# pronunciation of the segol in the word הזה (hazeh)



## deswind

This issue is driving me crazy.  Take the word hazeh - eith the segol on the letter before the heh.

Some people pronounce the segol as an eh, some as an ai, and some in between.    (sort of an eh with a hint of ai !)

What is biblically correct in sephardic pronounciation, as opposed to modern day hebrew?

Anyone know?


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## hadronic

First, you have a problem using English to describe the sounds you hear. "eh", "ai" means roughly nothing in English : those digraphs can have so many possible realizations ! I really get upset every time I read a book using English approximations like those ones.


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## jdotjdot89

hadronic said:


> First, you have a problem using English to describe the sounds you hear. "eh", "ai" means roughly nothing in English : those digraphs can have so many possible realizations ! I really get upset every time I read a book using English approximations like those ones.



I suppose it's a little different when you're a native English speaker.  Even though there can be issues with it, of course, it usually makes sense to me when I see it.


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## jdotjdot89

deswind said:


> This issue is driving me crazy.  Take the word hazeh - eith the segol on the letter before the heh.
> 
> Some people pronounce the segol as an eh, some as an ai, and some in between.    (sort of an eh with a hint of ai !)
> 
> What is biblically correct in sephardic pronounciation, as opposed to modern day hebrew?
> 
> Anyone know?



What exactly do you mean by "biblically correct sephardic pronunciation"?  There have been many ways to pronounce Hebrew from the Bible until today, and in Biblical times there were no sephardim.

In terms of the segol, modern Israeli Hebrew pronounces it [e], the old Medieval/Tiberian way of the Mesoratim (who created nikkud) was [ε].  (both transcriptions IPA, thanks to omniglot.com)
Ashkenazi Hebrew pronounces it [e] as well, though the tzerei is more of an "ey" sound.  I don't know the exact IPA transcription at the moment.


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## deswind

Hazeh - an example of a segol followed by a heh.

For sephardic pronounciation (not modern Israeli) but perhaps a little earlier, not sure what to call the earlier time period ---

Would you pronounce the segol as like the "e" in "bet"
or like the "ai" in "bait"

Does the heh following the segol change the pronounciation?

Thanks for any help.


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## deswind

I see your point. Please see my later post above. I hope by saying the "e" sound as in the English word "bet" or the ai sound as in the English word "bait," that I have added some clarity to my question.

I am not a linguist and do not know all the lingustic finesse to perhaps ask the question in the best way, but I think it should be clear enough that I am asking how the segol gets pronounced when it is under the second to the last letter of a hebrew word and the last letter is simply the heh letter.

I might add that I made an additional mistake but indicating "biblical hebrew."  What I really mean is the sephardic system prior to the most recent modern developments.   From the little that I know, it seems that there have been some modern Israeli changes to some of the prior pronounciation rules.  But the purpose of the question is for use in reading Biblical scripture.

And I have used a word as an example - hazeh - in the post above.

THANKS for any help.




hadronic said:


> First, you have a problem using English to describe the sounds you hear. "eh", "ai" means roughly nothing in English : those digraphs can have so many possible realizations ! I really get upset every time I read a book using English approximations like those ones.


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## origumi

As far as I know the Sepharadi (and also Ashkenazi, and also modern Israeli) pronounciation of segol in words like "hazeh" הזה was a simple "e" as in "bet", not "bait". The final "heh" ה does not change the vowel.

See for example here (Hebrew article): http://pluto.huji.ac.il/~laufer/Ashkenazi_Pronunciation_heb_34.pdf


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## deswind

Thank you for your kind response.
Kul Tov,
Alan



origumi said:


> As far as I know the Sepharadi (and also Ashkenazi, and also modern Israeli) pronounciation of segol in words like "hazeh" הזה was a simple "e" as in "bet", not "bait". The final "heh" ה does not change the vowel.
> 
> See for example here (Hebrew article): http://pluto.huji.ac.il/~laufer/Ashkenazi_Pronunciation_heb_34.pdf


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## kishmish

Just a small correction for the nice greeting you added:
it is Kol Tuv כל טוּב (and not vice versa)


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