Ashkenazi Hebrew

Ashkenazi Hebrew (Hagiyya Ashkenazit, Ashkenazishe Havore) is the pronunciation system for Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew favored for Jewish liturgical use and Torah study by Ashkenazi Jewish practice. As it is used parallel with Modern Hebrew, its phonological differences are clearly recognized: ʾālep̄ and ʿáyin are completely silent at all times in most forms of Ashkenazi Hebrew, where they are frequently both pronounced as a glottal stop in Modern Hebrew. (Compare Yisroeil (Lithuanian) or Yisruayl (Polish-Galician) vs. Yisra'el (Israeli).) An earlier pronunciation of ‘ayin as a velar nasal (ŋ) is attested most prominently in Dutch Hebrew (and historically also the Hebrew of Frankfurt am Main). Vestiges of this earlier pronunciation are still found throughout the Yiddish-speaking world in names like Yankev (יעקבֿ) and words like manse (מעשׂה, more commonly pronounced mayse), but are otherwise marginal. raphated ṯāw is pronounced s in Ashkenazi Hebrew. It is always pronounced t in Modern and Sephardi Hebrew. (Compare Shabbos vs. Shabbat, or Es vs. ʾEt.) ṣērê e is pronounced ej (or aj) in Ashkenazi Hebrew, where it would be pronounced e in Sephardi Hebrew; Modern Hebrew varies between the two pronunciations. (Compare Omein (Lithuanian) or Umayn (Polish-Galician) vs. ʾAmen (Israeli Hebrew).) qāmeṣ gāḏôl a is pronounced ɔ (in the Southern Dialects it is u in open syllables, ɔ in closed syllables, and in Lithuanian pronunciation it may be [ʌ]) in Ashkenazi Hebrew, as in Yemenite and Tiberian Hebrew, where it is a in Israeli Hebrew. (Compare Dovid (Lithuanian) or Duvid (Polish-Galician) vs. David (Israeli Hebrew)) ḥôlam o is, depending on the subdialect, pronounced au, ou, oi, øi, or ei in Ashkenazi Hebrew, as against o in Sephardic and Modern Hebrew. However, in many regions in Germany it was pronounced [o]), and it is pronounced that way by many non-Hassidic Ashkenazim in America. (Compare Moishe vs. Moshe.) (In Yemenite pronunciation, it is pronounced [øː].