Notes on Modern Hebrew phonology and orthography

Stav Klein

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

This brief survey chapter starts by characterizing the phonemic inventory of consonants and vowels in Modern Hebrew (MH). It then notes departures from earlier stages of the language, such as the full or partial merger of historical "emphatic" stops with plain stops, the loss of pharyngeal and glottal phonemes ("gutturals'), degemination, and the loss of active phonological rules, such as vowel lengthening and reduction, which together account for the much reduced inventory of both consonants and vowels in all present-day usage, including "Mizrahi" and even traditional pronunciations. Selected phonotactic features of MH phonology - syllable structure, CV alternations, consonant clusters, stress, and word length - are then touched on. A final section deals with the essentially conservative Hebrew orthography, as compared with the dynamics of its phonology.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationUsage-Based Studies in Modern Hebrew Background, Morpho-lexicon, and Syntax
EditorsRuth A. Berman
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company
Pages131-143
Number of pages13
ISBN (Electronic)9789027262066
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

NameStudies in Language Companion Series
Volume210
ISSN (Print)0165-7763

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 John Benjamins Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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