How does Modern Hebrew sound to you?

Ori   Sunday, May 22, 2005, 09:54 GMT
I'd really like to know how this revived Semitic language (which happens to be my mother tongue) sounds to your ears.

You can always hear some Hebrew on Kol Israel (Voice of Israel):
http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ClipMediaID=35425
Sander   Sunday, May 22, 2005, 09:56 GMT
For me?,just like Arabian.
Ori   Sunday, May 22, 2005, 10:17 GMT
Yes, there is a slight resemblance to Arabic... but Hebrew is much less guttural, isn't it?
Jordi   Sunday, May 22, 2005, 10:32 GMT
It does sound light Arabic but spoken by Central Europeans. That is the first feeling I had when I heard that programme.
Sander   Sunday, May 22, 2005, 10:38 GMT
Yes,its less gutteral...does Hebrew have commen words with Arabic?
Ori   Sunday, May 22, 2005, 10:55 GMT
<<It does sound light Arabic but spoken by Central Europeans>>
Well, that's an intersting description...

<<does Hebrew have commen words with Arabic?>>
Yes, there are many common words, while many times the Arabic word sounds archaic or biblical to Hebrew speakers.
Adam   Sunday, May 22, 2005, 11:27 GMT
Hebrew is a descendant of Aramaic, which is the language that Jesus spoke. The most most closely related living language to Hebrew are Moabite, Ammonite, and Phoenician-Punic as well as the older language of Ugarit.
Rui   Sunday, May 22, 2005, 15:28 GMT
I find it a lot different from Arabic: vowels more audible, and frequently associated with TT and ZZ; less gutural; all the sylabs seem to be clearly and equally pronounced.
BTW Ori, can you notice if someone is from Ashkenazy or Sepharditic descent just listening to his accent, or is that difference irrelevant this days?
Yakov   Sunday, May 22, 2005, 17:05 GMT
its beautiful, and it's the language I hear everyday here in Hod Hasharon.
Hebrew is not a descendant of Aramaic Adam.
Travis   Sunday, May 22, 2005, 17:09 GMT
I have to second what Yakov said; modern Hebrew, while *related* to Aramaic, being a Semitic language, is in no fashion *descended* from Aramaic.
Yakov   Sunday, May 22, 2005, 18:54 GMT
Travis is correct. It was only after the exile to Babylonia when the Jews began to use Aramaic.
Deborah   Sunday, May 22, 2005, 19:06 GMT
Hebrew doesn't sound like Arabic to me, but then I studied Arabic for a short time and have spent a lot of time in Middle Eastern restaurants, and am used to hearing Arabic spoken by the customers and the musicians.

This sample of Hebrew you provided, Ori, does sound much clearer than the Arabic I'm used to hearing, but I wonder if that might be only because it's spoken by a newsreader.
Ori   Sunday, May 22, 2005, 19:54 GMT
<<BTW Ori, can you notice if someone is from Ashkenazy or Sepharditic descent just listening to his accent, or is that difference irrelevant this days? >>

Generally it is unnoticeable among "Tzabarim" (Israeli-born), but among some adult people who immigrated here some decades ago I can easily identify people of Sepharadic (Mizrachi) descent by the way they pronounce the guttural letters "Khet" and "Ayin", and some other characteristics by which I can tell you whether this person is Moroccan, Libyan, Iraqi etc. I can also identify old people of Ashkenazy (Slavic or East-European) origin. Not to mention new immigrants from Russia, Ethiopia, France, the US or UK - it's really a piece of cake...


<<its beautiful, and it's the language I hear everyday here in Hod Hasharon.>>

ata medaber ivrit, yakov? ani agav menetanya, lo rachok mimcha...


<<but I wonder if that might be only because it's spoken by a newsreader>>

No, it's just the same as the spoken language. Except for the R's, which newsreaders (at the beginning of the hour) are forced to roll, while during the rest of the hour you are most likely to hear the *real* "Tzabar" R.
Ori   Sunday, May 22, 2005, 21:58 GMT
Oh, I knew I forgot something:

Thank you all for your replies!
Jordi   Sunday, May 22, 2005, 22:02 GMT
I'm still wondering how a "common" accent can have arised in only 57 years since Israel became a state.

Surely people came from a number of backgrounds and countries and they still haven't stopped coming.

Since Hebrew was only spoken by scholars, where did it get its phonetics and intonation patterns from.

Are there differences in different areas of the country? What kind of an accent does a Tzabarim have? In which European language do the Tzabarim sound "more native" when they learn it?