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Yemenite Hebrew ( ''ʿiḇrīṯ tēmānīṯ'', (アラビア語:العبرية اليمنية) ''al-ʿibriyya al-yamaniyya''), also referred to as Temani Hebrew, is the pronunciation system for Biblical and liturgical Hebrew traditionally used by Yemenite Jews. Yemenite Jews brought their language to Israel through immigration. Their first organized immigration to the region began in 1882. Yemenite Hebrew has been studied by scholars, many of whom believe it to contain the most ancient phonetic and grammatical features.〔''Judaeo-Yemenite Studies - Proceedings of the Second International Congress'', Ephraim Isaac & Yosef Tobi (ed.), Introduction, Princeton University 1999, p. 15〕 The Yemenites, themselves, among all Jewish ethnic groups, have garnered considerable praise because of their strict application of the laws of grammar. The notable Tunisian rabbi and scholar, Rabbi Meir Mazuz, once said of Yemenites that they are good grammarians.〔''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 (of the ) language, and they support the enunciation of the Ashkenazim" (translated from the Hebrew).〕 It is believed by some scholars that its phonology was heavily influenced by spoken Yemeni Arabic . Other scholars and rabbis, including Rabbi Yosef Qafih and Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, hold the view that Yemenite Hebrew was not influenced by Yemenite Arabic, as this type of Arabic was also spoken by Yemenite Jews and is distinct from the liturgical Hebrew and the 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, Rabbi Qafih notes 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 קמץ and צירי.〔"מסורות הגייה ושליטת העברית בקרב יהודי תימן" in Rabbi Yosef Qafih's ''Collected Papers'', volume 2, pages 943-946 (Hebrew). Following is a relevant portion thereof: טענה זו אמנם אפשרית באופן תיאורי ואפשר להשליכה לא רק כאן אלא גם בכל מקום אחר, אלא שהיא מצד מהותה טענה מאוד תלוּשה וזקוּקה היא לבסיס כל שהוּא שתחול עליו, אחרת, הרי היא נשארת מרחפת ללא תנוחה ודינה להתנדף ולהעלם, כי כל ממש אין בה. כל שכן כאשר אנו מוצאים כדמות ראיה לאידך גיסא, כלומר, במצאנו בניב העברית של יהוּדי תימן דבר שאינו בשפת הסביבה, יש בכך משוּם הוכחה שמסורת זו שמרה על כלילוּתה וסגוּלותיה הייחוּדית. ננסה להדגים בשני מישורים, במישור הסימניות, כלומר, האותות, ובמישור התנוּעות. האות פ הדגוּשה, הברה זו אינה מצוּיה בשפה הערבית ואין דוברי הערבית מסכּינים לבטאה, וכאשר מזדמנת להם אות זו במלים משפה זרה, מחליפים אותה באות ב. ואילוּ היהוּדים מבטאים אותה בקלוּת ומבחינים היטב בינה לבין כל הברה אחרת הדומה לה, כדרך שהם מבחינים היטב בשאר כל אותות בגד כפת הדגוּשות והרפוּיות. שניה לה האות ב הרפוּיה. גם הברה זו אינה מצוּיה בשפה הערבית ויהוּדי תימן מבטאים אותה בקלוּת וּללא כל מאמץ, ואילוּ הערבים כאשר מזוּמנת להם הברה זו בציטוט משפה זרה מבטאים אותה כאות פ הרפוּיה המצוּיה בלשונם — כי לא הסכּינוּ לה. שתי אלה ודומיהם שׂמים לאַל לדעתי את הטענה, כי הבחנת יהוּדי תימן בין ג רפוּיה ודגוּשה באה להם מן הערבית, למרות שבעלי טענה זו אין להם תחליף ייחוּדי להברות אלה, כי אילוּ היה ממש בטענת ההשפּעה הערבית, איכה נשתמרוּ להם ליהודי תימן הברות עבריות יחוּדיות אלה, אמור מעתה מציאוּתם של הברות בלעדיות כגון אלה מקשים ומכבידים על תחוּלתה של טענת ההשפּעה הזרה.〕 Hence, pronunciation of Yemenite Hebrew was not only uninfluenced by Arabic, but it influenced the pronunciation of Arabic by the Jews, despite the Jewish presence in Yemen for over a millennium. Among the dialects of Hebrew preserved into modern times, Yemenite Hebrew is regarded as one of the forms closest to Hebrew as used in ancient times, particularly Tiberian Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew. This is evidenced in part by the fact that Yemenite Hebrew preserves a separate sound for every consonant - except for ''sāmeḵ'' () and ''śîn'' (), which are both pronounced ,〔S. Morag, 'Pronunciations of Hebrew', Encyclopaedia Judaica XIII, 1120-1145〕 but which had already merged in ancient times, as evident in the spelling variants in the Dead Sea Scrolls.〔Elisha Qimron, The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Harvard Semitic Studies 29, 1986:29. However, the precise pronunciation of the phoneme /s/ in the Dead Sea Scrolls requires a reexamination of Hebrew, Punic, and Greek.〕 ==Distinguishing Features== *There are double pronunciations for all six ''bəgadkəpat/bagadkapat'' letters () : ''gímel/gimal'' () without ''dāḡēš/dageš'' is pronounced غ like Arabic ġayn, and ''dāleṯ/dal'' () without ''dāḡēš/dageš'' is pronounced ذ as the "th" in "this". Thus, the word "one" in ''Shema Yisrael'' is always pronounced ''eḥaḏ'' ((:eħað)).〔The rules of enunciation when reciting the ''Shema'' is to extend the phonetic sound of the phoneme "daleth" in the word ''eḥaḏ'', and which can only be done had the phoneme been a "th" sound as in "this," or "that". Cf. Babylonian Talmud, ''Berakhot'' 13b: "Symmachus said: 'Anyone who extends his enunciation of ''eḥaḏ'' () (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 () ''daleth''..."; See Maimonides, Mishne Torah (''Hil. Qiryath Shema'' 2:9).〕 *The phoneme gímel/ğimal () with the dāḡēš/dageš is pronounced in the Yemenite Jewish tradition as the English "j" in the word "Jack." Thus, the verse וּמִי גּוֹי גָּדוֹל (Deut. 4:8) is realized as, ''u'mi ğoi ğaḏol'' ((:u'mi dʒoi dʒaðol)).〔Rabbi Saadia Gaon in his commentary on ''Sefer Yetzirah'' (2:2) strongly rejected to this manner of pronunciation for the ''gímel'' with ''dageš'' and thinks it is a mere corruption, saying rather that it should be pronounced as a hard "g" as in "go." 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" (ج,ج), the Arabic equivalent of ''gímel''. See: Yosef Qafih's edition of ''Sefer Yetzirah'', Jerusalem 1972, p. 75.〕 *The pronunciation of ''tāv/taw'' () without ''dāḡēš/dageš'' as ث is as the "th" sound in "thick" or "thank" and is shared with other Mizrahi Hebrew dialects such as Iraqi. Thus, the words ''Sabbath day'' are pronounced in Yemenite Hebrew, ''yom ha-shabboth'' ((:yom ha-ʃaboθ)).〔The "tāv" ''raphe'' in Chassidic and in other Ashkenazi traditions is realized as "s", as in ''Shabbos''.〕 *''Vāv/Waw'' is pronounced as in Iraqi Hebrew and as و in Arabic. * Emphatic and guttural letters have nearly the same sounds, and are produced from deep in the throat, as in Arabic; the voiceless pharyngeal fricative of ''ḥêṯ/ħet'' () is equivalent to the Arabic character ح . *The phoneme ''ʻáyin/зajin'' () is identical to the Arabic ع , and is a voiced pharyngeal fricative. (The Sefardic pronunciation of ע, however, is of a weaker nature). *The phoneme ''resh'' (), or what is also known as the Hebrew rhotic consonant /r/, is pronounced in Yemenite Jewish tradition as an alveolar trill, rather than the uvular trill (), and is identical to Arabic ', and follows the conventions of old Hebrew.〔Based on Rabbi Saadia Gaon's Judeo-Arabic commentary on "Sefer Hayetzirah" (chapter 4, paragraph 3), wherein he describes the phonetic sounds of the 22 characters of the Hebrew alphabet and classifies them in groups based on their individual sounds: "''Aleph'' (א), ''hé'' (ה), ''ḥet'' (ח), ''‘ayin'' (ע) are (sounds ) produced from the depth of the tongue with the opening of the throat, but ''bet'' (ב), ''waw'' (ו), ''mim'' (מ), ''pé'' (פ) are (sounds ) made by the release of the lips and the end of the tongue; whereas ''gimal'' (ג), ''yōd'' (י), ''kaf'' (כ), ''qōf'' (ק) are () separated by the width of the tongue (the palate ) with the (of ) sound. However, ''daleth'' (ד), ''ṭet'' (ט), ''lamad'' (ל), ''nūn'' (נ), ''tau'' (ת) are () separated by the mid-section of the tongue with the (of ) sound; whereas ''zayin'' (ז), ''samakh'' (ס), ''ṣadi'' (צ), ''resh'' (ר), ''shin'' (ש) are (sounds ) produced between the teeth by a tongue that is at rest."〕 * The Hebrew phoneme /q/ () (''qof'') is pronounced by the Yemenites (excluding the Jews from Shar'ab) as a voiced /g/, as in "go," and is in keeping with their tradition (assuming it to be correct) that a different phonetic sound is given for ''gímel''/''gimal'' (see ''supra''). *There is no distinction between the vowels ''paṯaḥ/pataħ'' and ''səḡôl/segol'' all being pronounced , like the Arabic ''fatḥa'' (a feature also found in old Babylonian Hebrew, where a single symbol was used for all three).〔''Siddur Tefillat Kol Pe'', vol. 1 (forward written by Shalom Yitzhak Halevi), Jerusalem 1960, p. 11 (Hebrew)〕 A ''šəwâ nāʻ/šwa naз'', however, is identical to a חטף פתח and חטף סגול. *''Qāmeṣ gāḏôl/Qamac qadol'' is pronounced , as in Ashkenazi Hebrew. The Yemenite pronunciation for ''Qametz gadol'' ( קמץ גדול ) and ''Qametz qatan'' ( קמץ קטן ) is identical (see ''infra''.). *Final ''hê/hej'' with ''mappîq/mefiq'' (a dot in the centre) has an aspirated sound, generally stronger sounding than the regular ''hê/hej''. ''Aleph'' (אַלַף) with a ''dagesh'' (a dot) - a rare occurrence - is pronounced with a glottal stop, e.g., the word וַיָּבִיאּוּ in (Genesis 43:26 ).〔As is heard in the recording of Aharon Amram's cantillation (mms://media.jvod.info/Nosach/Aharon_Amram/PARACHA/1_10_7_miketz.mp3 (begins with verse 24 )).〕 Conversely, some words in Hebrew which are written with the final ''hê'' ending (without the ''mappîq'') are realized by a secondary glottal stop, meaning, they are abruptly cut short, as when one holds his breath.〔Shelomo Morag, ''The Hebrew of the Jews of Yemen'' (העברית שבפי יהודי תימן), Academy of the Hebrew Language: Jerusalem 1963, pp. 4–5 (Hebrew). In two of the examples brought down by Shelomo Morag, he shows where the readings for תִּפָּדֶה in Isaiah 1:27 and וְנֵלְכָה in Isaiah 2:5, are both with an abrupt ending, as in ''tippoːdä(ʔ)'' and ''wǝnelăxoː(ʔ)'' respectively.〕 *A semivocalic sound is heard before ''paṯaḥ gānûḇ/pataħ ganuv'' (''paṯaḥ'' coming between a long vowel and a final guttural): thus ''ruaħ'' (spirit) sounds like ''rúwwaḥ'' and ''sijaħ'' (speech) sounds like ''síyyaḥ''. (This is shared with other Mizrahi pronunciations, such as the Syrian.) Yemenite pronunciation is not uniform, and Morag has distinguished five sub-dialects, of which the best known is probably Sana'ani, originally spoken by Jews in and around Sana'a. Roughly, the points of difference are as follows: *In some dialects, ''ḥōlem/ħolam'' (long "o" in modern Hebrew) is pronounced (anywhere from non-rhotic English "er" to German o-umlaut), while in others it is pronounced like ''ṣêrệ/cerej''. (This last pronunciation is shared with Lithuanian Jews.) *Some dialects (e.g. Sharab) do not differentiate between ''bêṯ/bet'' with ''dāḡēš/dageš'' and without. This is in accordance with most of Mizrahi Hebrew. *Sana'ani Hebrew primarily places stress on the penultimate syllable, as in Ashkenazi Hebrew. ==History== Yemenite Hebrew may have been derived from, or influenced by, the Hebrew of the Geonic era Babylonian Jews: the oldest Yemenite manuscripts use the Babylonian rather than the Tiberian system of vowel symbols, and which is believed to antedate the Tiberian vowel system.〔''The Targum of Isaiah'' – with supralinear punctuation (ed. J.F. Stenning), Oxford 1949, Introduction (pp. ix–x)〕 As late as 937 CE, Qirqisāni 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. 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. A distinct feature of Yemenite Hebrew is the slight similarity between the ''ḥōlam'' and the ''ṣêrệ'' which, to the untrained ear, sound as though they were the same phoneme. Yemenite grammarians will point out the difference. For example, the word "''shalom''" (), is pronounced ''sho løm'', the having the phonetic sound of something between a non-rhotic English "er" and the German o-umlaut. For all practical purposes, this sound is similar to the "i" in ''girl''. Some see the assimilation of these two vowels as a local variant within the wider Babylonian family, which the Yemenites happened to follow. It should be noted that these sounds are only identical in a minority of Yemenite Jews (e.g. the Jews of the provinces), as opposed to that of the Sana'ani pronunciation which most Yemenite Jews use. 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 nearly 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)〕 It should be noted in this connection that 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) ISBN 965-7247-00-4〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Yemenite Hebrew」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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