Hebrew in all its Allophonic Majesty (was: IPA question)

On Thu, 20 Jun 2002 12:58:20 -0500 Peter Clark <peter-clark@...>
writes:
> On Thursday 20 June 2002 11:17 am, Steg Belsky wrote:
> > It could be a voiced pharyngeal approximant, a.k.a. the Semitic
> |`ay(i)n|
> > sound.
>         Do you know of any sound files for this sound? I'm just
> curious, since my
> Hebrew instructor basically said, "Pretend that it isn't there, you
> can't
> pronounce it." Translation: he had no clue how it was pronounced and
> didn't
> want to make a fool of himself. :) I was a little disappointed that
> he didn't
> know the IPA values of Hebrew, too, which made things really
> difficult when
> we got to the vowels. Oh, the humanity!
>         Well, while I'm at it, if anyone knows a nice IPA chart of
> Hebrew (Biblical
> or Modern), I'd be interested in knowing about it.
>         :Peter
-

Well, i didn't know where to find one so i just made one myself :-P .
http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~bh11744/stuff/3ayin.wav

Here is my attempted IPA chart of Classical-Tiberian Hebrew:

CONSONANTS:
alef: /?/
bet: /b/ ; [b]~[v] (or ~[B]?)
gimel: /g/ ; [g]~[G]
dalet: /d/ ; [d]~[D]
hei: /h/
vav: /w/ or /v/
zayin: /z/
hhet: /H/ (voiceless pharyngeal fricative)
tet: /t'/ (emphatic, probably ejective)
yud: /j/
kaf: /k/ ; [k]~[x]
lamed: /l/
mem: /m/
nun: /n/
samekh: /s/
ayin: /3/ (voiced pharyngeal fricative/approximant)
pei: /p/ ; [p]~[f] (or ~[P]?)
tsadi: /ts'/ or /s'/
quf: /k'/ or /q/
reish: /r/ (probably a flap/tap)
shin: /S/
sin: /K/ (lateralized sibilant) or /s/ (depending on period)
tav: /t/ ; [t]~[T] (~[s] attested in the Galilee)

VOWELS:
patahh: [a]
qamatz: [O:]
segol: [E] (in some cases possibly [E:])
tzeireh: [e:]
hhiriq-hhaseir: [i]
hhiriq-malei: [i:]
qamatz-qatan: [O]
hholam-hhaseir: [o]
hholam-malei: [o:]
qubutz: [u]
shuruq: [u:]
shva: [@]
hhataf-patahh: [a<ultrashort>]
hhataf-segol: [E<ultrashort>]
hhataf-qamatz: [O<ultrashort>]

According to an article i read, all of these complicated vowel values
were allophones of the 6 basic Semitic vowels: /a i u a: i: u:/, but i
don't remember at all which allophones correspond to which phonemes.

Standard Modern Israeli Hebrew:
(Dan, please correct me if i make a mistake!)

drops /?/ and /3/ (and sometimes /h/ too)
pronounces /H/ as /x/
has no fricative allophones for /g d t/; only [b]~[v], [k]~[x], [p]~[f].
pronounces the emphatics as non-emphatic /t ts k/
pronounces /r/ as a velar approximant
has /s/ for |sin|
merges [O:] into /a/
semi-merges [E] and [e] into /e/
merges [i] and [i:] into /i/
merges [O], [o], and [o:] as /o/
merges [u] and [u:] as /u/
pronounces the ultrashorts like their normal-length counterparts, with
raising of [E] and [O] to [e] and [o].
drops [@] whenever possible


That's it, as well as i can think of.  If anyone knows better, please
tell me!


-Stephen (Steg)
 "watashi no senkou wa gengogaku desu."

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