Political Crossfire Forums

[psholtz]

In my Stone Edition Chumash, there are a bunch of words which end in "tau", but which are transliterated into English as ending with an "s" sound..

Examples include:

(*) Bereishis, which is "beth resh aleph shin yud tau", but which, as I indicated, is transliterated as "Bereishis" instead of "****"
(*) Haftaras, which is "heh peh teth resh tau", but which is transliterated as "Haftaras" instead of "Haftarath"
(*) Koheles, which is "kof heh lamed tau", but which is transliterated as "Koheles" instead of "Koheleth"

I could go on, but I think what I'm saying is clear..

Why is this?

[Duchifas]

psholtz wrote: In my Stone Edition Chumash, there are a bunch of words which end in "tau", but which are transliterated into English as ending with an "s" sound..

Examples include:

(*) Bereishis, which is "beth resh aleph shin yud tau", but which, as I indicated, is transliterated as "Bereishis" instead of "****"
(*) Haftaras, which is "heh peh teth resh tau", but which is transliterated as "Haftaras" instead of "Haftarath"
(*) Koheles, which is "kof heh lamed tau", but which is transliterated as "Koheles" instead of "Koheleth"

I could go on, but I think what I'm saying is clear..

Why is this?

It's just the difference between Ashkenazic and Sefardic pronounciation (there should be a little explanation on that in the foreword, I think). Sefardim (Jews from East and South) pronounce tav as T, and Ashkenazim (Jews from Eastern Europe) pronounce it as S, in certain circumstances. There are other differences in pronounciation too. So I am guessing the Stone Chumash follows Ashkenazic pronounciation.

Modern Hebrew as spoken in Israel has Sephardic pronounciation. That's why when my Rabbi who has Ashkenazic pronounciation says hebrew words to Israelis, they have no clue what's going on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Hebrew_language

[Secondary Oak]

From what I remember from high-school, in biblical times regular tav (ת) was pronounced like modern-English 'th', and tav with dagesh (תּ) pronounced like modern-English 't'.
Never heard about an 's' pronunciation, though.

In modern Hebrew it's strictly 't'.

[Duchifas]

Secondary Oak wrote: From what I remember from high-school, in biblical times regular tav (ת) was pronounced like modern-English 'th', and tav with dagesh (תּ) pronounced like modern-English 't'.
Never heard about an 's' pronunciation, though.


That's what I am talking about. :) You never even heard OF it? Serious?

[Secondary Oak]

Duchifas wrote: Secondary Oak wrote: From what I remember from high-school, in biblical times regular tav (ת) was pronounced like modern-English 'th', and tav with dagesh (תּ) pronounced like modern-English 't'.
Never heard about an 's' pronunciation, though.


That's what I am talking about. :) You never even heard OF it? Serious?
I know some Americans say "Shabbath", and 'th' sounds similar to 's', but no, I didn't hear it was intentionally pronounced as 's'.

The only connotation I have of "Shabas" is the prison service :)

[Duchifas]

You gotta get out of your shell more, Oak. Go to yeshiva for a few days. Or weeks. ;)