Modern Hebrew Phonology - Regional and Historical Variation

Regional and Historical Variation

Further information: Phonology of Biblical Hebrew

The following table contains the pronunciation of the Hebrew letters in reconstructed historical forms and dialects using the International Phonetic Alphabet. The apostrophe-looking symbol after some letters is not a yud but a geresh. It is used for loanwords with non-native Hebrew sounds and only in Israeli Hebrew. The dot in the middle of some of the letters, called a "dagesh kal", also modifies the sounds of the letters ב, כ and פ in modern Hebrew (in earlier forms of Hebrew it used to modify also the sounds of the letters ג, ד and ת; the "dagesh chazak" – orthographically indistinguishable from the "dagesh kal" – designates gemination, which today is realized only rarely – e.g. in biblical recitations or when using Arabic loanwords).

Symbol	Pronunciation
	Israeli	Ashkenazi	Sephardi	Yemenite	Tiberian	Reconstructed
						Mishnaic	Biblical
א
בּ
ב
גּ
ג
ג׳		N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
דּ
ד
ד׳		N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
ה
ו
וּ					?	?	?
וֹ					?	?	?
‏(וו), ו׳ (non-standard)		N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
ז
ז׳		N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
ח
ט
י
‏ִי				?	?	?	?
כּ ךּ
כ ך
ל
מ ם
נ ן
ס
ע
ע׳		N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
פּ ףּ
פ ף
צ ץ
צ׳ ץ׳		N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
ק				, ,
ר		~	~	~
שׁ
שׂ
תּ
ת
ת׳		N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

1. velarized or pharyngealized
2. pharyngealized
3. sometimes said to be ejective but more likely glottalized.