My attempts at yemenite hebrew pronunciation

[Darkrider6970]

I notice that the effort is there but you should find a teacher to help you. Some of the pronunciations are a lot simpler than you think. A good 1/3 of the letters are mis-pronounced in your video.

[Essincy]

good job bro, keep at it

[shlomo2000]

you did a very good job

[ipwnnewbs50]

@shlomo2000 Thank you! :)

[asr8805]

this video was hysterical! i hope since u have posted this video u have come a long way in speaking the hebrew language. i believe the gimmel when pronounced like the yemenites makes a 'j' sound.

[MrMucas]

The best way of learning how to pronounce ayin is to make the sound that people make when imitating pirates ("arrrrrrrrrrrrgh"). That crinkly sound is the ayin. Most people seem to now what this sounds like.

[ILuvEire]

You know, the Israeli pronunciation is quite a bit easier that the Yemenite :P But congrats on learning Hebrew, behatzlachah!

[jewamongyou]

It sounds like you're pronouncing your resh from the throat area. This is incorrect; it should come from near the teeth, as in Arabic, Spanish or Russian. For my own reconstruction of ancient Hebrew, type into google: "jewamongyou + what did ancient Hebrew" (youtube doesn't allow links in comments).

If you want to skype me, I'd be happy to do so; my username is rhayat1. You really do remind me of myself when I was younger so I'd be happy to help you with your Yemeni Hebrew!

[xxpowwowbluexx]

Also check out:

-Hebrew Alphabet - Introduction (Part 1)

---youtube . com/watch?v=L1le52XvHcY

-Hebrew Alphabet - Introduction (Part 2)

---youtube . com/watch?v=ZYsaJcCj4ZA

[xxpowwowbluexx]

You should definitely check out biblicalulpan . org and look into their 'Living Biblical Hebrew' products and courses. =)

[TheSexymonkey567]

That was good. You need to work on the vowels. Also with the Ayin you have to constrict the vocal chords (same with hheth). And after Taw is thaw

[girlovecupcake]

In a few alphabets I have found for the Hebrew alphabet there was no "vet" it just went Alef Bet Gimmel. Do you know if "vet" is used anymore?

[ipwnnewbs50]

@girlovecupcake the vet is definitely used in all hebrew pronunciations. The only significant thing about vet in the yemenite hebrew pronunciation is that, according to some yementies, it is not actually a "vet" as in a v sound but a bhet as in a sound made my vibrating your lips together.

[Handler201]

@ipwnnewbs50 I seem to recall that the "Vet" is absent in the traditional Iraqi Jewish pronunciation.

[FutureMissBeiber1]

I am jewish i will tell you the right way:

Alaf, Bet, GImmel, Dallad, hay, vuv(vuuuuuv),zyeen(ziyeen)chet­,tet,yud,caf,lamed,mem,nune,so­mech,ayin,pey,tsadi,koof,resh,­shin,taf

There you go just ask if you have any questions for pronunciatation

[TheSexymonkey567]

@FutureMissBeiber1 thats ashkenazi and not the right way

[Handler201]

@FutureMissBeiber1 It's a pity you never heard other Jewish pronunciations. You didn't even spell all the letters correctly...

Too many Ashkenazis are rather narrowminded and consequently believe there's only one kind of Judaism with all it entails. This is a mighty shame in this day and age of pervasive internet connection.

[Irtidad]

As you state, learning in person from somebody who knows the language is the best possible way to do it. So my recommendation as far as the pronunciation goes is to find an Arabic-speaker, because many of the sounds in Yemenite Hebrew are identical to Arabic sounds (Heb. Sadi is the same as Arabic Sad, Heb. 'Ayin the same as Arabic 3ein, etc.) Obviously a Yemenite or even any Mizrahi Jew would be best, but an Arabic-speaker will be much much easier to find.

[EdJEWcateTheWorld]

I am Yemenite and it was I great video but ...... You are really long winded at the start.

[ipwnnewbs50]

yea this is true lol I was just making this video for fun and I didn't even plan on posting it but then I decided to so yea. You're right though I did take too long to get going in it.

[zfafdf]

why are you obsessed by those people believe me that i have experienced this you will hate it at the end

[wayman29]

Awesome! I have been doing the same! Keep going. I have e-sword also. I make modules for the program! Awesome to run into you!

[yokhanan]

Ah bugger, youtube is messing up so not even sure if my first comment went through. Tried to delete and redo because of a spelling error and now it's all just messed up. Ugh!

[yokhanan]

Hey man, great start so far. I know what you mean about when no one is there to sit with you and teach you. I've unfortunately in that boat myself, and going straight for the temani first is a bit of a headache. I will say though, practicing helped me do a good Chewbacca impression now. :p

[ipwnnewbs50]

haha yea, the ghimmel is similar to a chebacca noise.

One day when I convert and can speak hebrew well, I plan on saying my prayers in yemenite hebrew as well as when I read torah at home. When around other jews, i'll just go ahead and speak modern hebrew even when doing the prayers in group situations.

[omedyashar]

Yo dude! Im so impressed! You did great! As you said, it IS difficult to hear the sound clearly through the internet... or even with a very exacting explanation written out. The best way is to learn in person... but I think youve done a GREAT job... and especially your humility in exposing yourself and any possible mistakes for the sake of learning. It says in Pirqei Avot "ein ha-baiyshan lomed" - the shy man cant learn.

[omedyashar]

Your GHimal sounds great... perhaps your doing it just a LITTLE too deep in the throat... but its definitely close enough... and as said - its difficult to know through net-audio. Where / how in your mouth were you making resh? It needs to be made with the tongue trilling on the front top teeth.

Dont forget the "th" of thaw as in "three."

[omedyashar]

Proper pronunciation is important and required by halakha in certain contexts... but you'll automatically learn standard modern Hebrew pronunc. with time anyway. Youll have to simplify your more accurate pronunciation to some extent in order for people to understand you with ease (when conversing in Israel). Also, if you begin conversion, please do NOT make an issue of pronunciation. I dont think it will impress the most likely ashkenazi rabbi....

[omedyashar]

Ild reserve more accurate pronunciation for private reading only... and use standard modern pronunciation when praying with others. This way you can begin getting use to both pronunciations while avoiding unnecessary difficulties in the conversion process.

Kol hakavod lekha for your drive for learning Hebrew. This is a FUNDAMENTAL key in learning Torah - HaShem's Will for mankind :)

haSlahha.

[ipwnnewbs50]

Yea I intend on keeping this pronunciation for reading and prayers done at home. No sense in making the rabbi question whether he wants to convert me or possibly ruining the whole conversion over something I honestly think i'm right about.

[ipwnnewbs50]

Thanks on the gimmel. That was one of the ones I wasn't sure on.

And for the resh, idk exactly where the sounds coming from. I looked in the mirror when making the sound at a funny angle lol to see if the tip of my tongue was vibrating lol and it was so idk.

And yea I forgot to post the th sound but I know about it.

[ipwnnewbs50]

Thanks a lot! I really wanted to hear your feedback...

yea I was kinda nervous to post this knowing I might've made some mistakes lol but I figured it was for the best and knowing how people talk on the internet I would be sure to be corrected on anything I did wrong.

I know you weren't sure about the resh, are there any other ones I might've done wrong? Not that I want to be wrong lol just want to make sure. Like i've heard you say that ayin is difficult and just how i didof the tricky ones?

[Michael7893]

Perhaps you could try Rosetta Stone cd's they have a 3 level hebrew series. I dont know how effective it is but perhaps you could check it out and maybe use it.

[ipwnnewbs50]

yea i'm planning on getting rosetta stone in the coming months.

[YisraelOrBust]

Clay, also take a look at the Pimsleur Hebrew course as well. I visited a few Hebrew language forums; for those trying to learn the language, and some of the contributors suggested starting with Pimsleur, then going to Rosetta Stone.

Second, if I understand Omed Yashar (OY) correctly, he only uses the Yemenite pronunciation for Torah reading, and prayer. When speaking modern Hebrew, I think OY uses the typical Israeli pronunciation(s), which is what is taught in the Pimsleur course.

[ipwnnewbs50]

exactly, this is what I would use this pronunciation for as well. No need in speaking so noone can understand me.

[omedyashar]

Correct. But I do use ayin and hhet and resh on the front upper teeth even in modern Hebrew. People can still understand you like this, as MANY Israelis still use this pronuncation - dont let the many american jews let you think otherwise. They usually restrict themselves to the ashkenazi community where it is, of course, virtually unheard of. Whether or not you encounter this pronunciation depends on what kind of people you put yourself around: 3ayn 7et and resh (on teeth) isnt 2 different.

[medievalman86]

I thought rosetta stone stone would only be teaching the non biblical hebrew?

[YisraelOrBust]

med...86,

You are correct about Rosetta Stone, and Pimsleur for that matter, in that both of these language courses only teach modern Hebrew.

For biblical Hebrew, one needs to buy different courses. Of course, in any large Jewish community, there are plenty of opportunities to learn Tanakh in its original language.

Personally, I am choosing to learn 'modern Hebrew' first, because I want to move to Israel - asap. Once there, and fairly fluent, I'll learn the root words of Tanakh.

[ipwnnewbs50]

good point, basically I need to learn how conjugations and verb patterns work, and that's what rosetta stone will teach me.

as far as biblical vocabularly, that's pretty simple to learn using a concordance.

[omedyashar]

Dont let anyone tell you otherwise -- learning modern Hebrew DOES help tremendously in learning Biblical Hebrew. Though there are differences between the two, they are not THAT different. It definitely helps. I understand Tanakh much better than people who arrived here at the same time as myself but stayed in English speaking yeshivot. Most yeshivot spend very little time learning Tanakh (and therefore, little time learning hebrew)

[Handler201]

@ipwnnewbs50 I recommend you use concordances printed in Hebrew, not the English ones as they are marred to some degree by Xtian influence.