Most linguists assume that the letter Vav was
pronounced as W in ancient times.
In Modern Hebrew it is pronounced V.
Recently linguists have reconsidered this position and some now think it
may have been V in ancient Hebrew as well.
Our main knowledge of ancient Hebrew pronunciation comes from the
living traditions of Jewish communities throughout the world, which
preserve vastly different pronunciations of Hebrew.
Of all these traditions, only the Yemenite community pronounces
Vav as "W", possibly under the influence of Arabic. All other
Jewish communities pronounce(d) the letter as "V".
Some linguists suggest that the different pronunciation traditions
of modern Jewish communities actually preserve differences from ancient
Hebrew.
We know that the ancient Israelites spoke a number of dialects of
Hebrew and some of these dialectic differences expressed themselves in
varying pronunciation of the consonants.
So for example, the Gileadites said "Shiboleth" while
the Ephraimites said "Siboleth" (Judges 12:6). It is possible
that some ancient Israelites said "W" while others said
"V".
The main support for this comes from the fact that Oriental Jews,
who spoke Arabic as their day to day language (up until 1948), continued
to pronounce the Hebrew letter Vav as "V" even though this
sound is not found in spoken Arabic.
At the very least it proves this pronunciation predates the
Islamic conquests.
Modern Hebrew pronunciation is roughly a mix of the Ashkenazic
pronunciation of the consonants and the Sephardic pronunciation of the
vowels.
Modern Hebrew pronunciation has the following sounds:
Aleph - no sound, used as a vowel holder, like in English
"Eat"
Bet Degusha - B
Bet Rafa - V
Gimel - G (as in "give")
Dalet - D
He - H (as in "hello"); in Tel Aviv it is identical to Aleph
Vav - V (identical to Bet Rafa)
Zayin - Z
Chet - CH (as in German "Bach", Scottish "Loch");
some pronounce it like a hard "H" or Mexican Jota
Tet - T (identical to Tav)
Yod - Y (as in "yellow")
Chaf Degusha - K (as in Karaite)
Chaf Rafa - CH (as in German "Bach", Scottish
"Loch")
Lamed - L
Mem - M
Nun - N
Samech - S
'Ayin - identical to Aleph; some pronounce it like Arabic 'Ayin, a
gutteral sound.
Pe Degusha - P
Pe Rafa - F
Tsadi - TS (as in "cats")
Kuf - K (identical to Kaf Degisha)
Resh - R (like the French "R"); some pronounce it like the
Arabic "Ra".
Shin - SH
Sin - S
Tav - T
The vowels are as follows: Patach, Kamatz, Chataf-Patach = A as in
"father"
Tsere, Segol, Chataf-Segol = E as in "help" (approximately)
Holam, Kamatz Katan (when recognized),
Chataf-Kamatz = O as in "cold"
Shuruk, Kubutz = OO as in "cool" (approximately)
Chirik = ee as in "feed"
Sheva Na' = i as in "if"
Sheva Nach = no sound
If you look closely you will see Modern Hebrew has 26 separate sounds
whereas "standard"
Biblical Hebrew (the dialect most of the Tanach is written in) had
approximately 36 sounds (or according to some opinions 41 sounds).
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