Column #95. Contents of this weekly column are (mostly) based on the sefer: EIM LAMIKRA HASHALEIM, by R' Nissan Sharoni, Ashdod, a guide to correct pronunciation of Hebrew, specifically in davening and Torah reading.
More on the "Ha, you thought the ALEF was silent, didn't you?" Issue...
YNF/HUED writes...
I just wanted to add a couple of comments to YL's excellent comments on ALEF in TT 595.
First of all, it is not true, as was claimed in TT 594, that a glottal stop would have to be followed by a vowel, so YA'DIR would have to be YA'ADIR. As YL implied, glottal stops function as consonants; just as a syllable can end with a consonant like T or D, it can end with a glottal stop. In fact, that is exactly what happens in Cockney English: a word like "cat" is pronounced with a glottal stop at the end (instead of the T that standard dialects of English have).
Second, still on YA'DIR, the DAGESH KAL in the DALET shows that the ALEF is functioning as a consonant: after a vowel, BeGeDKeFeT letters don't get a DAGESH KAL.
Should we or shouldn't we?
I'm going to raise more questions than answers, but we'll see what developes over the next few issues. Should an Ashkenazi Jew pronounce AYINs with a guttural sound, like S'faradim do, or should we stick to the silent AYIN of our upbring- ing and our father's ways? Is the glottal stop ALEF just of academic interest, or are we supposed to try to make the silent ALEF silent no longer?
Let's ask the question one more way, because I actually asked to a Rav for a P'SAK. DALET is one of the six letters that has two different pronunciations depending upon whether there is a DAGESH (dot) in the letter or not. Just like BET and VET, KAF and CHAF, and PEI and FEI - the three letters that do not raise an eyebrow when we speak of there being two ways to pronounce them, the other three letters of the six also have two pronunciations each. Those of us who daven in Ashkenazis distinguish between TAV and SAV (which we usually call TUF and SUF, with the U sounding as it does in the English words CUT and FUN). Regular "Israeli Hebrew" pronounces both the TAV with and without a DAGESH as a T. When it comes to the GIMEL and DALET, only Yemenites and some (but not all) EIDOT MIZRACH distinguish between the DAGESHed and non-DAGESHed form of the letter.
Back to the question. DALET with a DAGESH sounds like the letter D. DALET without a DAGESH is "supposed" to sound like a voiced TH, as in these, those, this, that, the, breathe... (as opposed to the th of think, thimble, breath, bath, and chrysanthemum. Shulchan Aruch says that one should draw out the pronunciation of the DALET of the word ECHAD in the first pasuk of the SH'MA. Pronouncing the unDAGESHed DALET like a D makes it impossible to stretch it. The word either comes out ECHAAAAAAAAD, which is not what Shulchan Aruch asked for, or it sounds like ECHAD' with a short vowel sound with the DALET, as if it had a SH'VA NA under it, which it doesn't. I don't know how to write the next sentence, but with a voiced TH for ECHATH (remember, as in "this"), you CAN stretch the TH sound. And it seems, that it is exactly what Shulchan Aruch wants. Question: Can I, an Ashkenazi Jew, switch my DALET without a DAGESH to a voiced TH? Especially in the Sh'ma where Shulchan Aruch has what to say about it.
The answer I received was, NO. "AL TITOSH TORAT EMECHA", do not abandon your mother's Torah, favors - for me - the ECHAD of my father and grandfather. And what about keeping the BA-ruch A-ta of my predecessors, rather than the "correct" ba-RUCH a-TA? No, that's different.
What say you, dear TT readers?

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