Is ayin vocal 'sometimes'?

A place for those new to Biblical Hebrew to ask basic questions about the language of the Hebrew Bible.
Forum rules
Members will observe the rules for respectful discourse at all times!
Please sign all posts with your first and last (family) name.
Post Reply
Glenn Dean
Posts: 204
Joined: Tue May 26, 2020 6:28 pm

Is ayin vocal 'sometimes'?

Post by Glenn Dean »

Hi:

I was listening to Jonah 2:3 (in some versions this is also Jonah 2:2) over at animatedhebrew.com (speaker='Beeri') and when he pronounces שִׁוַּ֖עְתִּי (šiw·wa‘·tî)I keep hearing 4 syllables. It's as if I'm hearing the "silent ayin" - I'm hearing "shi - va - ah - ti".

so my question is - is the "silent ayin" being pronounced as it's own syllable, or is Beeri just "elongating the pathach", sort of like pronouncing it as "shi - vaaaaaa - ti"

Thanxs!

Glenn
User avatar
Jason Hare
Posts: 1920
Joined: Mon Sep 30, 2013 5:07 am
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
Contact:

Re: Is ayin vocal 'sometimes'?

Post by Jason Hare »

They're probably just trying to express the fact that there is an ayin there. It sounds like a vowel to you, but it is a consonant.
Jason Hare
Tel Aviv, Israel
The Hebrew Café
יוֹדֵ֣עַ צַ֭דִּיק נֶ֣פֶשׁ בְּהֶמְתּ֑וֹ וְֽרַחֲמֵ֥י רְ֝שָׁעִ֗ים אַכְזָרִֽי׃
ספר משלי י״ב, י׳
imputerate
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Jan 20, 2022 10:19 am
Location: Houston, Tx 77007
Contact:

Re: Is ayin vocal 'sometimes'?

Post by imputerate »

http://bhebrew.biblicalhumanities.org/

one way to "capture," and thereby recall, the presence of ayin is to make it a glottal stop, like alef, AND then "nazalize" its vowel;
peter hodgson, imputerate
"rhetoric is reality"
kwrandolph
Posts: 1531
Joined: Sun Sep 29, 2013 12:51 am

Re: Is ayin vocal 'sometimes'?

Post by kwrandolph »

First of all, all Hebrew letters were consonants.

Secondly, how the letters were pronounced is still guesswork.

That the Ayin is sometimes transliterated as a “g” gives a clue that it was a glottal stop, i.e. neither a full “g” nor silent.

As for modern pronunciation, we’re not talking about that.

Karl W. Randolph.
Post Reply