How does Modern Hebrew sound to you?

<<I'm still wondering how a "common" accent can have arised in only 57 years since Israel became a state.>>

Modern Hebrew was spoken long before Israel became a state. It started to become popular around 1905, and it was recognized as an official language of Palestine in 1922.

Does that mean there already was a "national" accent in 1948? I imagine, maybe I'm wrong, that only a few thousand spoke the language and that the great majority are speakers born since 1948. Would a Tzabarim born in 1920 sound exactly the same as a Tzabarim born in 1990?

Has Hebrew adopted phonemes and intonation from European languages? When you hear native Hebrew there seems to be a European sound to it. It's difficult to explain but are there studies on this question? I'm sure there ,ust be.

Jordi,

<<I'm still wondering how a "common" accent can have arised in only 57 years since Israel became a state. >>

I was asking myself the same question not long ago.

I highly recommend that you read the following discussion which was linked by Deborah some weeks ago:
http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/073043.php
I'm sure it can answer many of your questions.


<<Are there differences in different areas of the country?>>

No. Differences in pronunciation occur due to the speaker's descent, not to his area within Israel. That is, one's accent can vary depending on whether one's origin is Russian, French, American, Moroccan, Ethiopian or Israeli ("Tzabar"), but the percentage of all those populations is rather the same in Jerusalem and in Tel-Aviv.

<<What kind of an accent does a Tzabarim have?>>

The one you can hear on Voice of Israel (unless they are talking with a Russian/Arabic reporter at that moment).

<<In which European language do the Tzabarim sound "more native" when they learn it?>>

It may be interesting to note that all the 28 sounds existing in Modern Hebrew also exist in Esperanto and vice versa (with the exception of R).

Here is the Esperanto alphabet:
http://www.lernu.net/lernu.php?loko=/lingvoprezento/alfabeto.php
It's up to you to decide which European language it resembles the most (I'd probably say Spanish or Italian).


BTW, "Tzabar" - singular, "Tzabarim" - plural.

<<Has Hebrew adopted phonemes and intonation from European languages?>>

I think the use of the uvular R (which is common, but not universal) is a result of Yiddish- and German-speaking Jews learning the language.

ken ori :). netanya he meod karova le poh
shalom le'cha

magniv... sof sof yesh mishu shemedaber ivrit kan... :)