more pronunciations...

[naama_gat at hotmail.com]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> Naama wrote:
> 
> > No way. Not all Jews can pronounce the "ch" sound. At least, not 
> > American Jews. I know American Jews who live in Israel for twenty 
> > years and more, and still say Hanukah, hallah, etc. 
> 
> Really?  How old were they when they started to learn Hebrew?
> 
Hmmm.. well, probably at different ages (I'm talking of adults, of 
course. Children acquire the local accent very easily). Also, I'm not 
sure how Hebrew is taught in Jewish school - what emphasis they put 
on pronunciation. I really don't know. 

> Didn't Noam Chomsky establish that every infant makes the whole 
range 
> of human sounds, and some gradually fall away from disuse?  So if 
you 
> want your kid to be able to pronounce Hebrew (or whatever), keep 
> interacting in that language from infancy.
> 
> I guess I don't really know how the German "ch" sounds.  Maybe I 
can't 
> do it either.  It's a common sound in Arabic too, no?
> 

Mecki has kind of shaken my confidence about the difference between 
the Hebrew and the German "ch". I was probably thinking of what she 
called the soft "ch" (like at the end of Freundlich (sp?)). 
Yes, in Arabic it's common too, but there it's even more guttural 
than in Hebrew (modern, "Ashkenazi" Hebrew, that is). To me, and I 
think to most Hebrew speakers, Arabic sounds harsh because of the 
more guttural, "hard" sounds. 
I do remember, though, that somebody once told me that to those who 
don't speak these languages, Hebrew and Arabic sound the same. Is 
that your experience, too?

Naama