Re: Hebrew Pronounciation

Altman, Ben (ALTMANB@anz.com)
Wed, 29 Oct 1997 09:50:00 +1100

Avrohom Mondrowitz wrote:
<<languages spoken, so it is with today's Sephardic pronunciations. There
is change due to African and Arabic languages that have left their mark.
Probably the purest form of Loshon Hakodesh available today is found by
those that lived in Teiman (Yemen).>>

Excuse my ignorance of history, linguistics etc. but from where do we know
that it is the sfardim who pronounce the words more accurately? My
impression was than Yemenites pronounce words more similar to Ashkenazim
with the difference being that they have a different pronounciation for
each letter eg. gimel vs. jimel which would make ashkenazi pronouncation
more similar to how it used to be pronounced. Also Sfardi pronounciation
reduces the number of differences between how letters are pronounced eg.
letters taf and saf. Also they pronounce the patach the same as the kamatz
which is distinguished according to the ashkanazi pronounciation - which
seems to me (for what its worth) to make a lot more sense.

Binyomin Altman