Begadkefat

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

Begadkefat (also begadkephat, begedkefet) is the name given to a phenomenon of spirantization affecting the non-emphatic plosive consonants of Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic when they are preceded by a vowel and not geminated. The name is also given to similar cases of spirantization of post-vocalic plosives in other languages, for instance, in the Berber language of Djerba.[1] Irish Gaelic has a similar system.

The phenomenon is attributed to the following consonants:

letter plosive   fricative fricative pronunciation
beth  <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />ב [b] becomes [v]
or
[β]
English v
or
Spanish "soft b"
gimel  <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />ג [ɡ] becomes [ɣ] Greek "gamma"
daleth  <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />ד [d] becomes [ð] English "th" as in "this"
kaph  <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />כ [k] becomes [x] ~ [χ] German "hard ch" as in "Bach"
pe  <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />פ [p] becomes [f]
or
[ɸ]
English f
or
Spanish "v" after "h"
taw  <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />ת [t] becomes [θ] English "th" as in "think"

The name of the phenomenon is made up with these 6 consonants, mixed with haphazard vowels for the sake of pronunciation: BeGaDKePaT. The Hebrew term <templatestyles src="Script/styles_hebrew.css" />בֶּגֶ״ד כֶּפֶ״ת‎ (Modern Heb. pronun. /ˌbeɡedˈkefet/) denotes the letters themselves (rather than the phenomenon of spirantization).

Begedkefet spirantization developed sometime during the lifetime of Biblical Hebrew under the influence of Aramaic.[2] Its time of emergence can be found by noting that the Old Aramaic phonemes /θ/, /ð/ disappeared in the 7th century BC.[3] It persisted in Hebrew until the 2nd century CE.[4][contradictory] During this period all six plosive / fricative pairs were allophonic.

In Modern Hebrew three of the six letters, ב (bet), כ (kaf) and פ (pe), each still denote a plosivefricative variant pair; these variants are, however, no longer purely allophonic (see below). Although orthographic variants of ג (gimel), ד (dalet) and ת (tav) still exist, these letters' pronunciation always remains acoustically and phonologically indistinguishable.[note 1] In Yiddish, also ת (tav) can denote a fricative variant, which is [s].

Orthography

In Hebrew writing with niqqud, a dot in the center of one of these letters, called dagesh ( ּ ), marks the plosive articulation:

  • at the beginning of a word[note 2] or after a consonant (in which cases it is termed "dagesh qal"[note 3]),
  • when the sound is – or was historically – geminated (in which case it is termed "dagesh ẖazaq", a mark for historical gemination in most other consonants of the language as well), and
  • in some modern Hebrew words independently of these conditions (see below).

A line (similar to a macron) placed above it, called "rafe" ֿ ), marks in Yiddish (and rarely in Hebrew) the fricative articulation.

In Modern Hebrew

As mentioned above, the fricative variants of [ɡ], [d] and [t] no longer exist in modern Hebrew. (However, Hebrew does have the guttural R consonant /ʁ/ which is the voiced counterpart of /χ/ and often coincides with Mizrahi Hebrew's fricative variant of [ɡ] ḡímel as well as Arabic's غ ġayn, both of which are /ɣ/~/ʁ/. Modern Hebrew ר resh can still sporadically be found standing in for this phoneme, for example in the Hebrew rendering of Raleb (Ghaleb) Majadele's name.) The three remaining pairs /b/~/v/, /k/~/χ/, and /p/~/f/ still sometimes alternate, as demonstrated in inflections of many roots in which the roots' meaning is retained despite variation of begedkefet letters' manner of articulation, e.g.,

in verbs:
 • בוא ← תבוא /bo/ → /taˈvo/ ("come" (imperative) → "you will come"),
 • שבר ← נשבר /ʃaˈvaʁ/ → /niʃˈbaʁ/ ("broke" (transitive) → "broke" (intransitive),
 • כתב ← יכתוב /kaˈtav/ → /jiχˈtov/ ("he wrote" → "he will write"),
 • זכר ← יזכור /zaˈχaʁ/ → /jizˈkoʁ/ ("he remembered" → "he will remember"),
 • פנית ← לפנות /paˈnit/ → /lifˈnot/ ("you (f.) turned" → "to turn"),
 • שפטת ← לשפוט /ʃaˈfatet/ → /liʃˈpot/ ("you (f.) judged" → "to judge "),
or in nouns:
 • ערב ← ערביים /ˈeʁev/ → /aʁˈbajim/ ("evening" → "twilight"),
 • מלך ← מלכה /ˈmeleχ/ → /malˈka/ ("king" → "queen"),
 • אלף ← אלפית /ˈelef/ → /alˈpit/ ("a thousand" → "a thousandth"),

however in Israeli Hebrew plosive and fricative variants of ב, כ and פ are sometimes distinct phonemes, compare e.g.:

 • אִפֵּר – אִפֵר /iˈpeʁ//iˈfeʁ/ ("applied make up" – "tipped ash"),
 • פִּסְפֵּס – פִסְפֵס /pisˈpes//fisˈfes/ ("striped" – "missed"),
 • הִתְחַבֵּר – הִתְחַבֵר /hitχaˈbeʁ//hitχaˈveʁ/ ("connected" – "made friends (with)"),
 • הִשְׁתַּבֵּץ – הִשְׁתַּבֵץ /hiʃtaˈbets//hiʃtaˈvets/ ("got integrated" – "was shocked"),

and consider, e.g.:

 •    לככב "to star", whose common pronunciation /lekχev/ preserves the manner of articulation of each kaf in the word it is derived from: כּוֹכָב /kχav/ "a star" (first plosive, then fricative), as opposed to the prescribed pronunciation /leχkev/, which regards the variation in pronunciation of kaf /χ/ ←→ /k/ as allophonic and determines its manner of articulation according to historical phonological principles; or:
 •    similarly, לרכל "to gossip", whose prescribed pronunciation /leʁaˈkel/ is colloquially rejected, commonly pronounced /leʁaˈχel/, preserving the fricative manner of articulation in related nouns (e.g. רכילות /ʁeχiˈlut/ "gossip", רכלן /ʁaχˈlan/ "gossiper").

This phonemic divergence might be due to a number of factors, amongst others:

  • due to loss of consonant gemination in modern Hebrew, which formerly distinguished the stop members of the pairs from the fricatives when intervocalic – e.g. in the inflections:
 • קפץ ← קיפץ /kaˈfats/ → /kiˈpets/, historically /kipˈpets/ ("jumped" → "hopped"),
 • שבר ← שיבר /ʃaˈvar/ → /ʃiˈber/, historically /ʃibˈber/ ("broke" → "shattered"),
 • שכן ← שיכן /ʃaˈχan/ → /ʃiˈken/, historically /ʃikˈken/ ("resided" → "housed"),
 • syllable-initial /f/ (e.g. פברק /fibˈʁek/ "fabricated"),
 • non-syllable-initial /p/ (e.g. הפנט /hipˈnet/ "hypnotized")
 • non-syllable-initial /b/ (e.g. פברק /fibˈʁek/ "fabricated"), ג׳וֹבּ /dʒob/ "job", קוּבּ /kub/ "cubic meter", פָּאבּ /pab/ "pub").

Apart from this partial phonemic distinction, common Israeli pronunciation no longer always concords with the original phonological principle "plosive variant after a consonant; fricative after a vowel", although this principle is still prescribed as standard by the Academy of the Hebrew Language, e.g.:

  • The words מעבורת (ferry) and מעברות (refugee absorption camps), whose respective prescribed pronunciation is /maʕˈboʁet/ and /maʕbaˈʁot/, are commonly pronounced /ma.aˈboʁet/ and /ma.abaˈʁot/, replacing the consonant (/ʕ/) with a vowel (/a/), but still preferring the plosive variant /b/ to its fricative counterpoint /v/.
  • Similarly, the words העפלה (which designates the covert Jewish immigration to British Palestine, 1934-1948) and מעפילים (immigrants through this immigration), whose respective prescribed pronunciation is /haʕpaˈla/ and /maʕpiˈlim/, are commonly pronounced /ha.apaˈla/ and /ma.apiˈlim/, again replacing the consonant (/ʕ/) with the vowel (/a/), but still preferring the plosive variant /p/ to its fricative counterpoint /f/.
  • Conversely, words like להכחיש (to deny) or מכחול (paintbrush), whose respective prescribed pronunciation is /lehaχˈħiʃ/ and /miχˈħol/, are commonly pronounced /lehakˈχiʃ/ and /mikˈχol/, preferring the plosive variant /k/ to its fricative counterpoint /χ/, although following vowels (respectively /a/ and /i/), due to the shifting of the original semitic pronunciation of the letter ח from /ħ/ to /χ/, rendering it identical to common Israeli pronunciation of the fricative variant of the letter כ.

Notes

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

Cite error: Invalid <references> tag; parameter "group" is allowed only.

Use <references />, or <references group="..." />

References

  1. See for instance: Werner Vycichl, "Begadkefat im Berberischen", in: James and Theodora Bynon (eds.), Hamito-Semitica, London 1975, pp. 315-317.
  2. Or perhaps Hurrian, but this is unlikely, c.f. Dolgoposky 1999, pp. 72-73.
  3. Dolsopolsky 1999, p. 72.
  4. Dolgopolsky 1999, p. 73.
  5. Mechon Mamre Online Bible

External links


Cite error: <ref> tags exist for a group named "note", but no corresponding <references group="note"/> tag was found, or a closing </ref> is missing