Yemenite Hebrew (), also referred to as Temani Hebrew, is the pronunciation system for Hebrew traditionally used by Yemenite Jews. Yemenite Hebrew has been studied by language scholars, many of whom believe it retains older phonetic and grammatical features that have been lost elsewhere.Judaeo-Yemenite Studies – Proceedings of the Second International Congress, Ephraim Isaac & Yosef Tobi (ed.), Introducftion, Princeton University 1999, p. 15 Yemenite speakers of Hebrew are praised by language purists because of their use of grammatical features from classical Hebrew.Responsa Yitzhak Yeranen, part iv, Bnei Barak 1991, page 80, by Rabbi Hayim Yitzhak Barda, who quotes R. Meir Mazuz, saying: "The Yemenites are very stringent and well-versed, and are punctilious in their [usage of the] language, and they support the enunciation of the Ashkenazim" (translated from the Hebrew).
Some scholars, including Yosef Qafih and Abraham Isaac Kook, hold the view that Yemenite Arabic did not influence Yemenite Hebrew, as this type of Arabic was also spoken by Yemenite Jews and is distinct from the liturgical and conversational Hebrew of the communities.Rav Kook's Orah Mishpat question regarding Kiryat Sh'ma "וביחוד למי שמשנה ממבטא התימני המוחזק אצלם מדורות הראשונים שהוא המדויק שבמבטאים כמפורסם שבודאי אסור לעשות כן". Among other things, Qafih noted that the Yemenite Jews spoke Arabic with a distinct Jewish flavor, inclusive of pronouncing many Arabic words with vowels foreign to the Arabic language, e.g., the qamatz () and tzere (). in Yosef Qafih's Collected Papers, volume 2, pages 943–946 (Hebrew). Following is a relevant portion thereof: He argues that the pronunciation of Yemenite Hebrew was not only uninfluenced by Arabic, but it influenced the pronunciation of Arabic by those Jews, despite the Jewish presence in Yemen for over a millennium.
History Yemenite Hebrew may have been derived from, or influenced by, the Hebrew of the Talmudic academies in Babylonia: the oldest Yemenite manuscripts use the Babylonian vocalization, which is believed to antedate the Tiberian vocalization.The Targum of Isaiah – with supralinear punctuation (ed. J.F. Stenning), Oxford 1949, Introduction (pp. ix–x) As late as 937, Jacob Qirqisani wrote: "The biblical readings which are wide-spread in Yemen are in the Babylonian tradition."Shivtiel Book – Studies in the Hebrew Language and in the Linguistic Traditions of the Jewish Communities (ed. Isaac Gluska & Tsemaḥ Kessar), Tel-Aviv 1992, p. 239 (in article by Yehuda Ratzaby who quotes from Kitāb al-Ānwār, ed. Leon Nemoy (edition 30), New York 1939, p. 135). Indeed, in many respects, such as the assimilation of paṯaḥ and səġūl, the current Yemenite pronunciation fits the Babylonian notation better than the Tiberian (though the Babylonian notation does not reflect the approximation between holam and sere in some Yemenite dialects). This is because in the Babylonian tradition of vocalization there is no distinct symbol for the səġūl. It does not follow, as claimed by some scholars, that the pronunciation of the two communities was identical, any more than the pronunciation of Sephardim and Ashkenazim is the same because both use the Tiberian symbols.
The following chart shows the seven vowel paradigms found in the Babylonian supralinear punctuation, which are reflected to this day by the Yemenite pronunciation of Biblical lections and liturgies, though they now use the Tiberian symbols. For example, there is no separate symbol for the Tiberian səġūl and the pataḥ and amongst Yemenites they have the same phonetic sound.Shelomo Morag, Ha-Ivrit she-be-fi Yehude Teman (Hebrew as pronounced by Yemenite Jews), Academy of the Hebrew Language: Jerusalem 1963, pp. 92–99; 119–120 (Hebrew) In this connection, the Babylonian vowel signs remained in use in Yemen long after the Babylonian Biblical tradition had been abandoned, almost until our own time.Shelomo Morag, The Traditions of Hebrew and Aramaic of the Jews of Yemen, in article: Notes on the Vowel System of Babylonian Aramaic as Preserved in the Yemenite Tradition, Tel-Aviv 2001, p. 197 (end of note 1)
Vowels with ב TiberianequivalentqamaṣThe Yemenite pronunciation of this vowel is like the Ashkenazic pronunciation thereof or like the ḥolam in the Sefardic pronunciation (Yosef Qafih, Collected Papers volume 2, page 931). According to an ancient Judeo-Arabic work on Hebrew grammar, Maḥberet Ha-Tīǧān, the sound of the qamaṣ is made by "clinching the mouth and holding it." See: Maḥberet Kitrei Ha-Torah (ed. Yoav Pinhas Halevi), chapter 5, Benei Barak 1990, p. 19 (Hebrew). In the Babylonian supralinear punctuation there is no separate symbol for the shĕwā qamaṣ; rather, the one symbol as shown here is used for both the qamaṣ and the shĕwā qamaṣ (ḥataf qamaṣ).paṯaḥ, (səġūl)ṣerêThe Yemenite pronunciation of this vowel is like the Sephardic pronunciation thereof (Yosef Qafih, Collected Papers volume 2, page 931 "צֵירִי, כבמבטא הספרדי").shewā mobile(šĕwā naʻ)This symbol is used strictly as a mobile Shewā (Heb. שוא נע), unlike the Shewā quiescens (Heb. שוא נח) which has no symbol in the Babylonian supralinear punctuation. The mobile Shewā as a symbol is used to differentiate in eight major grammatical entities in Hebrew prescriptive linguistics. For example, whenever a Shewā appears at the beginning of a word, it renders the vowel a mobile vowel, as in the Hebrew word "floating" (meraḥef / ), or as in לְפָנָי (lefanai) or שְׁמַע (shema) ; or whenever a diacritical vertical line known as a Ji'ya / (lit. "bleating" or "bellowing") would normally appear next to a Shewā. For example, in the words הַֽמְקַנֵּ֥א אַתָּ֖ה לִ֑י, , the Shewā beneath the Hebrew character mim becomes a mobile Shewā because of the Ga'ya (meteg, or small vertical line) beneath the Hebrew character he. In all these cases the Shewā gives an audible sound to the letter, as in a short "a" or short "e", and is not mute. Likewise, whenever a Shewā appears in the middle of a word and the letter has a diacritical point within it (i.e., dagesh), as in the pe of מִפְּנֵיכֶם , it too will become a mobile Shewā (na / ) – with some exceptions, e.g., the word אֶתּרוֹג according to the Yemenite tradition – as will a word that has two Shewā's written one after the other, as in the word רַעְמְסֵס , or in the word ּוַיִּשְׁמְעו , etc. the first Shewā is resting (mute), while the second Shewā is a mobile Shewā. Another instance of where the Shewā becomes mobile is when it comes directly after a long vowel sound, such as the long vowel of either yod or ḥiraq, as in יְחִֽידְֿךָ (Gen. 22:2), giving it the sound of yeḥīdhəkha, etc., or as in the long vowel of waw or ḥolam, as in the words הוֹלְכִֿים, יוֹדְֿעִים, מוֹכְֿרִים, נוֹפְֿלִים, לוֹמְדִֿים, and יֹאכְֿלוּ, etc. (hōləkhīm, yōdəʻīm, mōkhərīm, nōfelīm, lōmedhīm and yōkhelū), or as in the verse שֹׁפְטִים וְשֹׁטְרִים תִּתֶּן לְךָ (Deut. 16:18), "shōfəṭīm wa-shōṭərīm titen ləkha." The symbol is also used in the Babylonian supralinear punctuation to denote a Shewā and Pataḥ that are written together in the Tiberian vowel system, or a Shewā and Segūl that are written together in the Tiberian vowel system, as in the words אֲנִי and אֱמֶת. See: Maḥberet Kitrei Ha-Torah (ed. Yoav Pinhas Halevi), chapter 5, Benei Barak 1990, pp. 20, 22–23, 31 (Hebrew). See also נקוד, טעמים ומסורת בתימן by Rabbi Yosef Qafih in Collected Papers, volume 2, page 931.Israeli grammarian, Shelomo Morag, has written more extensively about the mobile Shewā, saying: "[In the Babylonian tradition], the sign of the šĕwā is used only as an indication of the mobile šĕwā (Heb. שוא נע), whereas the šĕwā quiescens (Heb. שוא נח) is not indicated at all. This method is the most common in Yemenite manuscripts which are punctuated in the Babylonian system, and it goes without saying that there is an advantage in it, since it invariably acquaints the reader with the šĕwā’s innate nature, whether it is a šĕwā quiescens or a mobile šĕwā. Thus, for example, we see that the šĕwā is mobile in the letter mim (מ) of the intensive (middle) form of the [active] verb construction, piʻel (Heb. פִּעֵל), in a word such as 'הַמְּכַבֶּה' [= ‘he that extinguishes’] (Mishnah Shabbat 7:2)." Meaning, one sign distinguishes it from the šĕwā quiescens. See: Mishnah – Seder Mo'ed – with a commentary by Maimonides in Arabic, Yemenite MS., edited by Yehuda Levi Nahum, Holon 1975, p. 19 (Hebrew); The 'šĕwā' in the Traditional Yemenite Pronunciation of Hebrew, Jerusalem 1957 (Hebrew). Note that the spelling "הַמְּכַבַּה" (with the דגש) is in accordance with the vowelization of Rabbi Yosef 'Amar, in his edition of the Babylonian Talmud vocalized in the Yemenite pronunciation, s.v., Shabbat 29b and 73a; תלמוד בבלי בניקוד תימני, מסכת שבת, דף כט ב ודף עג א. However, "הַמְכַבֶּה אֶת הַנֵּר" (Shabbath 2:5) appears (without the דגש in המכבה) in שיח ירושלם חלק ראשון (fourth edition 5761, p. קכ) and תכלאל שיבת ציון (part 1, 5712, p. קו) alike.ḥōlamḥiraqšūraq,qubbūṣTiberianniqqud, , Value
Distinguishing features The following chart shows the phonetic values of the Hebrew letters in the Yemenite Hebrew pronunciation tradition. Letter IPA
Yemenites have preserved the sounds for each of the six double-sounding consonants: bəged-kəfet (). The following are examples of their peculiar way of pronunciation of these and other letters: gímel/ǧimal () with the dāḡēš/dageš is pronounced . Thus, the verse (Deut. 4:8) is realized as, u'mi, ǧoi ǧaḏol () (as in Sanʽani Arabic ǧīm /d͡ʒ/ but unlike Taʽizzi-Adeni Arabic /g/).Rabbi Saadia Gaon in his commentary on Sefer Yetzirah (2:2) strongly rejected to that manner of pronunciation for the gímel with dageš and thinks it is a mere corruption and that it should be pronounced . Rabbi Saadia Gaon's opinion, however, follows the tradition of the Jews and Arabs in his native Egypt, while the Yemenite pronunciation of the gímel with dageš follows a custom more closely related to the dialect of Arabic spoken in the land of Israel whenever pronouncing "jeem" (), the Arabic equivalent of gímel. See: Yosef Qafih's edition of Sefer Yetzirah, Jerusalem 1972, p. 75. gímel/gimal () without dāḡēš/dageš is pronounced , like Arabic ġayn . dāleṯ/dal () without dāḡēš/dageš is pronounced , like Arabic ḏāl . Thus, the word in Shema Yisrael is always pronounced aḥoḏ ().The rules of enunciation when reciting the Shema is to extend the phonetic sound of the phoneme "daleth" in the word eḥaḏ, which cannot be done unless the phoneme was a continuant. Cf. Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 13b: "Symmachus said: 'Anyone who extends his enunciation of eḥaḏ [] [in the recital of the Qiryath Shema], the days and years of his life shall also be extended.' Rav Aha the son of Yaaqov interjected, 'He referred there to the [letter] daleth..."; See Maimonides, Mishne Torah (Hil. Qiryath Shema 2:9). The pronunciation of tāv/taw () without dāḡēš/dageš as (shared by other Mizrahi Hebrew dialects such as Iraqi). Thus, Sabbath day is pronounced in Yemenite Hebrew, Yom ha-Shabboth ().The "tāv" raphe in Ashkenazi traditions is realized as "s", as in Shabbos. vāv/waw () is pronounced (as in Iraqi Hebrew and in Arabic). Emphatic and guttural letters have nearly the same sounds and are produced from deep in the throat, as in Arabic. ḥêṯ/ħet () is a voiceless pharyngeal fricative, equivalent to Arabic ح . ʻáyin/ʕajin () is identical to Arabic , and is a voiced pharyngeal fricative. (The Sephardic pronunciation of ע, however, is of a weaker nature.) tsadi () is not a voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate "ts" among the Yemenites, but rather a deep-sounding "s" (pharyngealized fricative). qof () is pronounced by the Yemenites (other than the Jews from Shar'ab) as a voiced /g/, (as in Sanʽani Arabic gāf /g/ but unlike Taʽizzi-Adeni Arabic /q/) and is in keeping with their tradition that a different phonetic sound is given for gímel/gimal (see supra).