Yemenite Hebrew language: Encyclopedia - Yemenite Hebrew language

Yemenite Hebrew language

The Yemenite Hebrew language or Temani Hebrew language is a descendant of Biblical Hebrew traditionally used by Yemenite Jews. It is believed by some scholars that its phonology was heavily influenced by Yemeni-spoken Arabic. Yet, according to other scholars as well as Yemenite Jewish Rabbis such as Rabbi Yosef Qafah the Temani Hebrew dialect was not influenced by Yemenite Arabic, as this type of Arabic was also spoken by Yemenite Jews and is distinct from the liturgical Hebrew and the coversational Hebrew of the communities.

• Pronunciation Chart 1 [1]
• Pronunciation Chart 2 [2]

Among the dialects of Hebrew preserved into modern times, Yemenite Hebrew is generally regarded as the form closest to Hebrew as used in ancient times, particularly Tiberian Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew. This is evidenced in part by the fact that Yemenite Hebrew preserves a separate sound for every consonant except for ס sāmekh and ש śîn, which are both pronounced /s/.

The late Israeli pop singer Ofra Haza sang some of her songs in Yemenite Hebrew.

See also

• Jew
• Sanaani Hebrew language
• Rabbi Evin Sapir's Account of Yemenite Hebrew[3]
• Hebrew Expressions used by Temanim in conversation[4]

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Yemenite Hebrew language", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki