Begadkefat
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 plosive – fricative 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 /lekaˈχev/ preserves the manner of articulation of each kaf in the word it is derived from: כּוֹכָב /koˈχav/ "a star" (first plosive, then fricative), as opposed to the prescribed pronunciation /leχaˈkev/, 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"),
- due to the introduction, through foreign borrowings, of:
- • 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
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References
- ↑ See for instance: Werner Vycichl, "Begadkefat im Berberischen", in: James and Theodora Bynon (eds.), Hamito-Semitica, London 1975, pp. 315-317.
- ↑ Or perhaps Hurrian, but this is unlikely, c.f. Dolgoposky 1999, pp. 72-73.
- ↑ Dolsopolsky 1999, p. 72.
- ↑ Dolgopolsky 1999, p. 73.
- ↑ Mechon Mamre Online Bible
External links
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