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Confusion in the Hebrew audio


Ιακοβ

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Am I the only person who is confused by the pronunciation in this recording? Long story short, I wonder, is this recording representative of a native Israeli accent? Or perhaps there is such thing as an American Israeli accent? Would learning to speak as this reader pronounces result in a correct accent?

 

Consider for example, Ezekiel 36:1.

 

וְאָ֣מַרְתָּ֔ הָרֵי֙   יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל

  •    The ר in 'mountains', sounds to me like an r.
  •    But the ר in 'say', sounds like an l,
  •    in fact, it sounds to me like the exact same sound as the ל in 'Israel'.

Should I ignore this variation in pronunciation of ר, or imitate it?

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Hi Ιακοβ,

 

I don't have that module in Acc. But I would guess the speaker is rolling ר at the back of his throat. If so, aר  sometimes sounds like a ל, especially in certain consonant clusters. Without going into it, ר was pronounced at the back of the throat in ancient times, and ל was pronounced further back also, and there is evidence that non-native speakers, e.g., Egyptians, were also confused by these similar sounds.

 

I would guess that practically every Hebrew teacher would advise you to distinguish ר and ל, and not try to learn two pronunciations for ר. If you decide to roll your רs (reshes), either at the back or more towards the front, you might find one day that you are also approaching an "l" sound for ר in certain clusters.

 

Regards,

 

Michel

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I would guess that practically every Hebrew teacher would advise you to distinguish ר and ל, and not try to learn two pronunciations for ר. If you decide to roll your רs (reshes), either at the back or more towards the front, you might find one day that you are also approaching an "l" sound for ר in certain clusters.

 

Thanks, thats a really helpful answer!

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