In Modern Israeli Hebrew, the letter א, called aleph, has no real pronunciation of its own and is used to represent the vowel that is attached to it. When a word begins with a vowel sound, it is always written with a א in Hebrew. Although this can be any vowel, beginners can start by assuming א is a long “a” sound. א is also sometimes used to indicate a glottal stop, meaning a pause or a catch in the throat between two vowel sounds, like in “uh-oh” (IPA: /ʔ/). This glottal stop will be represented by ‘ in the pronunciation in this book.
The letter מ, called mem, is pronounced like the “m” in “man” or “me” (IPA: /m/). מ has a slightly different form, called mem sofit, when used at the end of a word. The sofit form is ם.
The letter נ, called nun, is pronounced like the “n” in “now” or “Nancy (IPA: /n/). נ also has a sofit form used at the end of words. The sofit form is ן.
The letter ל, called lamed, is pronounced like the “l” in “little” or “like” (IPA: /l/).
Short vowels are not usually written in Modern Hebrew. This means that you often have to know how the word is pronounced before you can read it properly. This is not a problem for native speakers because they already speak the language. To illustrate what this is like for native speakers imagine if English followed the same principal. Can you read this sentence?
Modrn Hebrw is nt dffclt to read
As you can see it is not too difficult - but this is a challenge for foreign learners of Hebrew, especially beginners.
PRACTICE
Try to read these English words in their Hebrew disguise. Remember that the words are written right to left and that short vowels are not written. The English words are given below.
1. מן
2. לם
3. נאנא
4. לאן
ANSWERS
1. man (or men)
2. lamb
3. Nana
4. lawn