chireq pronunciation

Classical Hebrew morphology and syntax, aspect, linguistics, discourse analysis, and related topics
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ezranehemiah
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Joined: Thu Nov 06, 2014 4:15 pm

chireq pronunciation

Post by ezranehemiah »

In looking at several B-Hebrew grammar textbooks I have noticed a major division over pronouncing the vowel "chireq" ( a small dot placed under a consonant). Some grammars say the "chireq" is to be pronounced with a long "ee" sound as in "machine" while others say it should be a short sound like the word "hit". Does anyone have definite proof of the way this vowel is supposed to be pronounced?
Isaac Fried
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Re: chireq pronunciation

Post by Isaac Fried »

I don't think there are short and loooong vowels in Hebrew. I don't think one should annoy his listeners with drawn out eeeeee's. What is crucial about the xiriq is that it represents, in my opinion, the personal pronoun היא HIY, 'he, she'. It interchanges with the qubutz and shuruq U standing for the personal pronoun הוא HU, 'he, she'. For instance, in spoken Hebrew, שבור $ABUR, 'broken', but שביר $ABIYR, 'breakable'.

The xiriq is followed by a dot, or a dagesh, which, in my opinion, is an ancient interior mark used to allude to the sound "I", or "EE", before the invention of the NIYQUD.


Isaac Fried, Boston University
ezranehemiah
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Joined: Thu Nov 06, 2014 4:15 pm

Re: chireq pronunciation

Post by ezranehemiah »

Isaac,
I know you say there are no "long" or "short" vowels in Biblical Hebrew but a look at current B-Hebrew grammars demonstrates that the vowels are being labelled long and short. I am just trying to figure out why some grammars take the chireq to be a long "ee" sound as in the word "bee" which other grammars are saying the chireq is a short sound you would hear in the word "spit". I would just like to know why we should go one direction or the other from a grammar point of view. Do you have any resources that might give us a history of the implementation/pronunciation of the vowels?

shalom,
Brent Emery
markofcain
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Re: chireq pronunciation

Post by markofcain »

ezranehemiah wrote:Do you have any resources that might give us a history of the implementation/pronunciation of the vowels?
Try this link in a modern browser -- Chrome is probably best. Use the navigation at the top of the page to go to Genesis Chapter 1.

Listen to the pronunciation of a native Hebrew reader (not cantor) from an ultraorthodox Jewish family who was born in 1913 in the Mea Shearim neighborhood just outside of the Old City. You might take a close look at verse 6 which has 8 occurrences of the hireq and verse 21 which has 10 uses.

http://markcain.com/hebrew.html
Mark Cain
Sarasota, FL USA

http://www.markcain.com
markofcain
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Re: chireq pronunciation

Post by markofcain »

The hireq can be pronounced either as a short "i" as in "lid" or a long "i" as in "machine."

Closed, unaccented syllables would generally have a short hireq.

Open syllables would generally have the long hireq.

Then there are the occasions when the hireq appears with the yod (mater lectionis). These usually are long.

On a few occasions the hireq yod is written w/o the yod -- so it looks like it could be short but is actually long.

Here are a couple of videos to watch that will help:

http://animatedhebrew.com/lectures/chap ... ter_2.html
Mark Cain
Sarasota, FL USA

http://www.markcain.com
Isaac Fried
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Re: chireq pronunciation

Post by Isaac Fried »

Brent,
There is no "history" of the implementation/pronunciation of the vowels; there are only different traditions of different diaspora communities, influenced by their foreign linguistic milieu.

The only "rule" is to minimize the vocal articulation and modulation, but still leave a functional language.

The Hebrew grammar books are full of fictional recitals about "short" and "long" vowels, about "geminations", about "closed" and "open" syllables, about "snatched" חטופה vowels, about schwa "mobiles"; and even more such imagined trivia.

To hear a good ארץ ישראל tradition cantorial reading of the HB listen here
http://www.bible.ort.org/intro1.asp?lang=1

I myself follow this reading, except that I do not "move" any schwa, except in a prepositional ובכלם I also refrain from barking out the מפיק mapik.

Isaac Fried, Boston University
Isaac Fried
Posts: 1783
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 8:32 pm

Re: chireq pronunciation

Post by Isaac Fried »

Another difference is that the superb ORT reader reads the segol as E, but the tsere, he reads, in the European tradition, as the gliding vowel EY, whereas I read both the segol and the tsere as pure E, in the ארץ ישראל tradition.

Isaac Fried, Boston University
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