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Pronouncing the Hebrew "R" | ||
Tags: Hebrew | Pronunciation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Hebe Newbie United States Joined 5627 days ago 9 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 1 of 17 02 June 2009 at 6:13am | IP Logged | ||
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This post is directed to native speakers of Hebrew, as well as people who have perfected the pronunciation of the letter "R" in Hebrew. The letter ר
1.) Please give me any advice possible on how to properly make this sound. Where do I place my tongue? What sort of exercises can I do to work my way into this sound? 2.) Are there any other "R" (ר) sounds that are acceptable in Hebrew? For example, what does the standard American "R" sound like when speaking Hebrew? What about the Italian or Spanish trilled "R"? Does that sound acceptable when a foreigner speaks Hebrew? What "R" sounds the best (aside from the native one)? Thanks, Hebe 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mishels Diglot Newbie Israel Joined 5728 days ago 39 posts - 39 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English Studies: German, French | Message 2 of 17 02 June 2009 at 10:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think one could say one R sounds better than the other. If you speak Hebrew with the American R, you would sound like an American speaking Hebrew. If you speak with the Spanish R, you would sound like a Spanish speaking Hebrew.
But I'd say the French is the closest, then Spanish and only than the American. For some reason, American R seems to almost be nothing at all. In the American R you just have a slight change in the way you hold your tongue or something like that. There is no contact between the tongue and anything. When saying R in Hebrew, the source of the sound comes from way back, at the beginning of the tongue and the tip of the tongue stays straight. If you want, we can skype sometime and you could try to copy me or something. Mishel. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lemanensis Bilingual Pentaglot Groupie Switzerland hebrew.ecott.ch Joined 5869 days ago 73 posts - 77 votes  Speaks: French*, English*, German, Spanish, Swedish Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 3 of 17 03 June 2009 at 8:10am | IP Logged | ||
Hi Mishel! [Did you get my reply to your message?] I suppose I'm an intermediate student, and have heard quite a few native speakers - including TV and radio. I think you're fair to use the word 'close' with regard to the French R. I don't think it's the exactly same (I'm bilingual English/French and speak German). You often hear that the Hebrew R is "the same as in French and German" - but the R isn't even the same in French and German to start with! They are fairly close but you can distinguish speakers of those languages when they're speaking the other, even if they speak fluently, from the way they pronounce the R. Back to Hebrew. Sometimes - in particular the resh at the end of a word - it sounds to my ear like it's similar to an English W! Or else it is almost swallowed - you hear it's there but it's not as clear as in French or German. There's a guy who reads the weather forecast sometimes on Radio Galgalatz at 8 o'clock in the morning who has a very strong American accent, with a strong American R. It sounds weird and is very difficult to understand. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| zhiguli Senior Member Canada Joined 6386 days ago 176 posts - 221 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Mandarin | Message 4 of 17 04 June 2009 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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From what I've heard the Spanish/Italian r is the only acceptable variation, in fact it used to be the standard used on TV, radio, in songs etc but the majority on the streets continued to use the Yiddish uvular r which eventually won out.
The American r is the butt of jokes (one of the Israelis I know calls Americans "re-re's") and is not considered good pronunciation.
Oh, this guy is well known. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ego.penso Newbie Israel Joined 5600 days ago 9 posts - 10 votes | Message 5 of 17 05 June 2009 at 10:08am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, first of all don't concern yourself too much with pronunciation. Since we, the
native speakers of Hebrew, inherited our language from our parents, who weren't native speakers, our accent has been influenced mainly by Yiddish, which is close to German. Anyhow, our ears are so used to foreign accents in Hebrew, that we find any foreign accent to be 100% intelligible. Now, about the R sound. I think it's the most dominant sound in Hebrew, so just upon hearing it, Israelis will figure out your nationality, especially if you're an American. So you might want to tune it down a bit. I would say the Hebrew R is close to the German R, but much softer, and sometimes swallowed. BTW, The weather guy on Galgalaz is not a presenter, he is merely a meteorologist. On the same issue, one thing very noticed when Americans speak Hebrew, is that they make the long E sound into a long ye sound. For instance, most Americans pronounce the word "two" as "Shtayem" instead of "Shta-iem". Better watch out for that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Lemanensis Bilingual Pentaglot Groupie Switzerland hebrew.ecott.ch Joined 5869 days ago 73 posts - 77 votes Speaks: French*, English*, German, Spanish, Swedish Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 6 of 17 05 June 2009 at 12:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Or as he might prefer to say, he's not merely a presenter he's a meteorologist... LOL 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hebe Newbie United States Joined 5627 days ago 9 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 7 of 17 05 June 2009 at 4:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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I emailed a friend of mine in Israel. Here's what he said:
"I've never heard an American who speaks with good Hebrew accent. your L, for example, comes from inside, and our comes from the tongue. If you can do that now, I'm sure it will be more difficult during you actually speak. But, you're lucky to be American. to my opinion the most acceptable accent is the American. if you can't say our R, say yours. don't try the Spanish or something else. We love Americans, we like the sound of your language because we hear it all the time. Israel is like a small America in the middle east. in a lot of ways we try to create a culture like yours. so don't worry about accent. it's cool to be American. if you want to pronounce the resh, you have to hear it. it comes from the same place that the letter het (ח) comes from,but you also make sound with your voice strings (what you don't do when you say het). this is the way to say it. but usually we 'swallow' the sound, and the resh sounds softer than het. you barely hear the dirt, as you hear in in het. just say something from the deep of your throat, it will sound similar to resh. I know it's not the best explanation, but its almost impossible to do it better..." 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hebe Newbie United States Joined 5627 days ago 9 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 8 of 17 05 June 2009 at 4:33pm | IP Logged | ||
Excellent information. Thank you very much. Thanks to everyone so far who has responded. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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