Arab
countries or further east, and with a background of Arabic
, Persian
, Turkish
, or other languages of the Middle East
and Asia
. As such, Mizrahi Hebrew is actually a blanket term for many dialects.
Sephardi Hebrew is not considered one of these, although it has been spoken in the Middle East
and North Africa
. The Sephardim were expellees from Spain
, and settled among the Mizrahim, but in countries such as Syria and Morocco there was a fairly high degree of convergence between the Sephardi and the local pronunciations of Hebrew. Yemenite Hebrew is also considered quite separate, as it has a wholly different system for the pronunciation of the vowels.
The same terms are sometimes used for the pronunciation of modern Israeli Hebrew by Jews of Arab or other Mizrahi origins. This is generally a compromise between standard Israeli Hebrew and the traditional liturgical pronunciation as described in this article.
-speaking countries, and the variations tend to follow the Arabic dialect of the country in question.
The pronunciation of Mizrahi Jews from non-Arab countries differs in some respects. For example, among Persian Jews
distinctively Arabic sounds such as ح [ħ] and ط [tˤ] do not occur, and Kamatz gadol is backed to [ɒ] like the long a in Persian
.
Following the Arab conquest of Palestine and Mesopotamia, much work was done by the Masoretes
in standardizing and refining the pronunciation of Biblical Hebrew, under the influence of the Arabic grammarians of the time: this included establishing the pronunciation of the guttural letters by reference to their Arabic equivalents. Three distinct notations for the vowels were devised: the Palestinian, the Babylonian and the Tiberian, of which the Tiberian eventually superseded the other two.
The process of assimilation to Arabic went furthest with the Babylonian Jews. For example, in Classical Arabic
, and in some spoken dialects including Iraqi Arabic
, there is no phonemic distinction between "a" and "e", though a phonetic difference is made by the presence of an adjacent emphatic or guttural consonant. Accordingly the Babylonian notation does not distinguish between patach (in other pronunciations [a]), segol (in other pronunciations [e] or [ɛ]) and sheva na', and these three vowels are still pronounced alike (as [æ]) among Yemenite Jews
. In Levantine Arabic
, by contrast, there are distinct "a" and "e" sounds, and these two vowels are distinguished in both the Palestinian and the Tiberian notations.
After the expulsion of the Sephardi Jews
from Spain in 1492, the exiles took the leading position in most Arab and Ottoman countries, and the local pronunciation of Hebrew assimilated to Sephardi Hebrew in many respects, in particular the pronunciation of the vowels. For this reason, today's Iraqi Jews distinguish between patach (/a/) and segol (/e/) in the same way as most other Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews. However, distinct sounds for the guttural and emphatic letters, and the [b] sound for bet raphe, were retained in many Arab countries, probably under the influence of Arabic.
Iraqi Jews, like the Yemenites, retain the Classical Arabic sounds of waw ([w]) and tav raphe ([θ]). In other Arab countries tav raphe is pronounced [t]: this is equally consistent with the pronunciation of Sephardi Hebrew and with that of colloquial Arabic. The pronunciation of waw as [v] is more clearly Sephardic in origin.
Mizrahi Jews
Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahiyim, , also referred to as Adot HaMizrach are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus...
, that is, Jews originating in Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
countries or further east, and with a background of Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, or other languages of the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. As such, Mizrahi Hebrew is actually a blanket term for many dialects.
Sephardi Hebrew is not considered one of these, although it has been spoken in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
. The Sephardim were expellees from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and settled among the Mizrahim, but in countries such as Syria and Morocco there was a fairly high degree of convergence between the Sephardi and the local pronunciations of Hebrew. Yemenite Hebrew is also considered quite separate, as it has a wholly different system for the pronunciation of the vowels.
The same terms are sometimes used for the pronunciation of modern Israeli Hebrew by Jews of Arab or other Mizrahi origins. This is generally a compromise between standard Israeli Hebrew and the traditional liturgical pronunciation as described in this article.
Features
The following features are generally found in the pronunciation of Jews from ArabicArabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
-speaking countries, and the variations tend to follow the Arabic dialect of the country in question.
- The stress tends to fall on the last syllableSyllableA syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
wherever this is the case in Biblical Hebrew (Aleph) is pronounced with a clear glottal stop [ʔ], except when used as a mater lectionisMater lectionisIn the spelling of Hebrew and some other Semitic languages, matres lectionis , refers to the use of certain consonants to indicate a vowel. The letters that do this in Hebrew are aleph, he, waw and yod...
(Bet without dagesh) is pronounced [b] in some countries (e.g. Iraq), and [v] in others (e.g. Morocco) (Dalet without dagesh) is normally pronounced [d], but occasionally (e.g. in the Iraqi pronunciation of the word adonai) [ð] (Vav) is pronounced [v] in some countries and [w] in others (e.g. Iraq) (Ḥet) is pronounced [ħ], like Arabic ح (voiceless pharyngeal fricativeVoiceless pharyngeal fricativeThe voiceless pharyngeal fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is h-bar .-Features:Features of the voiceless pharyngeal fricative:...
) (Tet) is pronounced [tˤ], like Arabic ط (voiceless pharyngealized alveolar plosive) (Ayin) is pronounced [ʕ], like Arabic ع (voiced pharyngeal fricativeVoiced pharyngeal fricativeThe voiced pharyngeal approximant or fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents it is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is ?\....
) (Tsadi) is pronounced [sˤ], like Arabic ص (voiceless pharyngealized alveolar fricative) (Qof) is usually pronounced [q] like Classical ArabicClassical ArabicClassical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
ق (voiceless uvular plosive) but other sounds occur, such as [k], [ɡ] or [ʔ] (glottal stopGlottal stopThe glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
). (Resh) is usually trilledAlveolar trillThe alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar trills is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r. It is commonly called the rolled R, rolling R, or trilled R...
[r], rather than uvular [ʁ] (Tav without dagesh) is pronounced [t] in some countries, and [θ] in others (e.g. Iraq) - Vowels generally have the same sounds as in Sephardi Hebrew: that is
- Tsere is pronounced [eː]
- Holam is pronounced [oː]
- Kamatz gadol is pronounced [aː]
The pronunciation of Mizrahi Jews from non-Arab countries differs in some respects. For example, among Persian Jews
Persian Jews
Persian Jews , are Jews historically associated with Iran, traditionally known as Persia in Western sources.Judaism is one of the oldest religions practiced in Iran. The Book of Esther contains some references to the experiences of Jews in Persia...
distinctively Arabic sounds such as ح [ħ] and ط [tˤ] do not occur, and Kamatz gadol is backed to [ɒ] like the long a in Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
.
History
In Talmudic times it was noted that the Galilean (and maybe Syrian) pronunciation of Hebrew and Aramaic differed from those of both Judaea and Babylonia, principally by the loss of distinct sounds for the guttural letters he, ḥet and ayin. This feature is still found in Samaritan Hebrew.Following the Arab conquest of Palestine and Mesopotamia, much work was done by the Masoretes
Masoretes
The Masoretes were groups of mostly Karaite scribes and scholars working between the 7th and 11th centuries, based primarily in present-day Israel in the cities of Tiberias and Jerusalem, as well as in Iraq...
in standardizing and refining the pronunciation of Biblical Hebrew, under the influence of the Arabic grammarians of the time: this included establishing the pronunciation of the guttural letters by reference to their Arabic equivalents. Three distinct notations for the vowels were devised: the Palestinian, the Babylonian and the Tiberian, of which the Tiberian eventually superseded the other two.
The process of assimilation to Arabic went furthest with the Babylonian Jews. For example, in Classical Arabic
Classical Arabic
Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
, and in some spoken dialects including Iraqi Arabic
Iraqi Arabic
Iraqi Arabic is a continuum of mutually intelligible Arabic varieties native to the Mesopotamian basin of Iraq as well as spanning into eastern and northern Syria, western Iran, southeastern Turkey, and spoken in respective Iraqi diaspora communities.-Varieties:Iraqi Arabic has two major varieties...
, there is no phonemic distinction between "a" and "e", though a phonetic difference is made by the presence of an adjacent emphatic or guttural consonant. Accordingly the Babylonian notation does not distinguish between patach (in other pronunciations [a]), segol (in other pronunciations [e] or [ɛ]) and sheva na', and these three vowels are still pronounced alike (as [æ]) among Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen . Between June 1949 and September 1950, the overwhelming majority of Yemen's Jewish population was transported to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet...
. In Levantine Arabic
Levantine Arabic
Levantine Arabic is a broad variety of Arabic spoken in the 100 to 200 km-wide Eastern Mediterranean coastal strip...
, by contrast, there are distinct "a" and "e" sounds, and these two vowels are distinguished in both the Palestinian and the Tiberian notations.
After the expulsion of the Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
from Spain in 1492, the exiles took the leading position in most Arab and Ottoman countries, and the local pronunciation of Hebrew assimilated to Sephardi Hebrew in many respects, in particular the pronunciation of the vowels. For this reason, today's Iraqi Jews distinguish between patach (/a/) and segol (/e/) in the same way as most other Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews. However, distinct sounds for the guttural and emphatic letters, and the [b] sound for bet raphe, were retained in many Arab countries, probably under the influence of Arabic.
Iraqi Jews, like the Yemenites, retain the Classical Arabic sounds of waw ([w]) and tav raphe ([θ]). In other Arab countries tav raphe is pronounced [t]: this is equally consistent with the pronunciation of Sephardi Hebrew and with that of colloquial Arabic. The pronunciation of waw as [v] is more clearly Sephardic in origin.
See also
- Yemenite Hebrew
- Sephardi Hebrew
- Ashkenazi HebrewAshkenazi HebrewAshkenazi Hebrew , is the pronunciation system for Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew favored for liturgical use by Ashkenazi Jewish practice. Its phonology was influenced by languages with which it came into contact, such as Yiddish, German, and various Slavic languages...
- Hebrew pronunciation of Syrian Jews