# How weird is a "mizrahi" accent to the average Israeli?



## Intercalaris

When I was pretty young (about 5), I moved to America from Israel with my family. My family has lived in Israel for at least 6 generations, even before Israel was a country called Israel, so I _really really_ want to move back there and continue my family's legacy XD
I also know this kind of post is extremely annoying, but PLEASE bear with me, I am not attacking any of you or your way of speaking Hebrew, I just want to know more about the way I speak it). This will be a long and terribly messy post, so only read if you have time. I apologize in advance...

So now we live in America, and are separated from most Hebrew speakers. This isn't very important for my mother, since she is fluent in Hebrew. This is important from me, because it means my main source of Hebrew is only one person: my mother.

My mother is half mizrahi, and is very capable of speaking with a "mizrahi accent" (as in the way Itay Levy or Peer Tasi, the Israeli singers, speak/sing). She usually speaks more or less like the average Israeli, but on occasion she will slip up and pronounce chet like Ḥet instead of khet (the same as khaf), and she might pronounce ayin gutturally. In my family nobody ever pronounces reish with the tongue, though. (You can look these sounds up on wikipedia, if you're not familiar)
When I ask her to tell me how to say something in Hebrew, she will almost always say it with a mizrahi accent (this is because it makes it easier for me to learn when I can _hear_ how a word is spelled due to it being pronounced phonetically).

Anyways, this inevitably lead to me learning half of my Hebrew vocabulary with a mizrahi accent. Meaning I tended to say chet as Ḥet and ayin as ʔayin (as opposed to khet and 'ayin). And I pronounce reish normally, in the throat. Kinda like a contagious disease (which I am fond of haha), the Ḥet and ayin spread to the rest of my vocabulary, by accident. When I speak with my mother and in general, I always pronounce ayin and chet. My mom ironically says it makes me sound like an arab immigrant to Israel, but my Israeli friend's father and my grandfather both tell me the way I speak is "more correct" and that "I should be proud of my accent".

*So my question is not really if it "is correct", but how would you personally, or people you know/most Israelis view the accent? As in, do you think it sounds weird, mizrahi, just plain wrong, etc.*

My guess is that most of you would say I sound like a Palestinian (which I would not mind at all I think, I think they are pretty cool  ). I just hope you guys don't think it would sound plain wrong.
For example, if I pronounced "potato" with a british accent, it wouldn't be considered *wrong*, but if I pronounced it poteto, it would be.

Note: My mom told me that I am worrying about nothing, and in hindsight, she is probably right. I'd really appreciate your opinions on the matter nonetheless

Thank you so much guys, I really appreciate you dealing with my rambling
יונתן אלרואי-


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## origumi

What's the problem with mizrahi accent? Nearly half of the Jewish Israelis are of "mizrahi" (or "sepharadi" etc.) origin.


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## Intercalaris

origumi said:


> What's the problem with mizrahi accent? Nearly half of the Jewish Israelis are of "mizrahi" (or "sepharadi" etc.) origin.


I'm aware that around half of Israel is mizrahi/sfaradi 
But I was under the impression that nobody in my generation (I'm 16) would speak the way I do now and that I only thought the "mizrahi" accent was normal because I'm isolated from Israel...

Well if it really isn't too weird to speak the way my grandmother and sometimes mother speak, then I am extremely relieved XD
Thank you!


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## bazq

Israelis do preceive speaking with ח and ע "correct Hebrew", but it's an ideal, so to speak.
Generally, ח and ע are not an issue, and and Israelis do not overthink it, but it's predominantly a phenomenon found in older generations. It's uncommon for younger people, and that's an understatement when talking about teenagers, your age group. At least that's the case in central Israel, and Jerusalem, the areas I know.  
Maybe people will ask you why you speak with ח and ע and bust your balls for 2 minutes (especially if you sound native), but that's pretty much it...

In general, ע is more "tolerated" than ח.

Dont worry about it , Israelis are easily impressed by anyone who knows Hebrew anyway, let alone with ח and ע.


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## Intercalaris

bazq said:


> Israelis do preceive speaking with ח and ע "correct Hebrew", but it's an ideal, so to speak.
> Generally, ח and ע are not an issue, and and Israelis do not overthink it, but it's predominantly a phenomenon found in older generations. It's uncommon for younger people, and that's an understatement when talking about teenagers, your age group. At least that's the case in central Israel, and Jerusalem, the areas I know.
> Maybe people will ask you why you speak with ח and ע and bust your balls for 2 minutes (especially if you sound native), but that's pretty much it...
> 
> In general, ע is more "tolerated" than ח.
> 
> Dont worry about it , Israelis are easily impressed by anyone who knows Hebrew anyway, let alone with ח and ע.


Haha alright! I can handle some questioning and/or some funny looks from Israelis XD
As long as they just consider it to be just highly unusual (as opposed to be flat-out wrong), then I don't think I'll mind too much 

Thank you!


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## origumi

Come and visit in towns like Beit Shean or Dimona: your Mizrahi pronunciation will be just natural. In Ramat Hasharon it's a different story. Israel is not uniformal.

And yet I guess that the English accent will be more dominant than anything, so your 1st goal is to get rid of it by practicing Hebrew ר (whether Ashkenazi or Mizrahi), ח, ע (same), ט, ת, ל (don't palatalize them), etc.


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## Intercalaris

origumi said:


> Come and visit in towns like Beit Shean or Dimona: your Mizrahi pronunciation will be just natural. In Ramat Hasharon it's a different story. Israel is not uniformal.
> 
> And yet I guess that the English accent will be more dominant than anything, so your 1st goal is to get rid of it by practicing Hebrew ר (whether Ashkenazi or Mizrahi), ח, ע (same), ט, ת, ל (don't palatalize them), etc.


I can pronounce the all the Hebrew letters the Israeli way haha, since my mom taught me to speak that way when I was little. Like my ר is in my throat, kinda like a french r but less raspy and more pure, my ל is pronounced with my tongue touching my teeth a little, etc. and my vowels are always pure unless there is an actual diphthong in the Hebrew word.
It's my English that has more of an Israeli accent XD (I only learned last year to pronounce th correctly, I always pronounced that as vat and thing as fing)

And about the cities, that's awesome! Maybe I'll give them a visit
I was born in TelAviv/Ramat Gan (ramat gan hospital that is owned by Tel Aviv), and am planning on living with my grandmother in her apartment in Tel Aviv until I can get my own (after I am done with military  )
I wonder how they would view me speaking with Ḥet and ʔayin...


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## bazq

Intercalaris said:


> As long as they just consider it to be just highly unusual (as opposed to be flat-out wrong), then I don't think I'll mind too much



I wouldn't say it's HIGHLY unusual... Really, don't lose sleep over it. I wouldn't be surprised if people you talk to speak all of a sudden with ח and ע too, even if they don't usually do.  



Intercalaris said:


> And about the cities, that's awesome! Maybe I'll give them a visit
> I was born in TelAviv/Ramat Gan (ramat gan hospital that is owned by Tel Aviv), and am planning on living with my grandmother in her apartment in Tel Aviv until I can get my own (after I am done with military  )
> *I wonder how they would view me speaking with Ḥet and ʔayin*...



An American with an Israeli mom who enrolls in the army and speaks fluent Hebrew with ח and ע? 
You'll be the star of the platoon. Be prepared.


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## Intercalaris

bazq said:


> I wouldn't say it's HIGHLY unusual... Really, don't lose sleep over it. I wouldn't be surprised if people you talk to speak all of a sudden with ח and ע too, even if they don't usually do.
> 
> An American with an Israeli mom who enrolls in the army and speaks fluent Hebrew with ח and ע?
> You'll be the star of the platoon. Be prepared.


Ah that's even more relieving. !תודה רבה לך

and to your second reply: LOL I can only hope
אני מתגעגע לארצי כל כך ומחכה בקוצר רוח לחזור


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## bazq

With a backstory such as yours you are a guaranteed favorite in Israeli reality TV if you can sing/cook/hang around a house for a few months with strangers and no escape, ever cautious of you actions as you plan on voting your roommates out of the game to win moneyyy.


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## Intercalaris

bazq said:


> With a backstory such as yours you are a guaranteed favorite in Israeli reality TV if you can sing/cook/hang around a house for a few months with strangers and no escape, ever cautious of you actions as you plan on voting your roommates out of the game to win moneyyy.


I can make tchina and hummus that's about it
But it'll have to do XD


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