Re: The status of the glottal stop in Hebrew

On Jul 5, 2004, at 11:09 AM, Outo Otus wrote:
> An example of an aleph in an akward position is in the word "Rosh" (As
> in
> Rosh Hashanah), as the aleph comes after the o. I am guessing this
> would
> be ignored, also, do ALL words in Hebrew that begin with a vowel have a
> glottal stop before them? Or only the ones spelt with an aleph? I may
> be
> wrong, but where a glottal stop ends a word, it seems to be ignored.
> Also,
> is aleph pronounced when it occurs in the middle of a phrase/sentence?
> (Not phrase initial). Thanks.
The alef in "Rosh Hashana" is silent.
Hebrew avoids syllables that end in two consonants like the plague.
"rosh" is just /roS/.
It may have been /ru?S/ or /ra?S/ at some previous point in history,
but from at least Classical Hebrew onwards the alef is entirely silent.
  Just like the alefs at the ends of words.


-Stephen (Steg)
  "Matters deteriorated even further during the reign of Alexander
Yannai, who used Greek soldiers against Jewish rebels, crucifying
dozens of them, and conducting a merciless war against the Pharisees.
This ruthless king became a subject for admiration only after his
death.  Paradoxically, his widow Salome Alexandra would be remembered
for her close cooperation with the Pharisees.  It would seem that in
rabbinical tradition no Jewish monarch could be considered good unless
dead or female."
      ~ 'a historical atlas of the jewish people'

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