How authentic is the pronunciation of the revived Hebrew?
This language ceased to exist as a native language for approximately two millennia. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) Tape recordings didn't exist at the time when Aramaic replaced Hebrew as a spoken language. When this language was reactivated, it was initially spoken by people who had learned it as a foreign language and couldn't rely on native speakers, since there were no native speakers left at that time. I imagine that the phonology of today's Hebrew is heavily influenced by the former native languages.
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This is an interesting question, especially because I’m working on an archive project of the Hebraean language.
Hebraeisch was not used as a native language for millennia, but in his religious and traditional parts it was written + further handy, and there were great differences depending on the country. But despite the differences, Hebraeisch has preserved his semitic character in his morphology and in large parts of his syntax, and a Jew from Algeria could always understand a Jew from Poland.
Language is something living and contains many historical locations, also English or Arabic, which always remained a native language. Try beowulf or Fairie Queen to understand… and the classic Arabic is so different from modern that it is almost different languages.
To your question: in all Faellen, modern phonology is different from “original”.
Hebrew was actually used for almost two millennia mainly as a liturgical language and not as a native language. There are no sound recordings from the time when Hebrew was still a living everyday language. The revival of Hebrew took place by people who learned it as a second language, their mother tongues inevitably had an influence on their pronunciation. Since there are no direct recordings of the original debate, the “authentic” debate cannot be clearly defined.
LG from Tel Aviv
Oh, that’s a pleasure. :
Do you live in Israel or are you there to visit? I am pleased to receive an answer for my question from a person from Israel.
😉 I live there, thank you for your kind feedback!