# Another Official Pronunciation for Hebrew



## Squee100

If other pronunciations of Hebrew were to get official recognition and be absorbed into common usage in Israel alongside the one which is already standard, which ones should?


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## origumi

Typically languages do not evolve by royal decree or alike. Modern Hebrew is an exception, yet once it was launched its development seems to continue in the standard way. Therefore the thread question doesn't make sense to me.


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## Squee100

origumi said:


> Typically languages do not evolve by royal decree or alike. Modern Hebrew is an exception, yet once it was launched its development seems to continue in the standard way. Therefore the thread question doesn't make sense to me.


I'm talking about Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, and Yemenite (Teimani) pronunciations.


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## tFighterPilot

Squee100 said:


> I'm talking about Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, and Yemenite (Teimani) pronunciations.


None, because none is a spoken language. You might as well make Medieval Latin an official language in France.


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## MuttQuad

origumi said:


> Typically languages do not evolve by royal decree or alike. Modern Hebrew is an exception, yet once it was launched its development seems to continue in the standard way.



English and Spanish, for instance, which are probably the most widely spoken world languages, have pronunciations which vary very widely from place to place. Although the British do have an official "Received Pronunciation," not all Englishmen speak that way.

I gather, from the discussions here, that not all Israelis sound alike either -- certainly not many immigrants who have accents reflecting their original native tongues.


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## Squee100

tFighterPilot said:


> None, because none is a spoken language. You might as well make Medieval Latin an official language in France.


Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't they all Hebrew (which is an official language in the State of Israel)? I posted this thread under that belief...


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## Haskol

Not another one of these...

There are minimal differences of pronunciation among native Hebrew speakers and they have more to do with socio-economic factors than where their parents or grandparents came from. At least that's what I believe, I'm not aware of studies made about variations in speech among native Hebrew speakers (except some books about Ars speech), and I think it's because people don't notice much and don't think it's worthy of attention at the moment. Traditional pronunciations of Hebrew that you are talking about are really old history. Those that are still used are mostly used in liturgical contexts, but except for a few crazy people, nobody talks like that (well, except for some ultra-Orthodox who don't really speak Hebrew well anyways). I also don't understand what you mean by official recognition. Official recognition it what field? in what way?

I don't understand this obsession among beginning Hebrew learners with bringing back traditional pronunciations. Most native speakers don't think much about traditional pronunciations, so why do others care so much? I've seen too much of this and it is honestly comes out looking pretty ignorant in regards to the state of Hebrew today. It really gets annoying when people who can't even say one sentence in Hebrew tell me (a native speaker) that I'm speaking wrong (not that I think that that is what you are trying to do). I'd recommend you just put this issue aside, at least until you have a near-fluent level.


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## tFighterPilot

MuttQuad said:


> English and Spanish, for instance, which are probably the most widely spoken world languages, have pronunciations which vary very widely from place to place. Although the British do have an official "Received Pronunciation," not all Englishmen speak that way.
> 
> I gather, from the discussions here, that not all Israelis sound alike either -- certainly not many immigrants who have accents reflecting their original native tongues.


Of course recent immigrants don't pronounce Hebrew exactly like a native speaker. That is true to every country. But there isn't such a thing as "Russian Hebrew" just like there isn't "Russian English". As it stands, there aren't native Hebrew speakers who's tongue differs enough to be even considered a sub-dialect.


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## MuttQuad

>>
Of course recent immigrants don't pronounce Hebrew exactly like a native  speaker. That is true to every country. But there isn't such a thing as  "Russian Hebrew" just like there isn't "Russian English". As it stands,  there aren't native Hebrew speakers who's tongue differs enough to be  even considered a sub-dialect.
<<

How nice that all native speakers have such similar pronunciation -- which I don't doubt, even though much of your second generation must represent children of immigrants from all over the world. Great education system, then.

In America, it doesn't work quite that way. Here, many -- but not all -- second generation speakers still reflect accents based on their parents' country of origin. We also have various regional "American standard English" accents, some of which are quite distinctive and not always mutually intelligible.

As I said in an earlier post, far be it from me to claim knowledge of how Israelis speak their official language. But i _am_ quite aware of the differences in the way various groups of American Jews have pronounced Hebrew, based on study, listening, and participation in congregations of several branches for more than 70 years. 

Chag sameach!


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