Yemenite Hebrew
Yemenite Hebrew (Template:Langx), also referred to as Temani Hebrew, is the pronunciation system for Hebrew traditionally used by Yemenite Jews. Yemenite Hebrew has been studied by language scholars, many of whom believe it retains older phonetic and grammatical features that have been lost elsewhere.<ref>Judaeo-Yemenite Studies – Proceedings of the Second International Congress, Ephraim Isaac & Yosef Tobi (ed.), Introducftion, Princeton University 1999, p. 15</ref> Yemenite speakers of Hebrew have garnered considerable praise from language purists because of their use of grammatical features from classical Hebrew.<ref>Responsa Yitzhak Yeranen, part iv, Bnei Barak 1991, page 80, by Rabbi Hayim Yitzhak Barda, who quotes R. Meir Mazuz, saying: "The Yemenites are very stringent and well-versed, and are punctilious in their [usage of the] language, and they support the enunciation of the Ashkenazim" (translated from the Hebrew).</ref>
Some scholars believe that its phonology was heavily influenced by spoken Yemeni Arabic.Template:Citation needed Other scholars, including Yosef Qafih and Abraham Isaac Kook, hold the view that Yemenite Arabic did not influence Yemenite Hebrew, as this type of Arabic was also spoken by Yemenite Jews and is distinct from the liturgical and conversational Hebrew of the communities.<ref>Rav Kook's Orah Mishpat question regarding Kiryat Sh'ma "וביחוד למי שמשנה ממבטא התימני המוחזק אצלם מדורות הראשונים שהוא המדויק שבמבטאים כמפורסם שבודאי אסור לעשות כן".</ref> Among other things, Qafih noted that the Yemenite Jews spoke Arabic with a distinct Jewish flavor, inclusive of pronouncing many Arabic words with vowels foreign to the Arabic language, e.g., the qamatz (Template:Langx) and tzere (Template:LangxTemplate:Lrm).<ref>Template:Langx in Yosef Qafih's Collected Papers, volume 2, pages 943–946 (Hebrew). Following is a relevant portion thereof: Template:Langx</ref> He argues that the pronunciation of Yemenite Hebrew was not only uninfluenced by Arabic, but it influenced the pronunciation of Arabic by those Jews, despite the Jewish presence in Yemen for over a millennium.
History
Yemenite Hebrew may have been derived from, or influenced by, the Hebrew of the Talmudic academies in Babylonia: the oldest Yemenite manuscripts use the Babylonian vocalization, which is believed to antedate the Tiberian vocalization.<ref>The Targum of Isaiah – with supralinear punctuation (ed. J.F. Stenning), Oxford 1949, Introduction (pp. ix–x)</ref> As late as 937, Jacob Qirqisani wrote: "The biblical readings which are wide-spread in Yemen are in the Babylonian tradition."<ref>Shivtiel Book – Studies in the Hebrew Language and in the Linguistic Traditions of the Jewish Communities (ed. Isaac Gluska & Tsemaḥ Kessar), Tel-Aviv 1992, p. 239 (in article by Yehuda Ratzaby who quotes from Kitāb al-Ānwār, ed. Leon Nemoy (edition 30), New York 1939, p. 135).</ref> Indeed, in many respects, such as the assimilation of paṯaḥ and səġūl, the current Yemenite pronunciation fits the Babylonian notation better than the Tiberian (though the Babylonian notation does not reflect the approximation between holam and sere in some Yemenite dialects). This is because in the Babylonian tradition of vocalization there is no distinct symbol for the səġūl.<ref name="Siddur Tefillat Kol Pe 1960, p. 11"/> It does not follow, as claimed by some scholars, that the pronunciation of the two communities was identical, any more than the pronunciation of Sephardim and Ashkenazim is the same because both use the Tiberian symbols.
The following chart shows the seven vowel paradigms found in the Babylonian supralinear punctuation, which are reflected to this day by the Yemenite pronunciation of Biblical lections and liturgies, though they now use the Tiberian symbols. For example, there is no separate symbol for the Tiberian səġūl and the pataḥ and amongst Yemenites they have the same phonetic sound.<ref>Shelomo Morag, Ha-Ivrit she-be-fi Yehude Teman (Hebrew as pronounced by Yemenite Jews), Academy of the Hebrew Language: Jerusalem 1963, pp. 92–99; 119–120 (Hebrew)</ref> In this connection, the Babylonian vowel signs remained in use in Yemen long after the Babylonian Biblical tradition had been abandoned, almost until our own time.<ref>Shelomo Morag, The Traditions of Hebrew and Aramaic of the Jews of Yemen, in article: Notes on the Vowel System of Babylonian Aramaic as Preserved in the Yemenite Tradition, Tel-Aviv 2001, p. 197 (end of note 1) Template:ISBN</ref>
| Vowels with ב | File:Supralinear--qamas.jpg | File:Supralinear--patah.jpg | File:Supralinear--sere.jpg | File:Supralinear--mobile shewa.jpg | File:Supralinear--holam.jpg | File:Supralinear--hiraq.jpg | File:Supralinear--shuraq.jpg |
| Tiberian equivalent |
qamaṣ<ref>The Yemenite pronunciation of this vowel is like the Ashkenazic pronunciation thereof or like the ḥolam in the Sefardic pronunciation (Yosef Qafih, Collected Papers volume 2, page 931). According to an ancient Judeo-Arabic work on Hebrew grammar, Maḥberet Ha-Tīǧān, the sound of the qamaṣ is made by "clinching the mouth and holding it." See: Maḥberet Kitrei Ha-Torah (ed. Yoav Pinhas Halevi), chapter 5, Benei Barak 1990, p. 19 (Hebrew). In the Babylonian supralinear punctuation there is no separate symbol for the shĕwā qamaṣ; rather, the one symbol as shown here is used for both the qamaṣ and the shĕwā qamaṣ (ḥataf qamaṣ).</ref> | paṯaḥ, (səġūl) | ṣerê<ref>The Yemenite pronunciation of this vowel is like the Sephardic pronunciation thereof (Yosef Qafih, Collected Papers volume 2, page 931 "צֵירִי, כבמבטא הספרדי").</ref> | shewā mobile (šĕwā naʻ)<ref>This symbol is used strictly as a mobile Shewā (Heb. שוא נע), unlike the Shewā quiescens (Heb. שוא נח) which has no symbol in the Babylonian supralinear punctuation. The mobile Shewā as a symbol is used to differentiate in eight major grammatical entities in Hebrew prescriptive linguistics. For example, whenever a Shewā appears at the beginning of a word, it renders the vowel a mobile vowel, as in the Hebrew word "floating" (meraḥef / Template:Script/Hebrew), or as in לְפָנָי (lefanai) or שְׁמַע (shema) Template:Small; or whenever a diacritical vertical line known as a Ji'ya / Template:Script/Hebrew (lit. "bleating" or "bellowing") would normally appear next to a Shewā. For example, in the words הַֽמְקַנֵּ֥א אַתָּ֖ה לִ֑י, Template:Small, the Shewā beneath the Hebrew character mim becomes a mobile Shewā because of the Ga'ya (meteg, or small vertical line) beneath the Hebrew character he. In all these cases the Shewā gives an audible sound to the letter, as in a short "a" or short "e", and is not mute. Likewise, whenever a Shewā appears in the middle of a word and the letter has a diacritical point within it (i.e., dagesh), as in the pe of מִפְּנֵיכֶם Template:Small, it too will become a mobile Shewā (na / Template:Script/Hebrew) – with some exceptions, e.g., the word אֶתּרוֹג according to the Yemenite tradition – as will a word that has two Shewā's written one after the other, as in the word רַעְמְסֵס Template:Small, or in the word ּוַיִּשְׁמְעו Template:Small, etc. the first Shewā is resting (mute), while the second Shewā is a mobile Shewā. Another instance of where the Shewā becomes mobile is when it comes directly after a long vowel sound, such as the long vowel of either yod or ḥiraq, as in יְחִֽידְֿךָ (Gen. 22:2), giving it the sound of yeḥīdhəkha, etc., or as in the long vowel of waw or ḥolam, as in the words הוֹלְכִֿים, יוֹדְֿעִים, מוֹכְֿרִים, נוֹפְֿלִים, לוֹמְדִֿים, and יֹאכְֿלוּ, etc. (hōləkhīm, yōdəʻīm, mōkhərīm, nōfelīm, lōmedhīm and yōkhelū), or as in the verse שֹׁפְטִים וְשֹׁטְרִים תִּתֶּן לְךָ (Deut. 16:18), "shōfəṭīm wa-shōṭərīm titen ləkha." The symbol is also used in the Babylonian supralinear punctuation to denote a Shewā and Pataḥ that are written together in the Tiberian vowel system, or a Shewā and Segūl that are written together in the Tiberian vowel system, as in the words אֲנִי and אֱמֶת. See: Maḥberet Kitrei Ha-Torah (ed. Yoav Pinhas Halevi), chapter 5, Benei Barak 1990, pp. 20, 22–23, 31 (Hebrew). See also נקוד, טעמים ומסורת בתימן by Rabbi Yosef Qafih in Collected Papers, volume 2, page 931.</ref><ref>Israeli grammarian, Shelomo Morag, has written more extensively about the mobile Shewā, saying: "[In the Babylonian tradition], the sign of the šĕwā is used only as an indication of the mobile šĕwā (Heb. שוא נע), whereas the šĕwā quiescens (Heb. שוא נח) is not indicated at all. This method is the most common in Yemenite manuscripts which are punctuated in the Babylonian system, and it goes without saying that there is an advantage in it, since it invariably acquaints the reader with the šĕwā’s innate nature, whether it is a šĕwā quiescens or a mobile šĕwā. Thus, for example, we see that the šĕwā is mobile in the letter mim (מ) of the intensive (middle) form of the [active] verb construction, piʻel (Heb. פִּעֵל), in a word such as 'הַמְּכַבֶּה' [= ‘he that extinguishes’] (Mishnah Shabbat 7:2)." Meaning, one sign distinguishes it from the šĕwā quiescens. See: Mishnah – Seder Mo'ed – with a commentary by Maimonides in Arabic, Yemenite MS., edited by Yehuda Levi Nahum, Holon 1975, p. 19 (Hebrew); The 'šĕwā' in the Traditional Yemenite Pronunciation of Hebrew, Jerusalem 1957 (Hebrew). Note that the spelling "הַמְּכַבַּה" (with the דגש) is in accordance with the vowelization of Rabbi Yosef 'Amar, in his edition of the Babylonian Talmud vocalized in the Yemenite pronunciation, s.v., Shabbat 29b and 73a; תלמוד בבלי בניקוד תימני, מסכת שבת, דף כט ב ודף עג א. However, "הַמְכַבֶּה אֶת הַנֵּר" (Shabbath 2:5) appears (without the דגש in המכבה) in שיח ירושלם חלק ראשון (fourth edition 5761, p. קכ) and תכלאל שיבת ציון (part 1, 5712, p. קו) alike.</ref> |
ḥōlam | ḥiraq | šūraq, qubbūṣ |
| Tiberian niqqud |
Template:Script/Hebrew | Template:Script/Hebrew, Template:Script/Hebrew | Template:Script/Hebrew | Template:Script/Hebrew | Template:Script/Hebrew | Template:Script/Hebrew | Template:Script/Hebrew, Template:Script/Hebrew |
| Value | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA | Template:IPA |
Distinguishing features
The following chart shows the phonetic values of the Hebrew letters in the Yemenite Hebrew pronunciation tradition.
Yemenites have preserved the sounds for each of the six double-sounding consonants: bəged-kəfet (Template:Script/Hebrew). The following are examples of their peculiar way of pronunciation of these and other letters:
- gímel/ǧimal (Template:Script/Hebrew) with the dāḡēš/dageš is pronounced Template:IPA. Thus, the verse Template:Script/Hebrew (Deut. 4:8) is realized as, u'mi, ǧoi ǧaḏol (Template:IPA) (as in Sanʽani Arabic Template:Lang ǧīm /d͡ʒ/ but unlike Taʽizzi-Adeni Arabic /g/).<ref>Rabbi Saadia Gaon in his commentary on Sefer Yetzirah (2:2) strongly rejected to that manner of pronunciation for the gímel with dageš and thinks it is a mere corruption and that it should be pronounced Template:IPA. Rabbi Saadia Gaon's opinion, however, follows the tradition of the Jews and Arabs in his native Egypt, while the Yemenite pronunciation of the gímel with dageš follows a custom more closely related to the dialect of Arabic spoken in the land of Israel whenever pronouncing "jeem" (Template:Lang), the Arabic equivalent of gímel. See: Yosef Qafih's edition of Sefer Yetzirah, Jerusalem 1972, p. 75.</ref>
- gímel/gimal (Template:Script/Hebrew) without dāḡēš/dageš is pronounced Template:IPA, like Arabic ġayn Template:Lang.
- dāleṯ/dal (Template:Script/Hebrew) without dāḡēš/dageš is pronounced Template:IPA, like Arabic ḏāl Template:Lang. Thus, the word Template:Langx in Shema Yisrael is always pronounced aḥoḏ (Template:IPA).<ref>The rules of enunciation when reciting the Shema is to extend the phonetic sound of the phoneme "daleth" in the word eḥaḏ, which cannot be done unless the phoneme was a continuant. Cf. Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 13b: "Symmachus said: 'Anyone who extends his enunciation of eḥaḏ [[[:Template:Script/Hebrew]]] [in the recital of the Qiryath Shema], the days and years of his life shall also be extended.' Rav Aha the son of Yaaqov interjected, 'He referred there to the [letter] daleth..."; See Maimonides, Mishne Torah (Hil. Qiryath Shema 2:9).</ref>
- The pronunciation of tāv/taw (Template:Script/Hebrew) without dāḡēš/dageš as Template:Lang Template:IPA (shared by other Mizrahi Hebrew dialects such as Iraqi). Thus, Sabbath day is pronounced in Yemenite Hebrew, Yom ha-Shabboth (Template:IPA).<ref>The "tāv" raphe in Ashkenazi traditions is realized as "s", as in Shabbos.</ref>
- vāv/waw (Template:Script/Hebrew) is pronounced Template:IPA (as in Iraqi Hebrew and Template:Lang in Arabic).
- Emphatic and guttural letters have nearly the same sounds and are produced from deep in the throat, as in Arabic.
- ḥêṯ/ħet (Template:Script/Hebrew) is a voiceless pharyngeal fricative, equivalent to Arabic ح Template:IPA.
- ʻáyin/ʕajin (Template:Script/Hebrew) is identical to Arabic Template:Lang Template:IPA, and is a voiced pharyngeal fricative. (The Sephardic pronunciation of ע, however, is of a weaker nature.)
- tsadi (Template:Script/Hebrew) is not a voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate "ts" among the Yemenites, but rather a deep-sounding "s" (pharyngealized fricative).
- qof (Template:Script/Hebrew) is pronounced by the Yemenites (other than the Jews from Shar'ab) as a voiced /g/, (as in Sanʽani Arabic Template:Lang gāf /g/ but unlike Taʽizzi-Adeni Arabic /q/) and is in keeping with their tradition that a different phonetic sound is given for gímel/gimal (see supra).
- resh (Template:Script/Hebrew) is pronounced as an alveolar trill /r/, rather than the uvular trill [ʀ], and is identical to Arabic Template:Lang Template:Tlit and follows the conventions of old Hebrew.<ref>Based on Rabbi Saadia Gaon's Judeo-Arabic commentary on "Sefer Hayetzirah" (chapter 4, paragraph 3), wherein he describes the phonetic sounds of the 22 characters of the Hebrew alphabet and classifies them in groups based on their individual sounds: "Aleph (Template:Nbspא), hé (ה), ḥet (ח), ‘ayin (ע) are [guttural sounds] produced from the depth of the tongue with the opening of the throat, but bet (ב), waw (ו), mim (מ), pé (פ) are [labial sounds] made by the release of the lips and the end of the tongue; whereas gimal (ג), yōd (י), kaf (כ), qōf (ק) are [palatals] separated by the width of the tongue [against the palate] with the [emission of] sound. However, daleth (ד), ṭet (ט), lamad (ל), nūn (נ), tau (ת) are [linguals] separated by the mid-section of the tongue with the [emission of] sound; whereas zayin (ז), samakh (ס), ṣadi (צ), resh (ר), shin (ש) are [dental sounds] produced between the teeth by a tongue that is at rest."</ref>
- The kaf sofit with a dagesh (Template:Script/Hebrew) is pronounced as such, ('ka') as in the rare example of the last word in Psalm 30.
Vowels
- Qāmaṣ gāḏôl/Qamac qadol is pronounced Template:IPA, as in Ashkenazi Hebrew and Tiberian Hebrew. The Yemenite pronunciation for Qamats gadol (Template:Script/Hebrew) and Qamats qatan (Template:Script/Hebrew) is identical (see infra.).
- There is no distinction between the vowels paṯaḥ/pataħ and səḡôl/segol all being pronounced Template:IPA, like the Arabic fatḥa (a feature also found in old Babylonian Hebrew, which used a single symbol for all three).<ref name="Siddur Tefillat Kol Pe 1960, p. 11">Siddur Tefillat Kol Pe, vol. 1 (foreword written by Shalom Yitzhak Halevi), Jerusalem 1960, p. 11 (Hebrew)</ref> A šəwâ nāʻ/šwa naʕ, however, is identical to a חטף פתח and חטף סגול.
- Final hê/hej with mappîq/mefiq has an aspirated sound, generally stronger sounding than the regular hê/hej. Aleph (אַלַף) with a dagesh, a rare occurrence, is pronounced with a glottal stop, e.g., the word וַיָּבִיאּוּ in Genesis 43:26.<ref>As is heard in the recording of Aharon Amram's cantillation (mms://media.jvod.info/Nosach/Aharon_Amram/PARACHA/1_10_7_miketz.mp3Template:Dead link [which begins with verse 24]).</ref> Conversely, some words in Hebrew which are written with the final hê ending (without the mappîq) are realized by a secondary glottal stop and so are abruptly cut short, as to hold one's breath.<ref>Shelomo Morag, The Hebrew of the Jews of Yemen (Template:NbspTemplate:Script/Hebrew), Academy of the Hebrew Language: Jerusalem 1963, pp. 4–5 (Hebrew). In two of the examples noted by Shelomo Morag, he shows where the readings for Template:Script/Hebrew in Isaiah 1:27 and Template:Script/Hebrew in Isaiah 2:5, are both with an abrupt ending, as in tippoːdäTemplate:Nbsp(ʔ) and wǝnelăxoː(ʔ) respectively.</ref>
- A semivocalic sound is heard before paṯaḥ gānûḇ/pataħ ganuv (furtive paṯaḥ coming between a long vowel and a final guttural): thus ruaħ (spirit) sounds like rúwwaḥ and siaħ (speech) sounds like síyyaḥ. (That is shared with other Mizrahi pronunciations, such as the Syrian.)
Yemenite pronunciation is not uniform, and Morag has distinguished five sub-dialects, the best known being probably Sana'ani, originally spoken by Jews in and around Sana'a. Roughly, the points of difference are as follows:
- In some dialects, ḥōlem/ħolam (long "o" in modern Hebrew) is pronounced Template:IPA, but in others, it is pronounced Template:IPA like ṣêrệ/cerej. (The last pronunciation is shared with Lithuanian Jews.)
- Some dialects (e.g. Sharab) do not differentiate between bêṯ/bet with dāḡēš/dageš and without it.Template:Citation needed That occurs most of Mizrahi Hebrew.
- Sana'ani Hebrew primarily places stress on the penultimate syllable,Template:Citation needed as in Ashkenazi Hebrew.
Qamats Gadol and Qamats Qatan
Yemenite reading practices continue the orthographic conventions of the early grammarians, such as Abraham ibn Ezra and Aaron Ben-Asher. One basic rule of grammar states that every word with a long vowel sound, that is, one of either five vowel sounds whose mnemonics are "pītūḥe ḥöthom" (i.e. ḥiraq, šūraq, ṣeré, ḥölam and qamaṣ), whenever there is written beside one of these long vowel sounds a meteg (or what is also called a ga’ayah) and is denoted by a small vertical line below the word (e.g. under the ז in זָֽכְרוּ), it indicates that the vowel (in that case, qamaṣ) must be drawn out with a prolonged sound. For example, ōōōōōō, instead of ō, (e.g. zoː— khǝ ru). In the Sephardic tradition, however, the practice is different altogether, and they will also alter the phonetic sound of the short vowel qamaṣ qattön whenever the vowel appears alongside a meteg (a small vertical line), reading it as the long vowel qamaṣ gadöl, giving to it the sound of "a", as in car, instead of "ōōōōō." Thus, for the verse in Template:Script/Hebrew (Psalm 35:10), the Sephardic Jews will pronounce the word כָּל as "kal" (e.g. kal ʕaṣmotai, etc.), instead of kol ʕaṣmotai as pronounced by both Yemenite and Ashkenazi Jewish communities.<ref>Meir Mazuz, in article: Clarification Regarding the Accent of Letters and Dots, whether as the Sephardic or Ashkenazi Jews (בירור בענין מבטא האותיות והנקודות, אם כמו הספרדים או כמו האשכנזים), published in Responsa Yitzhak Yeranen, part iv, section 9, Bnei Barak 1991, page 73, by Rabbi Hayim Yitzhak Barda.</ref>
The meteg, or ga’ayah, has actually two functions: (1) It extends the sound of the vowel; (2) It makes any šewa that is written immediately after the vowel a mobile šewa, meaning, the šewa itself becomes [[ə|Template:IPA]]. For example: Template:Script/Hebrew = ʔö mǝ rim, Template:Script/Hebrew = šö mǝ rim, Template:Script/Hebrew = sī sǝ ra, Template:Script/Hebrew = šū vǝ kha, and Template:Script/Hebrew = tū vǝ kha. Examples with meteg/ga’ayah: Template:Script/Hebrew = šoː mǝ ro, Template:Script/Hebrew = ye rǝ du.
The Qamats qatan is realized as the non-extended "o"-sound in the first qamats (qamaṣ) in the word, חָכְמָה ⇒ ḥokhma (wisdom).
The Yemenite qamaṣ Template:Angle bracket is represented in the transliterated texts by the diaphoneme Template:IPAslink. The vowel quality is the same, whether for a long or short vowel, but the long vowel sound is always prolonged.
Holam and sere
A distinct feature of Yemenite Hebrew is that there is some degree of approximation between the ḥōlam and the ṣêrệ. To the untrained ear, they may sound as the same phoneme, but Yemenite grammarians will point out the difference. The feature varies by dialect:
- In the standard, provincial pronunciation that is used by most Yemenite Jews, holam is pronounced as Template:IPA. For example, the word "shalom" (Template:Script/Hebrew), is pronounced sholøm.
- In some provincial dialects, in particular that of Aden, holam becomes a long e and is indeed indistinguishable from sere, and some early manuscripts sometimes confuse or interchange the symbols for the two sounds.<ref>Abraham Z. Idelsohn (1882–1938) wrote in his momentous work, Phonographierte Gesänge und Aussprachsproben des Hebräischen der jemenitischen, persischen und syrischen Juden, Vienna 1917, concerning the differences in pronunciation between the Jews of Ṣanʻā’ and the Jews of the provinces in Yemen: "The difference subsists in the vowel [ḥolam] וֹ, [which] in Ṣanʻā’ is Template:Lang [i.e. Template:IPA], [and] in the Provinces is Template:Lang [i.e. Template:IPA]. Furthermore, the consonant [‘ayin] ע [in] Ṣanʻā’ = ‘, [but in the] Provinces is י [yod]; also א and ע they pronounce the same way. (Analogies can also be found in the Yemenite Arabic.) Moreover, the [dotted] גּ in Ṣanʻā’ is Template:Lang [[[:Template:IPA]]], [but] in the provinces it is like Template:Lang [[[:Template:IPA]]]." (p. 12)</ref>
Some see the assimilation of the two vowels as a local variant within the wider Babylonian family, which the Yemenites happened to follow.<ref>On the interchange of Ḥolem and Ṣere, Geoffrey Khan of the University of Cambridge wrote in his article, Vocalization, Babylonian (p. 956): “The Karaite al-Qirqisānī, writing in the 10th century C.E., states that some Jews of Iraq said Template:Script/Hebrew qåḏēš instead of Template:Script/Hebrew qåḏōš ‘holy’ due to influence from the language of the ‘Nabaṭ’ (i.e., the Aramaic speaking population of Iraq). Compare: al-Qirqisānī, Kitāb al-’Anwār w-al-Marāqib, ed. Nemoy 1939:II 140.” Rabbi Yosef Qafih in Collected Papers (vol. 2, pp. 944–945) argues that the old pronunciation of ḥolem in Ereẓ Israel was like the Yemenite pronunciation of today, based on Mishnah Eduyot 1:3 and on Maimonides' explanation there, where Abtalion and Shemaiah, two foreigners who converted to Judaism, could not pronounce the ḥolem of Template:Script/Hebrew (melō hin) in Mishnah Eduyot 1:3 but would say what sounded like mela hin. Rabbi Qafih thus thought that the anomaly could not have been possible unless the original pronunciation of ḥolem was used by the Yemenite Jews in their pronunciation.</ref>
Strict application of Mobile Shewā
Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and Rabbi Jacob Saphir have praised the Yemenites in their correct pronunciation of Hebrew.<ref>Preface to Siddur Tefillat Kol Pe (ed. Rabbi Avraham al-Nadaf), Tel-Aviv 1960, pp. 7–8 (Hebrew); Jacob Saphir, Iben Safir (vol. 1), Lyck 1866, pp. 53b-54a (in PDF pp. 121–122) (Hebrew)</ref> They still read the biblical lections and liturgies according to what is prescribed for Hebrew grammar and are meticulous to pronounce the mobile šĕwā Template:Script/Hebrew in each of its changing forms. While most other communities also adhere to the rule of mobile šĕwā whenever two šĕwās are written one after the other, as in Template:Script/Hebrew, most have forgotten its other usages.
Aharon Ben-Asher, in his treatise on the proper usage of Hebrew vowels and trope symbols, writes on the šĕwā: "[It is] the servant of all the letters in the entire Scriptures, whether at the beginning of the word, or in the middle of the word, or at the end of the word; whether what is pronounced by the tongue or not pronounced, for it has many ways… However, if it is joined with one of four [guttural] letters, Template:Lang, its manner [of pronunciation] will be like the manner of the vowel of the second letter in that word, such as: Template:Script/Hebrew (Jud. 1:7) = böhonoth; Template:Script/Hebrew (Prov. 1:22) = te’ehavu; Template:Script/Hebrew (Ps. 10:8) = leḥeləkhah; Template:Script/Hebrew (Ezra 2:2) = reʻeloyoh."<ref>Aharon Ben-Asher, Sefer midiqduqe ha-ṭaʻamim, p. 12 (p. 53 in PDF). In the original Hebrew: Template:Lang</ref>
On the mobile šĕwā and its usage amongst Yemenite Jews, Israeli grammarian Shelomo Morag wrote:<ref>Shelomo Morag, The Samaritan and Yemenite Tradition of Hebrew (published in The Traditions of Hebrew and Aramaic of the Jews of Yemen – ed. Yosef Tobi), Tel-Aviv 2001, pp. 220–221</ref> "The pronunciation of the šĕwā mobile preceding Template:Lang in the Yemenite tradition is realized in accordance with the vowel following the guttural; quantitatively, however, this is an ultra-short vowel. For example, a word such as Template:Script/Hebrew is pronounced wuḥuṭ. A šĕwā preceding a yōḏ is pronounced as an ultra-short ḥīreq: the word Template:Script/Hebrew is pronounced biyōm. This is the way the šĕwā is known to have been pronounced in the Tiberian tradition."
Other examples of words of the mobile šĕwā in the same word taking the phonetic sound of the vowel assigned to the adjacent guttural letter<ref>The four guttural letters, according to Rabbi Saadia Gaon (882–942 CE) in his Judeo-Arabic commentary on Sefer Hayeṣirah (chapter 4, paragraph 3), and Yonah ibn Ǧanāḥ (c. 990 – c. 1050) in his Sefer HaRiqmah, are aleph (א), hé (ה), ḥet (ח) and ‘ayin (ע), and are produced from the depth of the tongue with the opening of the throat.</ref> or of a mobile šĕwā before the letter yod (י) taking the phonetic sound of the yod, can be seen in the following:
- (Gen. 48:21) Template:Script/Hebrew = weheshiv
- (Gen. 49:30) Template:Script/Hebrew = bamoʻoroh
- (Gen. 50:10) Template:Script/Hebrew = beʻevar
- (Exo. 7:27) Template:Script/Hebrew = wi’im
- (Exo. 20:23) Template:Script/Hebrew = mizbiḥī
- (Deut. 11:13) Template:Script/Hebrew = wohoyoh
- (Psalm 92:1–3)
(vs. 1) liyöm – (vs. 2) lohödöth – (vs. 3) lahaǧīd
The above rule applies only to when one of the four guttural letters (אחהע), or a yod (י) or a resh (ר) follows the mobile šĕwā, but it does not apply to the other letters; then, the mobile šĕwā is always read as a short-sounding pataḥ.
Distinctive pronunciations preserved
Geographically isolated for centuries, the Yemenite Jews constituted a peculiar phenomenon within Diaspora Jewry. In their isolation, they preserved specific traditions of both Hebrew and Aramaic. The traditions, transmitted from generation to generation through the teaching and reciting of the Bible, post-biblical Hebrew literature (primarily the Mishnah), the Aramaic Targums of the Bible, and the Babylonian Talmud, are still alive.<ref name=tel-aviv2001>The Traditions of Hebrew and Aramaic of the Jews of Yemen (ed. Yosef Tobi), in Article entitled: Notes on the Vowel System of Babylonian Aramaic as Preserved in the Yemenite Tradition, Shelomo Morag, Tel-Aviv, 2001, p. 181. Template:ISBN</ref> They are manifest in the traditional manner of reading Hebrew that is practised by most members of the community. The Yemenite reading traditions of the Bible are now based on the Tiberian text and vocalization,<ref name=tel-aviv2001 /> as proofread by the masorete, Aaron ben Asher, with the one exception that the vowel sǝġūl is pronounced as a pataḥ, since the sǝġūl did not exist in the Babylonian orthographic tradition to which the Jews of Yemen had previously been accustomed. In what concerns Biblical orthography, with the one exception of the sǝgūl, the Yemenite Jewish community does not differ from any other Jewish community.<ref name=tel-aviv2001 />
Although the vast majority of post-Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic words are pronounced the same way or nearly the same way by all of Israel's diverse ethnic groups, including the Jews of Yemen, there are still other words whose phonemic system differs greatly from the way it is used in Modern Hebrew, the sense here being the tradition of vocalization or diction of selective Hebrew words found in the Mishnah and Midrashic literature, or of Aramaic words found in the Talmud, and which tradition has been meticulously preserved by the Jews of Yemen. Two of the more recognized Yemenite pronunciations are for the words Template:Lang and Template:Lang, the first pronounced as Ribbi, instead of Rabbi (as in Rabbi Meir), and the second pronounced guvra, instead of gavra. In the first case, archaeologist Benjamin Mazar was the first to discover its linguistic usage in the funerary epigrams of the 3rd and 4th-century CE, during excavations at the catacombs in Beit She'arim. Nahman Avigad, speaking of the same, wrote: "Of special interest is the title Rabbi and its Greek transliteration (Template:Langx). In the inscriptions of Beth She'arim found in the former seasons Template:Lang and Template:Lang are usual, and only once do we find Template:Lang, which has been regarded as a defective form of Template:Lang, for in Greek we generally find the form (Template:Langx). The transliteration (Template:Langx) found here shows that the title was pronounced in Palestine in different ways, sometimes Rabbi (ΡΑΒΒΙ, ΡΑΒΙ), sometimes Ribbi (ΡΙΒΒΙ, ΡΙΒΙ) and occasionally even Rebbi (ΒΗΡΕΒΙ)."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal (p. 49 in other editions)</ref> In the latter case, the Jerusalem Talmud occasionally brings down the word Template:Lang in plene scriptum, Template:Lang (pl. for Template:Lang), showing that its pronunciation was the same as that in use by the Yemenites.<ref>Cf. Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 2:4, et al.: דהוה מפייס לנשיא הוה מפייס לגוברייא</ref> Some have raised the proposition that the Yemenite linguistic tradition dates back to the Amoraim.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
R. Yehudai Gaon, in his Halakhot Pesukot (Hil. Berakhot), uses yod as the mater lectionis to show the vowel hiriq, after the qoph (Template:Lang) in Qiryat Shema (Template:Langx).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The editor of the critical edition, A. Israel, who places its composition in Babylonia, notes that "linguists would take an interest" in Yehudai Gaon's variant spellings of words, where especially the matres lectionis is used in place of vowels, "represented either by a plene alef (Template:Lang), waw (Template:Lang), and yod (Template:Lang)."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The use of the matres lectionis in place of the vowel hiriq in the construct case of the words קִרְיַת שְׁמַע ("recital of Shemaʻ" = קירית שמע) reflects apparently the Babylonian tradition of pronunciation, and, today, the same tradition is mirrored in the Yemenite pronunciation of Qiryat shemaʻ.<ref>Shelomo Morag, "The Samaritan and Yemenite Traditions of Hebrew: Points of Contact", in: The Traditions of Hebrew and Aramaic of the Jews of Yemen (ed. Yosef Tobi), Tel-Aviv 2001, p. 222, § 3.4 Template:ISBN</ref>
The following diagrams show a few of the more conspicuous differences in the Yemenite tradition of vocalization and which Israeli linguist, Shelomo Morag, believes reflects an ancient form of vocalizing the texts and was once known and used by all Hebrew-speakers.<ref>Shelomo Morag, The Traditions of Hebrew and Aramaic of the Jews of Yemen (ed. Yosef Tobi), in Article entitled: Notes on the Vowel System of Babylonian Aramaic as Preserved in the Yemenite Tradition, Tel-Aviv 2001, p. 183. Template:ISBN</ref>
|
|
|
Notes on transliteration: In the Yemenite Jewish tradition, the vowel qamaṣ Template:Angle bracket, represents Template:IPAslink. The Hebrew character Tau (Template:Langx), without a dot of accentuation, represents Template:IPAslink. The Hebrew character Gimal (Template:Langx), with a dot of accentuation, represents Template:IPAslink. The Hebrew word Template:Lang (in the above middle column, and meaning 'a thing detestable'), is written in Yemenite Jewish tradition with a vowel qamaṣ beneath the Template:Langx, but since it is followed by the letters Template:Lang it represents Template:IPA.<ref>Shelomo Morag, The Traditions of Hebrew and Aramaic of the Jews of Yemen (ed. Yosef Tobi), in Article entitled: Notes on the Vowel System of Babylonian Aramaic as Preserved in the Yemenite Tradition, Tel-Aviv 2001, p. 184</ref> The vowel ḥolam in the Yemenite dialect is transcribed here with Template:Angbr, and represents a front rounded vowel. Another peculiarity with the Yemenite dialect is that the vast majority of Yemenite Jews (excluding the Jews of Sharab in Yemen) will replace Template:IPAslink, used here in transliteration of texts, with the phonetic sound of Template:IPAblink.
|
|
|
In the Yemenite tradition, the plural endings on the words Template:Lang (merits), Template:Lang (kingdoms), Template:Lang (exiles), Template:Lang (errors), Template:Lang (defective animals) and Template:Lang (testimonies), all differ from the way they are vocalized in Modern Hebrew. In Modern Hebrew, these words are marked with a shuraq, as follows: Template:Lang – Template:Lang – Template:Lang – Template:Lang – Template:Lang – Template:Lang. Although the word Template:Langx (kingdoms) in Daniel 8:22 is vocalized malkhuyoth, as it is in Modern Hebrew, Shelomo Morag thinks that the Yemenite tradition reflects a phonological phenomenon known as dissimilation, whereby similar consonants or vowels in a word become less similar.<ref>Shelomo Morag, The Traditions of Hebrew and Aramaic of the Jews of Yemen (ed. Yosef Tobi), Tel-Aviv 2001, p. 111 (Template:ISBN) (Hebrew/English).</ref> Others explain the discrepancy as being in accordance with a general rule of practice, prevalent in the 2nd century CE, where the Hebrew in rabbinic literature was distinguished from that of Biblical Hebrew, and put into an entire class and category of its own, with its own rules of vocalization (see infra).
The Hebrew noun Template:Lang (ḥăṯīkkah), in the upper left column, is a word meaning "slice/piece" (in the absolute state), or Template:Lang ("piece of meat") in the construct state. The noun is of the same metre as Template:Lang (qǝlipah), a word meaning "peel," or the "rind" of a fruit. Both the kaph and pe in these nouns are with a dagesh. However, the same roots applied to different meters, serving as gerunds, as in "slicing/cutting" [meat] and "peeling" [an apple], the words would respectively be Template:Lang (ḥăṯīḫah) and Template:Lang (qǝlīfah), without a dagesh in the Hebrew characters Kaph and Pe (i.e. rafe letters), such as when the verb is used with the preposition "after": e.g. "after peeling the apple" = Template:Lang, or "after cutting the meat" = Template:Lang.
|
|
|
In the Talmud (Ḥullin 137b; Avodah Zarah 58b), the Sages of Israel had a practice to read words derived from the Scriptures in their own given way, while the same words derived from the Talmud or in other exegetical literature (known as the Midrash) in a different way: "When Isse the son of Hinei went up [there], he found Rabbi Yoḥanan teaching [a certain Mishnah] to the creations, saying, raḥelim (i.e. Template:Lang = the Hebrew word for "ewes"), etc. He said to him, 'Teach it [by its Mishnaic name = Template:Lang], raḥeloth!' He replied, '[What I say is] as it is written [in the Scriptures]: Ewes (raḥelim), two-hundred.' (Gen. 32:15) He answered him, 'The language of the Torah is by itself, and the language employed by the Sages is by itself!'" (Template:Lang).<ref>Shelomo Morag, The Traditions of Hebrew and Aramaic of the Jews of Yemen (ed. Yosef Tobi), Tel-Aviv 2001, p. 48</ref>
This passage from the Talmud is often quoted by grammarians of Yemenite origin to explain certain "discrepancies" found in vocalization of words where a comparable source can be found in the Hebrew Bible, such as the Yemenite tradition in rabbinic literature to say Template:Langx (maʻbīr),<ref>Yosef Amar Halevi, Talmud Bavli Menuqad, vol. 2, Jerusalem 1980, s.v. Mishnah (Shabbath 21:3); ibid., vol. 6, Megillah 6b, Template:Lang, et al. See past-tense of the verb in Yosef Amar Halevi, ibid., vol. 12, Jerusalem 1980, s.v. Mishnah (Baba Kama 8:6), et al.</ref> rather than Template:Langx (maʻăvīr) – although the latter rendering appears in Scripture (Deuteronomy 18:10), or to say Template:Langx (zīʻah), with ḥīraq,<ref name="ReferenceC">Yosef Amar Halevi, Talmud Bavli Menuqad, vol. 4, Jerusalem 1980, s.v. Pesaḥim 24b, et al.</ref> rather than, Template:Langx (zeʻah), with ṣerê, although it too appears in Scripture (Genesis 3:19), or to say Template:Langx (birkhath ha-mazon) (= kaph rafe), rather than as the word "blessing" in the construct state which appears in the Scriptures (Genesis 28:4, et al.), e.g. birkath Avraham (Template:Lang), with kaph dagesh. Others, however, say that these anomalies reflect a tradition that antedates the Tiberian Masoretic texts.<ref>Divrei Shalom Ḥakhamim (Memorial book in honor of Rabbi Shalom Yitzhak Halevi), ed. Avner Yitzhak Halevi, Jerusalem 1993, Introduction on the Vowel Points, pp. 217 – 218.</ref><ref>Shelomo Morag, The Traditions of Hebrew and Aramaic of the Jews of Yemen, Tel-Aviv 2001, p. 30. Template:ISBN</ref>
Along these same lines, the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible renders the words (Template:Langx), in II Chronicles 26:6, and (Template:Langx), in Nehemiah 7:37; 11:35, as yävnɛ and lōð, respectively. However, in their demotic-forms, the Yemenites will pronounce these words as (Template:Langx) and (Template:Langx) = yovnei and lūd, respectively. The use of the phoneme "ṣerê", represented by the two dots "◌ֵ", instead of "pataḥ-səġūl" ( Template:Lang ) for the word "Yavneh" may have been influenced by the Palestinian dialect spoken in the Land of Israel in the 1st-century CE.
|
|
|
In Yemenite tradition, many words in both Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew which are written with the final hê ending (without the mappîq) are realized by a secondary glottal stop, meaning, they are abruptly cut short, as when one holds his breath. Shelomo Morag who treats upon this peculiarity in the Yemenite tradition of vocalization brings down two examples from the Book of Isaiah, although by no means exclusive, where he shows the transliteration for the words Template:Lang in Isaiah 1:27 and Template:Lang in Isaiah 2:5, and both of which represent Template:IPAslink, as in tippoːdä(ʔ) and wǝnelăχoː(ʔ) respectively.<ref>Shelomo Morag, The Hebrew of the Jews of Yemen (Template:NbspTemplate:Lang), Academy of the Hebrew Language: Jerusalem 1963, pp. 4–5 (Hebrew).</ref> The word Template:Lang (Bible Codex<ref>In Modern Hebrew, the word "parashah" means the weekly biblical lection read on each Sabbath day, but in the Yemenite Jewish tradition the word means "Bible Codex."</ref>) in the upper-middle column is pronounced in the same way, e.g. Template:IPA.
|
|
Excursus: The preposition (Template:Langx) is unique in the Yemenite Jewish tradition. The Hebrew preposition is always written with the noun, joined as one word, and the lamed is always accentuated with a dagesh. For example, if the noun Template:Langx, would normally have been written with the definite article Template:Langx, as in Template:Langx, and the noun was to show possession, as in the sentence: "the palace of the king," the definite article "the" (Hebrew: Template:Lang) is dropped, but the same vowel pataḥ of the definite article is carried over to the lamed, as in Template:Lang, instead of של המלך. The vowel on the lamed will sometimes differ, depending on what noun comes after the preposition. For example, the definite article "the" in Hebrew nouns which begin with aleph or resh and sometimes ayin, such as in Template:Lang and in Template:Lang, or in Template:Lang, is written with the vowel qamaṣ – in which case, the vowel qamaṣ is carried over to the lamed, as in Template:Lang and in Template:Lang and in Template:Lang. Another general rule is that whenever a possessive noun is written without the definite article "the", as in the words, "a king's sceptre," or "the sceptre of a king" (Heb. Template:Lang), the lamed in the preposition is written with the vowel shǝwa (i.e. mobile shǝwa), as in Template:Lang, and as in, "if it belongs to Israel" ⇒ Template:Lang. Whenever the noun begins with a shǝwa, as in the proper noun Solomon (Heb. Template:Lang) and one wanted to show possession, the lamed in the preposition is written with a ḥiraq, as in (Song of Solomon 3:7): Template:Lang ⇒ "Solomon's bed", or as in Template:Lang ⇒ "the punishment Template:Lang the wicked", or in Template:Lang ⇒ "a bundle Template:Lang heave-offering."<ref>Yosef Amar Halevi, Talmud Bavli Menuqad, vol. 15, Jerusalem 1980, s.v. Sanhedrin 104b, et al.; Shelomo Morag, The Traditions of Hebrew and Aramaic of the Jews of Yemen, Tel-Aviv 2001, p. 256 Template:ISBN</ref>
Another rule of practice in Hebrew grammar is that two shǝwas Template:Lang are never written one after the other at the beginning of any word; neither can two ḥaṭaf pataḥs Template:Lang or two ḥaṭaf sǝġūls Template:Lang be written at the beginning of a word one after the other. The practical implication arising from this rule is that when there is a noun beginning with a ḥaṭaf pataḥ, as in the word, Template:Lang ⇒ "her companion", and one wishes to add thereto the preposition "to" – as in, "to her companion" ⇒ Template:Lang, the lamed is written with the vowel pataḥ, instead of a shǝwa (i.e. a mobile shǝwa), seeing that the shǝwa at the beginning of a word and the ḥaṭaf pataḥ, as well as the ḥaṭaf sǝġūl, are all actually one and the same vowel (in the Babylonian tradition), and it is as though he had written two shǝwas one after the other. Likewise, in the possessive case, "belonging to her companion" ⇒ Template:Lang, the lamed in the preposition Template:Lang is written with the vowel pataḥ.
Hebrew vernacular
The Leiden MS. of the Jerusalem Talmud is important in that it preserves some earlier variants to textual readings of that Talmud, such as in Tractate Pesaḥim 10:3 (70a), which brings down the old Palestinian-Hebrew word for charoseth (the sweet relish eaten at Passover), viz. dūkeh (Template:Langx), instead of rūbeh/rabah (Template:Langx), saying with a play on words: "The members of Isse's household would say in the name of Isse: Why is it called dūkeh? It is because she pounds [the spiced ingredients] with him." The Hebrew word for "pound" is dakh (Template:Langx), which rules out the spelling of " rabah " (Template:Langx), as found in the printed editions. Today, the Jews of Yemen, in their vernacular of Hebrew, still call the charoseth by the name dūkeh.<ref>Yehuda Ratzaby, Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Template:Lang), Tel-Aviv 1978, s.v. Template:Lang (p. 54).</ref>
Other quintessential Hebrew words which have been preserved by the Jews of Yemen is their manner of calling a receipt of purchase by the name, roʔoːyoː (Template:Langx), rather than the word "qabbalah" that is now used in Modern Hebrew.<ref>Yehuda Ratzaby, Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Template:Lang), Tel-Aviv 1978, s.v. Template:Lang (p. 255).</ref> The weekly biblical lection read on Sabbath days is called by the name seder (Template:Langx), since the word parashah (Template:Langx) has a completely different meaning, denoting a Bible Codex containing the first Five Books of Moses (plural: codices = Template:Lang).<ref>Yehuda Ratzaby, Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Template:Lang), Tel-Aviv 1978, s.v. Template:Lang (p. 230); see also Zekhor Le'Avraham (ed. Uzziel Alnaddaf), Jerusalem 1992, p. 27, note 115.</ref>
Charity; alms (Template:Langx, miṣwoː), so-called in Yemenite Jewish parlance,<ref>S.D. Goitein, Hebrew Elements in the Spoken Language of the Jews of Yemen, pub. by Leshonenu III, Jerusalem 1931; reprinted in: Shelomo Dov Goitein, The Yemenites – History, Communal Organization, Spiritual Life (Selected Studies), editor: Menahem Ben-Sasson, Jerusalem 1983, p. 279, s.v. Template:Lang; ibid., p. 214. Template:ISBN ; Yehuda Ratzaby, Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Template:Lang), Tel-Aviv 1978, s.v. Template:Lang (p. 167).</ref> was usually in the form of bread, collected in baskets each Friday before the Sabbath by those appointed over this task for distribution among the needy, without them being brought to shame. The same word is often used throughout the Jerusalem Talmud, as well as in Midrashic literature, to signify what is given out to the poor and needy.<ref>Cf. Leviticus Rabba, section 34: Template:Lang = "let every person distribute charity."</ref> Today, in Modern Hebrew, the word is seldom used to imply charity, replaced now by the word, ts’dakah (Heb. Template:Lang). In contrast, the word Template:Lang amongst Jews in Sana’a was a tax levied upon Jewish householders, particularly those whose professions were butchers, and which tax consisted of hides and suet from butchered animals, and which things were sold on a daily basis by the Treasurer, and the money accruing from the sale committed to the public fund for the Jewish poor of the city, which money was distributed to the city's poor twice a year; once on Passover, and once on Sukkot.<ref>Amram Qorah, Sa’arat Teiman, Jerusalem 1988, p. 113; in 1954 edition, p. 132 (in PDF); Shelomo Dov Goitein, The Yemenites – History, Communal Organization, Spiritual Life (Selected Studies), editor: Menahem Ben-Sasson, Jerusalem 1983, pp. 278–279, s.v. Template:Lang. Template:ISBN</ref> The fund itself was known by the name toːḏer (Template:Langx), lit. "the constant [revenues]."<ref>Yehuda Ratzaby, Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Template:Lang), Tel-Aviv 1978, s.v. Template:Lang (p. 291).</ref>
Although Jews in Yemen widely made-use of the South-Arabic word mukhwāṭ (Template:Langx) for the "metal pointer" (stylus) used in pointing at the letters of sacred writ, they also knew the old Hebrew word for the same, which they called makhtev (Template:Langx).<ref>Yehuda Ratzaby, Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Template:Lang), Tel-Aviv 1978, s.v. Template:Lang (p. 158). Cf. Mishnah Kelim 16:8; Midrash HaGadol (on Deuteronomy 28:52).</ref> The following story is related about this instrument in Midrash Rabba: "Rabban [Shimon] Gamliel says: ‘Five-hundred schools were in Beter, while the smallest of them wasn’t less than three-hundred children. They used to say, ‘If the enemy should ever come upon us, with these metal pointers (Template:Langx) we’ll go out against them and stab them!’..."<ref>Midrash Rabba (Lamentations Rabba 2:5); Jerusalem Talmud, Taanit 4:5 (24b), with slight variations. Cf. Rashi's commentary on Mishnah Avot 5:6, where he says of the word Template:Lang, "the stylus of a scrivener, grafie in the foreign tongue, with which He engraved the Ten Commandments that were given to Moses. That same stylus was created of old."</ref>
In other peculiar words of interest, they made use of the word, shilṭön (Template:Langx), for "governor" or "king," instead of "government," the latter word now being the more common usage in Modern Hebrew;<ref>Yehuda Ratzaby, Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Template:Lang), Tel-Aviv 1978, s.v. Template:Lang (p. 278).</ref> kothev (Template:Langx), for "scrivener", or copyist of religious texts, instead of the word "sofer" (scribe);<ref>Yehuda Ratzaby, Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Template:Lang), Tel-Aviv 1978, s.v. Template:Lang (p. 127).</ref> ṣibbūr (Template:Langx), for "a quorum of at least ten adult males," a word used in Yemen instead of the Modern Hebrew word, minyan;<ref>Yehuda Ratzaby, Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Template:Lang), Tel-Aviv 1978, s.v. Template:Lang (p. 233).</ref> ḥefeṣ (Template:Langx), a noun meaning "desirable thing," was used by them to describe any "book" (especially one of a prophylactic nature), although now in Modern Hebrew it means "object";<ref>Yehuda Ratzaby, Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Template:Lang), Tel-Aviv 1978, s.v. Template:Lang (p. 101).</ref> fiqfūq (Template:Langx) had the connotation of "shock," "violent agitation," or "shaking-up," although today, in Modern Hebrew, it has the meaning of "doubt" or "skepticism";<ref>Yehuda Ratzaby, Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Template:Lang), Tel-Aviv 1978, s.v. Template:Lang (p. 228).</ref> the word, harpathqe (Template:Langx), was used to describe "great hardships," although in Modern Hebrew the word has come to mean "adventures."<ref>Yehuda Ratzaby, Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Template:Lang), Tel-Aviv 1978, s.v. Template:Lang (pp. 72– 3).</ref> The word fazmūn (Template:Langx), any happy liturgical poem, such as those sung on Simhat Torah, differs from today's Modern Hebrew word, pizmon (Template:Langx), meaning, a "chorus" to a song.<ref>Yehuda Ratzaby, Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Template:Lang), Tel-Aviv 1978, s.v. Template:Lang (p. 221).</ref> Another peculiar aspect of Yemenite Hebrew is what concerns denominative verbs. One of the nouns used for bread (made of wheat) is himmuṣ (Template:Langx), derived from the blessing that is said whenever breaking bread, Template:Lang = He that brings forth [bread from the earth].<ref>Yehuda Ratzaby, Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Template:Lang), Tel-Aviv 1978, s.v. Template:Lang (p. 67).</ref> Whenever they wanted to say its imperative form, "break bread!", they made use of the denominative verb hammeṣ! (Template:Langx). Similarly, the noun for the Third Sabbath meal was qiyyūm (Template:Langx), literally meaning "observance," in which they made use of the denominative verb, tǝqayyem (Template:Langx) = Will you eat with us (the Third Sabbath meal)?, or, Template:Lang = Let us eat (the Third Sabbath meal),<ref>Shelomo Dov Goitein, The Yemenites – History, Communal Organization, Spiritual Life (Selected Studies), editor: Menahem Ben-Sasson, Jerusalem 1983, p. 279. Template:ISBN</ref> or, qiyam (Template:Langx) = He ate (the Third Sabbath meal).<ref>Yehuda Ratzaby, Dictionary of the Hebrew Language used by Yemenite Jews (Template:Lang), Tel-Aviv 1978, s.v. Template:Lang (p. 247).</ref>
See also
References
Bibliography
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite journal
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book (Cited in article by Yehuda Ratzaby who quotes from Kitāb al-Ānwār, ed. Leon Nemoy)
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book (Hebrew)
- Template:Cite book (Hebrew)
- Template:Cite book
- Template:Cite book (German)
- Template:Cite book
Further reading
- S. Morag, 'Pronunciations of Hebrew', Encyclopaedia Judaica XIII, 1120–1145
- Template:Cite book
- Yeivin, I., The Hebrew Language Tradition as Reflected in the Babylonian Vocalization: Jerusalem 1985 (Hebrew)
- Template:Lang (Hebrew), beginning on page 50 in Halichoth Teiman (1963).
- Template:Lang (Hebrew) in Rabbi Yosef Qafih's Collected Papers, volume 2, pages 931–936.
- Template:Lang (Hebrew): A popular Yemenite alaph bei book.
- Template:Lang (Hebrew) in Rabbi Yosef Qafih's Collected Papers, volume 2, pages 958–960.
- Template:Cite book
External links
- Sifra in the Babylonian supraliner punctuation, Manuscript: Vaticani ebraici 66 (Late 9th-mid 10th century)
- Pronunciation Chart, Pronunciation Chart (continued)
- Torah reading with Targum Onkelos, read by Yemenite elder, Mori Shalom Cohen
- Aleph be recording (published by http://www.temoni.org/?p=3652).
- Aharon Amram – Recordings:
- Tunes of Yemen – Aharon Amram for Android.
- Cantillation of Template:Lang in Parshat MiketzTemplate:Dead link (published by Nosach Teiman).
- Reading of Psalm 119 (published by Nosach Teiman).
- Yemenite reading of the complete Hallel (published by Nosach Teiman).
- Piyyutim for Simchat Torah disc 1.
- Megillat Eichah (portions thereof published by Nosach Teiman):
- Purim song: Template:Lang (published by Nosach Teiman).
- 1988 Selichot in a Rosh HaAyin synagogue
- Template:Lang
- Tunes of Yemen – Aharon Amram for Android.
- Rabbi Yosef 'Amar – Recordings and Work:
- Template:Lang (published by Nosach Teiman).
- Template:Lang
- Template:Lang
- Template:Lang
- Babylonian Talmud vowelized according to the tradition of the Jews of Yemen
- Template:Lang
- Template:Lang (from Nosach Teiman)
- Template:Lang (from Nosach Teiman)
- Rabbi Yosef Qafih: Megillat Esther reading of Purim 1996 (until 2:5, from CD)
- Rabbi Ratson 'Arusi – Recordings:
- Template:Lang
- Template:Lang
- Ashmuroth in 1975 – Shabbazi Synagogue, Kiryat Ono (preceded by his introductory remarks)
- Template:Lang
- Template:Lang
- Vocabulary of Yemenite Pronunciations, David Ben-Abraham, 2005
- On the Hebrew Language of Yemen Template:Webarchive, 2005 (mostly unreferenced)
- Rabbi Evin Sapir's Account of Yemenite Hebrew (in Hebrew); free translation at http://www.chayas.com/evinsapir.doc Template:Webarchive
- Vocalization of Hebrew Alphabet: A non-Yemenite's efforts at imitation of Sana'ani Yemenite Pronunciation of Hebrew.
Template:Hebrew language Template:Jewish languages Template:Authority control