# Pronunciation of "aim" versus "ayim"



## cascade

I find conflicting information about the actual pronunciation of words with a possible single syllable "ai" vowel combination (diphthong) or a two-syllable "a-yim" (or "a-yin", etc.).  Does it vary with the individual or dialect, or is there a standard pronunciation for all of the following?
(For example, is it "maim" or "ma-yim"?)
Perhaps in rapid speech, there is not much difference between the two, but in careful, enunciated speech, how are they pronounced?

איל
אין
עין
מים
חיים
יין

(Contrast those with קיצ, דיג, אולי which definitely have the "ai" diphthong.)

And what about all the words with the "dual plural" ending?  Are they all pronounced with a two-syllable ending "a-yim"?

שניים
עיניים
צוהריים
יומיים
גרשיים


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## noali

cascade said:


> I find conflicting information about the actual pronunciation of words with a possible single syllable "ai" vowel combination (diphthong) or a two-syllable "a-yim" (or "a-yin", etc.).
> I´d say it´s definitaly a diphthong.
> Does it vary with the individual or dialect, or is there a standard pronunciation for all of the following?
> (For example, is it "maim" or "ma-yim"?)
> Perhaps in rapid speech, there is not much difference between the two, but in careful, enunciated speech, how are they pronounced?
> 
> איל -
> אין -
> the usual ways to prononce these two are *eiál* (a deer) and *"en"* )- (the opposite from "iesh") which have completely different vowels as you can see. but you could be refering to "áin", which is kind of a biblical word.. and it means the same as "en".
> 
> עין - áin - just as in káits, dáig, ulái.
> מים - máim
> חיים - xaím (notice the stress) = life. xáim = a popular israeli name.
> יין - iáin.
> 
> (Contrast those with קיצ, דיג, אולי which definitely have the "ai" diphthong.)
> 
> And what about all the words with the "dual plural" ending? Are they all pronounced with a two-syllable ending "a-yim"?
> 
> שניים
> עיניים
> צוהריים
> יומיים
> גרשיים
> also a diphtong and not two syllables


 
. 

peace and love


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## cascade

Thank you very much for your reply, noali. (And thanks for the "peace" and "love"...we could all use a little more of that!)  

I probably should have stated that some of my confusion comes from how these words are written _with niqud_.  Also, I should have made clear what word I was talking about in the couple of cases where two different words could be read.

May I clarify what I understand you to have said? (and perhaps come up with some general rules?)
I believe that you are saying that all these words, with a couple of exceptions noted below, are pronounced _as a single-syllable diphthong_, in spite of their vocalized spellings.
I would guess that historically these words may have been pronounced differently.
(My convention will be to write an acute accent only on words that have more than one syllable, put a dash between syllables, and write "ai" together to always represent the diphthong.)

איל - I see now that my dictionary has two entries: אַיִל (ram, male sheep) and אַיָּל (deer, buck, stag).  So I was talking about the first one (which may be only biblical).  However, the second brings up another question: you have indicated that it is pronounced "ei-ál".  The first syllable is pronounced "ei" in spite of the fact that the dictionary has פתח (patax) under the א׳ and not צרי (tsere)? I would expect that the first is pronounced "ail" and the second is "_a_-yál"...

אין - On closer inspection, I see that there are two possible pronunciations:  אֵין and אַיּן .   As you have indicated, the usual modern pronunciation is "en" and the older biblical is "ain".

עַיִן - "ain".  This is a typical example of my confusion with the nəqudot.  It _looks like_ "a-yin", but it is pronounced "ain".

מַיִם - "maim". Same spelling as above.  The problem is that it is overwhelmingly transcribed as "mayim" which leads one to mistakenly expect that it is pronounced "má-yim".  (In rapid speech, there would probably be little difference.)

חַיִּים - "xa-yím". This one is different.  It has two yod, so it makes sense that it is different.  However, you indicate that the name חיים is pronounced "xaim".  I guess this is a convention to distinguish between the two usages...

יַיִן - "yain". This is really the same as the others; it has two yod simply because the first consonant is a "y".  (Again, it is very common to see this transcribed as "yayin"...)

All of the "dual plurals" that are written "ayim" are actually pronounced "aim".  The written version _with_ niqud only has one yod, but the version _without_ niqud has the double yod.  (I am not sure why, except that it is a convention...)
שניים = שְׁנַיִם = "shə-náim"
צוהריים = "tso-ho-ráim"
etc.


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## amikama

cascade said:


> איל - I see now that my dictionary has two entries: אַיִל (ram, male sheep) and אַיָּל (deer, buck, stag). So I was talking about the first one (which may be only biblical). However, the second brings up another question: you have indicated that it is pronounced "ei-ál". The first syllable is pronounced "ei" in spite of the fact that the dictionary has פתח (patax) under the א׳ and not צרי (tsere)? I would expect that the first is pronounced "ail" and the second is "_a_-yál"...


There's a _third_ entry: אֱיָל - which is a Biblical word meaning "power" and is also a common name in Israel. Maybe it's what noali meant?


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## noali

cascade said:


> May I clarify what I understand you to have said? (and perhaps come up with some general rules?)
> I believe that you are saying that all these words, with a couple of exceptions noted below, are pronounced _as a single-syllable diphthong_, in spite of their vocalized spellings. indeed.
> I would guess that historically these words may have been pronounced differently. I´m afraid that  I don´t know.
> (My convention will be to write an acute accent only on words that have more than one syllable, put a dash between syllables, and write "ai" together to always represent the diphthong.)
> 
> איל - I see now that my dictionary has two entries: אַיִל (ram, male sheep) and אַיָּל (deer, buck, stag). So I was talking about the first one (which may be only biblical). However, the second brings up another question: you have indicated that it is pronounced "ei-ál". The first syllable is pronounced "ei" in spite of the fact that the dictionary has פתח (patax) under the א׳ and not צרי (tsere)? I would expect that the first is pronounced "ail" and the second is "_a_-yál"...well, I personally didn´t get to hear the first one ever. but who knows..I'm still young  about the second one. Now that you've mentioned it, I remember that a-yal is the right form (right as in dictionarily-right), but I believe that few of the people actually say a-yal. eial is also a hebrew name.
> 
> אין - On closer inspection, I see that there are two possible pronunciations: אֵין and אַיּן . As you have indicated, the usual modern pronunciation is "en" and the older biblical is "ain".
> 
> עַיִן - "ain". This is a typical example of my confusion with the nəqudot. It _looks like_ "a-yin", but it is pronounced "ain".
> 
> מַיִם - "maim". Same spelling as above. The problem is that it is overwhelmingly transcribed as "mayim" which leads one to mistakenly expect that it is pronounced "má-yim". (In rapid speech, there would probably be little difference.)
> 
> חַיִּים - "xa-yím". This one is different. It has two yod, so it makes sense that it is different. However, you indicate that the name חיים is pronounced "xaim". I guess this is a convention to distinguish between the two usages...- o.k..here I was wrong. sorry, my bad. it's supposed to be ha-yím. (life) . The hebrew name remains háim. (as in máim). o.k. now the convention works.
> 
> יַיִן - "yain". This is really the same as the others; it has two yod simply because the first consonant is a "y". (Again, it is very common to see this transcribed as "yayin"...)
> 
> All of the "dual plurals" that are written "ayim" are actually pronounced "aim". The written version _with_ niqud only has one yod, but the version _without_ niqud has the double yod. (I am not sure why, except that it is a convention...)
> שניים = שְׁנַיִם = "shə-náim"
> צוהריים = "tso-ho-ráim"
> etc.


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## maxl

"sh?-náim" is, phonetically, a purely fictitious construct. The word is nowadays pronounced with two syllables only, to be transliterated as shná-yim or shná-im (no 'real' functional difference between the two), unless what was meant was shi-ná-yim 'teeth'.


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## cascade

Maxl, I know what you mean: the _shva na _in many words is not pronounced at all.  Again, in regular speech it can be hard to tell the difference, but is it possible that some (most?) people are really prononcing שניימ as a single syllable, "shnaim"?


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## maxl

I'm not sure about 'most', but a single-syllable pronunciation seems possible to me, although I don't pronounce it that way, at least so I believe (in order to really check, one has to make recordings of one's own spontaneous speech).


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## Benjamin_

I have wondered about this in the past and here is what I have come up with.

  The short answer is stress: the two-syllable word מַיִם ‘ma-yim’ is stressed mil’el (stress on the next to last syllable ‘ma’), so the ‘yim’ is hurried and it is 'normally' (not just in fast speech) pronounced as ‘maim’. 

  It is pronounced as if there was only one syllable 'maim', with a vowel 'ai', but it is still a two-syllable word, in other words ‘ai’ is not a vowel -- see for example the syllable decomposition of 'hashamayim' in Kelley p. 20. 

  On the contrary, the word חַיִּים is stressed milra’ (the usual stress on the last syllable) so it is really pronounced cha-yim (stress on yim), not chaim.

  Stress is an intrinsic characteristic of the word, just like gender – it has to be learned with the word. If it is not given in a dictionary and the word appears in the Tanakh, one can still check a text with the cantillation marks (like BHS). Chayim appears in Genesis 2:7 and Mayim in Genesis 1:2, and the marks indicate they are milra’ and mil'el respectively.

  עַיִן is just like מַיִם  (stress on the first syllable) but אֵין is different because it has only one syllable: in this case, the yod has no consonantal value, it only denotes the tsere-yod vowel. It is pronounced as a diphthong, ‘ein’ with ‘ei’ as in ‘they’.

  One might retort: “Why is there a tsere-yod vowel pronounced as ‘ei’ as in ‘they’, but not the same for a: a qamets-yod (or patach-yod) vowel pronounced ‘ai’ as in ‘why’ ?”

  Well, I don’t know, apparently it’s just the way it is -- if anyone has an explanation, I’ll be glad to hear it.

  The fact that both words are indiscriminately written with two yods in plene spelling is because of the official rules: when yod acts as a consonant it is doubled except at the beginning of a word. There are only two and not three yods because as a vowel, yod is only added to denote the ‘i’ sound when it is in an open syllable, but here yim is a closed syllable (finishes with a consonant).

  Hope this helps.

  Benjamin

  PS: Out of curiosity, what dictionary did you use?


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