Features
As it is used parallel with Modern Hebrew, its phonological differences are clearly recognized:
- א ʾālep̄ and ע ʿáyin are completely silent at all times in most forms of Ashkenazi Hebrew, where they are frequently both pronounced as a glottal stop in modern Hebrew. (Compare Yisroeil (Lithuanian) or Yisruayl (Polish-Galician) vs. Yisra'el (Modern).) A special case is Dutch (and historically also Frankfurt a.M.) Hebrew, where ‘ayin is traditionally pronounced as a velar nasal, probably under the influence of the local Spanish and Portuguese Jews.
- ת ṯāw is pronounced in Ashkenazi Hebrew, unless there is a Dagesh in the ת, where it would be pronounced . It is always pronounced in Modern Hebrew. (Compare Shabbos vs. Shabbat, or Es vs. Et.)
- The vowel ṣērê /e/ is pronounced (or ) in Ashkenazi Hebrew, where it would be pronounced in Sephardi Hebrew; Modern Hebrew varies between the two pronunciations. (Compare Omein (Lithuanian) or Umayn (Polish-Galician) vs. Amen (Modern Hebrew).)
- The vowel qāmeṣ gāḏôl /a/ is pronounced (occasionally ) in Ashkenazi Hebrew, where it is in Modern Hebrew. (Compare Dovid (Lithuanian) or Duvid (Polish-Galician) vs. David.)
- The vowel ḥôlam /o/ is, depending on the subdialect, pronounced, or in Ashkenazi Hebrew, where it is in Modern Hebrew. (Compare Moishe vs. Moshe.)
- Unstressed qubbutz or shuruq /u/ occasionally becomes in Ashkenazi Hebrew, when in all other forms they are pronounced (Kíddish vs. kiddúsh.)
- There is some confusion (in both directions) between final tzere /e/ and hiriq /i/ (Tishrei vs. Tishri; Sifri vs. Sifre.)
- In earlier centuries the stress in Ashkenazi Hebrew usually fell on the penultimate, instead of the last syllable as in most other dialects. In the 17th and 18th centuries there was a campaign by Ashkenazi rabbis such as Jacob Emden and the Vilna Gaon to encourage final stress in accordance with the stress marks printed in the Bible. This was successful as concerned liturgical use such as reading from the Torah. However, the older stress pattern persists in the pronunciation of Hebrew words in Yiddish and in early modern poetry by Bialik and Tchernichovsky.
Read more about this topic: Ashkenazi Hebrew
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“These, then, will be some of the features of democracy ... it will be, in all likelihood, an agreeable, lawless, particolored commonwealth, dealing with all alike on a footing of equality, whether they be really equal or not.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)