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 language | English |
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Title of host publication | Usage-Based Studies in Modern Hebrew Background, Morpho-lexicon, and Syntax |
Editors | Ruth A. Berman |
Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing Company |
Pages | 131-143 |
Number of pages | 13 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9789027262066 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2020 |
Externally published | Yes |
Publication series
Name | Studies in Language Companion Series |
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Volume | 210 |
ISSN (Print) | 0165-7763 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2020 John Benjamins Publishing Company. All rights reserved.