Wednesday, June 19, 2019

hebrew - Are there any letters that do not have a distinct pronunciation?


Are there any two letters which do not have a distinction between their pronunciation in any tradition of pronunciation? To ask the inverse, is there at least one tradition of pronunciation for each letter that has it pronounced distinctly from every other letter?


For example, a ches and a chof are not pronounced distinctly in traditional Ashkenazic pronunciation, but in many Sefardi traditions they are.


I am including rafeh/dagesh (dotted and undotted) letters as separate letters.



Answer




The book מפתח הדלת, by ישראל חיים (Chaim) Lenchitz, revised edition, 5766, quotes this from Radak's Michlol, though I don't know where it is in Michlol:



צריך אדם להזהר ולהבדיל בין ו״ו ובית רפה



That is:



A person must be careful and distinguish between vav and light ves.



The same book claims that Radak says the same (in the same place in Michlol) about ס and צ, about כ and ק, and about תּ and ט. The most common modern pronunciations distinguish (among them) all other pairs except ס and שׂ, about which you can see more info at an earlier question.


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