Yemenite Hebrew language
Encyclopedia
Yemenite Hebrew , also referred to as Temani Hebrew , is the pronunciation system for Biblical
and liturgical Hebrew
traditionally used by Yemenite Jews
. Yemenite Jews brought their language to Israel through immigration. Their first organized immigration to the region began in 1882.
It is believed by some scholars that its phonology
was heavily influenced by spoken Yemeni Arabic
. Yet, according to other scholars as well as Yemenite Rabbi
s such as Rabbi Yosef Qafih
, and Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook
Temani Hebrew was not influenced by Yemenite Arabic, as this type of Arabic was also spoken by Yemenite Jews and is distinct from the liturgical Hebrew and the conversational Hebrew of the communities.
Among the dialects of Hebrew preserved into modern times, Yemenite Hebrew is regarded as one of the forms closest to Hebrew as used in ancient times, particularly Tiberian Hebrew
and Mishnaic Hebrew. This is evidenced in part by the fact that Yemenite Hebrew preserves a separate sound for every consonant - except for ס sāmeḵ and שׂ śîn, which are both pronounced /s/, but which had already merged in ancient times, as evident in the spelling variants in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Yemenite pronunciation is not uniform, and Morag has distinguished five sub-dialects, of which the best known is probably Sana'ani, originally spoken by Jews in and around Sana'a
. Roughly, the points of difference are as follows:
Babylonian Jews
: the oldest Yemenite manuscripts use the Babylonian rather than the Tiberian system of vowel symbols. In certain respects, such as the assimilation of paṯaḥ and səḡôl, the current Yemenite pronunciation fits the Babylonian notation better than the Tiberian. 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. In fact there are certain characteristic scribal errors, such as the confusion of ḥōlem with ṣêrệ, found only or mainly in the Yemenite manuscripts, indicating that the assimilation of these two vowels was always a Yemenite peculiarity, or else a local variant within the wider Babylonian family, which the Yemenites happened to follow. It should be noted that these sounds are only identical in a minority of Yemenite Jews (e.g the Sharabi
Yemenite Jews), as opposed to that of the Sana'ani pronunciation which most Yemenite Jews use.
Biblical Hebrew language
Biblical Hebrew , also called Classical Hebrew , is the archaic form of the Hebrew language, a Canaanite Semitic language spoken in the area known as Canaan between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Biblical Hebrew is attested from about the 10th century BCE, and persisted through...
and liturgical Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
traditionally used by Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen . Between June 1949 and September 1950, the overwhelming majority of Yemen's Jewish population was transported to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet...
. Yemenite Jews brought their language to Israel through immigration. Their first organized immigration to the region began in 1882.
It is believed by some scholars that its phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
was heavily influenced by spoken Yemeni Arabic
Yemeni Arabic
Yemeni Arabic is a cluster of Arabic varieties spoken in Yemen, southwestern Saudi Arabia, and northern Somalia...
. Yet, according to other scholars as well as Yemenite Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
s such as Rabbi Yosef Qafih
Yosef Qafih
Yosef Qafih , widely known as Rabbi Kapach , was one of the foremost leaders of the Yemenite Jewish community, first in Yemen and later in Israel. He was the grandson of Rabbi Yihhyah Qafahh, also a prominent Yemenite leader and grandson of the founder of the Dor Deah movement in Yemen...
, and Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook
Abraham Isaac Kook
Abraham Isaac Kook was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine, the founder of the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav, Jewish thinker, Halachist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar...
Temani Hebrew was not influenced by Yemenite Arabic, as this type of Arabic was also spoken by Yemenite Jews and is distinct from the liturgical Hebrew and the conversational Hebrew of the communities.
Among the dialects of Hebrew preserved into modern times, Yemenite Hebrew is regarded as one of the forms closest to Hebrew as used in ancient times, particularly Tiberian Hebrew
Tiberian Hebrew
Tiberian Hebrew is the extinct canonical pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh and related documents in the Roman Empire. This traditional medieval pronunciation was committed to writing by Masoretic scholars based in the Jewish community of Tiberias , in the form of the Tiberian vocalization...
and Mishnaic Hebrew. This is evidenced in part by the fact that Yemenite Hebrew preserves a separate sound for every consonant - except for ס sāmeḵ and שׂ śîn, which are both pronounced /s/, but which had already merged in ancient times, as evident in the spelling variants in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Distinguishing features
- There are double pronunciations for all six bəgadkəpat letters: gímel without dāḡēš is pronounced غ /ɣ/ like Arabic ġayn, and dāleṯ without dāḡēš is pronounced ذ /ð/ as in "this".
- The pronunciation of tāv without dāḡēš as ث /θ/ as in "thick" is shared with other Mizrahi Hebrew dialects such as Iraqi.
- Vāv is pronounced /w/ as in Iraqi Hebrew and as و in Arabic.
- Emphatic and guttural letters have the same sounds as in Arabic, so ḥêṯ ح = ח /ħ/ and ʻáyin ע is ع /ʕ/.
- There is no distinction between the vowels paṯaḥ, səḡôl and šəwâ nāʻ, all being pronounced /æ(ː)/ like Arabic fatḥa (this feature may reflect Arabic influence, but is also found in old Babylonian Hebrew, where a single symbol was used for all three).
- Šəwâ nāʻ follows TiberianTiberian HebrewTiberian Hebrew is the extinct canonical pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh and related documents in the Roman Empire. This traditional medieval pronunciation was committed to writing by Masoretic scholars based in the Jewish community of Tiberias , in the form of the Tiberian vocalization...
conventions: /i/ before yôḏ, assimilated to the vowel of a following guttural consonant (ʼālep̄, hê, ḥêṯ, ʻáyin), and /æ/ elsewhere. - Qāmeṣ gāḏôl is pronounced /ɔː/, as in Ashkenazi HebrewAshkenazi HebrewAshkenazi Hebrew , is the pronunciation system for Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew favored for liturgical use by Ashkenazi Jewish practice. Its phonology was influenced by languages with which it came into contact, such as Yiddish, German, and various Slavic languages...
. - Final hê with mappîq (a dot in the centre) has a stronger sound than hê generally.
- A semivocalic sound is heard before paṯaḥ gānûḇ (paṯaḥ coming between a long vowel and a final guttural): thus rûaḥ (spirit) sounds like rúwwaḥ and sîaḥ (speech) sounds like síyyaḥ. (This is shared with other Mizrahi pronunciations, such as the Syrian.)
Yemenite pronunciation is not uniform, and Morag has distinguished five sub-dialects, of which the best known is probably Sana'ani, originally spoken by Jews in and around Sana'a
Sana'a
-Districts:*Al Wahdah District*As Sabain District*Assafi'yah District*At Tahrir District*Ath'thaorah District*Az'zal District*Bani Al Harith District*Ma'ain District*Old City District*Shu'aub District-Old City:...
. Roughly, the points of difference are as follows:
- In some dialects, ḥōlem (long "o" in modern Hebrew) is pronounced /øː/ (anywhere from non-rhotic English "er" to German o-umlautGermanic umlautIn linguistics, umlaut is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. The term umlaut was originally coined and is used principally in connection with the study of the Germanic languages...
), while in others it is pronounced /eː/ like ṣêrệ. (This last pronunciation is shared with Lithuanian JewsLithuanian JewsLithuanian Jews or Litvaks are Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania:...
.) - In some dialects, gímel with dāḡēš is pronounced like English "j" /dʒ/, and is pronounced /ɡ/. In others, gímel with dāḡēš is /ɡ/, and is Classical Arabic uvularUvular consonantUvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and...
ق /q/. (This reflects the difference between the Sana'ani and AdenAdenAden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
i dialects of Yemeni ArabicYemeni ArabicYemeni Arabic is a cluster of Arabic varieties spoken in Yemen, southwestern Saudi Arabia, and northern Somalia...
.) - Some dialects (e.g. Sharab) do not differentiate between bêṯ with dāḡēš and without. This is in accordance with most of Mizrahi Hebrew.
- Sana'ani Hebrew primarily places stress on the penultimate syllable, as in Ashkenazi Hebrew.
History
Yemenite Hebrew may have been derived from, or influenced by, the Hebrew of the Geonic eraGeonim
Geonim were the presidents of the two great Babylonian, Talmudic Academies of Sura and Pumbedita, in the Abbasid Caliphate, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders of the Jewish community world wide in the early medieval era, in contrast to the Resh Galuta who wielded secular authority...
Babylonian Jews
History of the Jews in Iraq
The history of the Jews in Iraq is documented from the time of the Babylonian captivity c. 586 BCE. Iraqi Jews constitute one of the world's oldest and most historically significant Jewish communities....
: the oldest Yemenite manuscripts use the Babylonian rather than the Tiberian system of vowel symbols. In certain respects, such as the assimilation of paṯaḥ and səḡôl, the current Yemenite pronunciation fits the Babylonian notation better than the Tiberian. 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. In fact there are certain characteristic scribal errors, such as the confusion of ḥōlem with ṣêrệ, found only or mainly in the Yemenite manuscripts, indicating that the assimilation of these two vowels was always a Yemenite peculiarity, or else a local variant within the wider Babylonian family, which the Yemenites happened to follow. It should be noted that these sounds are only identical in a minority of Yemenite Jews (e.g the Sharabi
Jewish Sharab
Jewish Sharab is an ancient Jewish quarter in the city of Ta'izz, Ta'izz Governorate, Yemen established around 130 CE and dismantled around 1940, and was one of the most illustrious places of Jewish settlement in Yemen. Many distinguished Jewish personalities were born there, including R. Shalom...
Yemenite Jews), as opposed to that of the Sana'ani pronunciation which most Yemenite Jews use.
In Israeli culture
There have been a number of Yemenite performers who have utilized Yemenite Hebrew in their music such as:- Aharon Amram
- Bracha Cohen
- DaklonDaklonDaklon is the nickname of an Israeli musical artist Yosef Levy. He was born in 1944 in Tel Aviv's Kerem Hateimanim neighborhood, as a son of Jewish-Yemeni immigrants from the Shar'ab region in Yemen....
- Mizmorey Teman Choir
- Ofra HazaOfra HazaOfra Haza was an Israeli singer of Yemeni origin, an actress and international recording artist....
- Shlomo Thakhyani
- Shalom Sabari
- Shoshana Damari
- Tomer Hatuka
- Yehiel Nahum
- Zion GolanZion GolanZion Golan , also known as Tzion Golan, is an Israeli singer of Yemeni origin.-Background:Most of Golan's songs are in Yemeni Arabic. Many songs are from Yemen and are also sung by contemporary Yemeni singers. He also sings some songs in the ancient Yemeni dialect of Hebrew.-Personal life:Golan was...
External links
- BIBLICAL HEBREW - Sana'ani Yemenite Pronunciation of Hebrew
- TORATH MOSHE - Information on Yemenite Jews
- Pronunciation Chart page 1
- Pronunciation Chart page 2
- Rabbi Evin Sapir's Account of Yemenite Hebrew
- Hebrew Expressions used by Temanim in conversation
