Italian Hebrew

Italian Hebrew or Italki Hebrew refers to the pronunciation system for liturgical Hebrew traditionally used by Italian Jews. Italian Hebrew are mainly used in religious, literary and academic contexts. They are formed by regional dialects, interactions with local Italian dialects and evolving grammatical conventions.

This article covers the following aspects of Italian Hebrew: features, the differences in pronunciation between the east and west, morphological changes, NP-strategy, the gradual rise of Europe, religious uses, the rise and status of Renaissance studies.

Features

The Italian pronunciation of Hebrew is similar to that of conservative Spanish and Portuguese Jews. Distinguishing features are:

beth rafe is pronounced [v];

he is often silent, as in the family name "Coen";

vav is normally [v] as in most Hebrew dialects, but can become [w] in diphthongs (as in the family name "Anau"). Thus, in construct masculine plurals with male singular possessive suffix יו-, the pronunciation is not [-av] but [-au];

zayin is often pronounced [dz] like Italian voiced "z";

ayin is pronounced [ŋ] (like English "ng" in "sing"). In some dialects, like the Roman, this sometimes becomes [ɲ], like the Italian combination "gn";

tav rafe is pronounced [d];

speakers in communities south of the La Spezia–Rimini Line, and communities transplanted north of this, pronounce dagesh forte as a true geminate sound, in keeping with the pronunciation of double letters in Italian.

This pronunciation has in many cases been adopted by the Sephardi, Ashkenazi and Appam communities of Italy as well as by the Italian rite communities.

Dialectal differences in Hebrew pronunciation

In the context of modern Hebrew, there are two main dialects: Eastern and non-Eastern.