A Call for Reconstructing the Pronunciation of Biblical Hebrew

The pronunciation of biblical Hebrew words, which are taught at the Israeli Institute of Biblical Studies, relies heavily on the sound systems found in Indo-European languages ​-;-rather than Semitic languages.

In journalism, we shed light on phenomena

​-;---;--A scientific approach to the issue will encompass all the sounds of biblical Hebrew (and the letters related to them) and demonstrate how they differ from the sound systems of Semitic languages. However, since this is a journalistic and not a scientific article conducted at a certain university, I will confine my article to a few examples, which would shed light on the issue and encourage further studies in this field.

A simple example demonstrating the problem

Let us take the example of the preposition on,ע-;-ל-;-, among many other examples. Students at the Israeli Institute of Biblical Studies are taught to pronounce it "aal" just like the preposition א-;-ֶ-;-ל-;- meaning "to", and no distinction is made between the two different prepositions in terms of pronunciation.

Unlike the Jews who emigrated to Europe, speakers of Arabic´-or-the languages ​-;-commonly associated with Arabic (such as Levantine) still pronounce the sound ע-;- as it was pronounced thousands of years ago and the preposition ע-;-ל-;- is still pronounced as it was pronounced three millennia ago. In Arabic letters it is written "عل". As far as I know, there is no distiction between Modern Standard Hebrew, on the one hand, and the Biblical Hebrew taught in Israel on the other hand as far as pronunciation´-or-the sound system are concerned. It seems that the pronunciation of Biblical Hebrew at the Israeli Institute of Biblical Studies has been reconstructed according to Modern Standard Hebrew, and this is not a scientific approach in my views.

Phoenician and Ugaritic leave no excuses

​-;-Many scholars and professors of Biblical Hebrew justify their reliance on Modern Israeli Hebrew by saying that we do not have audio´-or-video recordings of Biblical Hebrew,´-or-that Biblical Hebrew itself had dialects. However, it is true that we only have a written version of Biblical Hebrew, but we do have ancient and modern Semitic languages ​-;-that can be of great help.
Ugraitic, an ancient Semitic language that is described as similar to Biblical Hebrew, has even some letters that represent vowels such as 𐎜-;- 𐎛-;- and 𐎊-;-.
Since a word like א-;-ָ-;-ב-;-, which means father in Biblical Hebrew, was pronounced "ab" in ancient West Semitic languages like Ugaritic´-or-Phoenician, abba in a modern Semitic language like Syriac and ab in a modern Semitic-based language like Arabic, there is no excuse for pronouncing it Av simply because the letter ב-;- is pronounced v in modern Israeli Hebrew given there is no dot in it. There is no excuse for pronouncing a word meaning father in Biblical Hebrew, using a sound that does not exist in any Semitic language _ V.

More examples

​-;-What has been mentioned about the consonant B also applies to the sound represented by the Hebrew letter צ-;---;-----;-------;---- whose equivalent in Phoenician is 𐤑-;- and 𐎕-;- in Ugaritic. Therefore, a word that is written in the Hebrew Bible using the Babylonian -script- as ע-;---;-----;-------;----ֵ-;---;-----;-------;----ץ-;---;-----;-------;---- should be pronounced the way it was pronounced in Ugaritic 𐎓-;-𐎕-;-rather than an s preceded by a t. The latter is obtrusive in Germanic languages, but never occurs in Semitic languages ​-;-as far as I know the sound systems of ancient and modern Semitic languages. In addition to the v and ts sounds, there is another sound that is borrowed from Indo-European languages ​-;-to pronounce a Semitic language such as ancient Hebrew and that is the sound p. A Biblical Hebrew word like פ-;-ּ-;-ֶ-;-ה-;- is pronounced in Israeli institutions peh rather than pheh. Pheh was the sound articulated in identical Semitic languages ​-;-like Ugaritic and Phoenician and the same word meaning mouth was spelled 𐎔-;-and 𐤐-;-𐤉-;- respectively.

Certainly, biblical Hebrew must be reconstructed in the light of ancient Semitic languages ​-;-such as Ugaritic and Phoenician, especially since these languages ​-;-were spoken by the neighbors of ancient Israel and Judah.
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