Begadkefat Explained

pronounced as /notice/Begadkefat (also begedkefet) is the phenomenon of lenition affecting the non-emphatic stop consonants of Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic when they are preceded by a vowel and not geminated. The name is also given to similar cases of spirantization of post-vocalic plosives in other languages; for instance, in the Berber language of Djerba.^[1] Celtic languages have a similar system.

The name of the phenomenon is made up of these six consonants, mixed with haphazard vowels for the sake of pronunciation: BeGaDKePaT. The Hebrew term Hebrew: rtl=yes|בֶּגֶ״ד כֶּפֶ״ת (Modern Hebrew pronounced as //ˌbeɡedˈkefet//) denotes the letters themselves (rather than the phenomenon of spirantization).If a beged-kephat is at the beginning of a word, and is preceded by a word ending in an open syllable, then there is no dagesh.Begedkefet spirantization developed sometime during the lifetime of Biblical Hebrew under the influence of Aramaic.^[2] Its time of emergence can be found by noting that the Old Aramaic phonemes pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ disappeared in the 7th century BC.^[3] During this period all six plosive / fricative pairs were allophonic.

In Modern Hebrew, Sephardi Hebrew, and most forms of Mizrahi Hebrew, three of the six letters, (bet), (kaf) and (pe) each still denotes a stop–fricative variant pair; however, in Modern Hebrew these variants are no longer purely allophonic (see below). Although orthographic variants of (gimel), (dalet) and (tav) still exist, these letters' pronunciation always remains acoustically and phonologically indistinguishable.^[4]

In Ashkenazi Hebrew and in Yiddish borrowings from Ashkenazi Hebrew, without dagesh still denotes a fricative variant pronounced as /link/ (under the influence of Judeo-German, aka Yiddish) which diverged from Biblical/Mishnaic pronounced as /link/.

The only extant Hebrew pronunciation tradition to preserve and distinguish all begadkefat letters is Yemenite Hebrew; however, in Yemenite Hebrew the sound of gimel with dagesh is a voiced palato-alveolar affricate pronounced as /link/ (under the influence of Judeo-Yemeni Arabic), which diverged from Biblical/Mishnaic pronounced as /link/.

Orthography

The phenomenon is attributed to the following allophonic consonants:

	Plosives		Spirants		Hebrew Notes
Hebrew	Syriac	Hebrew	Syriac	Biblical, Mishnaic	Standard Israeli
Bet	Letter		Syriac: ܒ݁		Syriac: ܒ݂	[β]	[v]
	IPA	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	-
Gimel	Letter		Syriac: ܓ݁		Syriac: ܓ݂	[ɣ]	[ɡ]
	IPA	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	-
Dalet	Letter		Syriac: ܕ݁		Syriac: ܕ݂	[ð]	[d]
	IPA	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	-
Kaph	Letter		Syriac: ܟ݁		Syriac: ܟ݂	[x]	pronounced as /link/
	IPA	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	-
Pe	Letter		Syriac: ܦ݁		Syriac: ܦ݂	[ɸ]	pronounced as /link/
	IPA	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	-
Taw	Letter		Syriac: ܬ݁		Syriac: ܬ݂	[θ]	[t]
	IPA	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	-

( ּ ), marks the plosive articulation:

• at the beginning of a word or after a consonant (in which cases it is termed "dagesh qal"^[5]),
• when the sound is – or was historically – geminated (in which case it is termed "dagesh ẖazaq", a mark for historical gemination in most other consonants of the language as well), and
• in some modern Hebrew words independently of these conditions (see below).

A line (similar to a macron) placed above it, called "rafe"

( ֿ ), marks in Yiddish (and rarely in Hebrew) the fricative articulation.

In Modern Hebrew

As mentioned above, the fricative variants of pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/ no longer exist in modern Hebrew. (However, Hebrew does have the guttural R consonant pronounced as /link/ which is the voiced counterpart of pronounced as /link/ and sounds similar to Mizrahi Hebrew's fricative variant of pronounced as /link/ ḡimel as well as Arabic's غ ġayn, both of which are pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ɣ}}~{{IPAplink|ʁ}}]/. Modern Hebrew ר resh can still sporadically be found standing in for this phoneme, for example in the Hebrew rendering of Raleb (Ghaleb) Majadele's name.) The three remaining pairs pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/, and pronounced as /link/~pronounced as /link/ still sometimes alternate, as demonstrated in inflections of many roots in which the roots' meaning is retained despite variation of begedkefet letters' manner of articulation, e.g.,

in verbs:
	pronounced as //bo/ → /taˈvo//	("come" (imperative) → "you will come"),
	pronounced as //ʃaˈvaʁ/ → /niʃˈbaʁ//	("broke" (transitive) → "broke" (intransitive),
	pronounced as //kaˈtav/ → /jiχˈtov//	("he wrote" → "he will write"),
	pronounced as //zaˈχaʁ/ → /jizˈkoʁ//	("he remembered" → "he will remember"),
	pronounced as //paˈnit/ → /lifˈnot//	("you (f.) turned" → "to turn"),
	pronounced as //ʃaˈfatet/ → /liʃˈpot//	("you (f.) judged" → "to judge "),
or in nouns:
	pronounced as //ˈeʁev/ → /aʁˈbajim//	("evening" → "twilight"),
	pronounced as //ˈmeleχ/ → /malˈka//	("king" → "queen"),
	pronounced as //ˈelef/ → /alˈpit//	("a thousand" → "a thousandth"),

however, in Modern Hebrew, stop and fricative variants of, and are distinct phonemes, and there are minimal pairs:

	pronounced as //iˈpeʁ// – pronounced as //iˈfeʁ//	("applied make up" – "tipped ash"),
	pronounced as //pisˈpes// – pronounced as //fisˈfes//	("striped" – "missed"),
	pronounced as //hitχaˈbeʁ// – pronounced as //hitχaˈveʁ//	("connected" – "made friends (with)"),
	pronounced as //hiʃtaˈbets// – pronounced as //hiʃtaˈvets//	("got integrated" – "was shocked"),

and consider, e.g.:

	"to star", whose common pronunciation pronounced as //lekaˈχev// preserves the manner of articulation of each kaf in the word it is derived from: pronounced as //koˈχav// "a star" (first stop, then fricative), as opposed to the prescribed pronunciation pronounced as //leχaˈkev//, which regards the variation in pronunciation of kaf pronounced as /link/ ←→ pronounced as /link/ as allophonic and determines its manner of articulation according to historical phonological principles; or:
	similarly, "to gossip", whose prescribed pronunciation pronounced as //leʁaˈkel// is colloquially rejected, commonly pronounced pronounced as //leʁaˈχel//, preserving the fricative manner of articulation in related nouns (e.g. pronounced as //ʁeχiˈlut// "gossip", pronounced as //ʁaχˈlan// "gossiper").

This phonemic divergence is due to a number of factors, amongst others:

• due to loss of consonant gemination in modern Hebrew, which formerly distinguished the stop members of the pairs from the fricatives when intervocalic – e.g. in the inflections:

	pronounced as //kaˈfats/ → /kiˈpets//, historically pronounced as //kipˈpets//	("jumped" → "hopped"),
	pronounced as //ʃaˈvar/ → /ʃiˈber//, historically pronounced as //ʃibˈber//	("broke" → "shattered"),
	pronounced as //ʃaˈχan/ → /ʃiˈken//, historically pronounced as //ʃikˈken//	("resided" → "housed"),

• due to the introduction, through foreign borrowings, of:

syllable-initial pronounced as /link/ (e.g. pronounced as //fibˈʁek// "fabricated"),

non-syllable-initial pronounced as /link/ (e.g. pronounced as //hipˈnet// "hypnotized")

non-syllable-initial pronounced as /link/ (e.g. pronounced as //fibˈʁek// "fabricated"), ג׳וֹבּ pronounced as //dʒob// "job", pronounced as //kub// "cubic meter", pronounced as //pab// "pub").

Even aside from borrowings or lost gemination, common Israeli pronunciation sometimes violates the original phonological principle "stop variant after a consonant; fricative after a vowel", although this principle is still prescribed as standard by the Academy of the Hebrew Language, e.g.:

• The words (ferry) and (refugee absorption camps), whose respective prescribed pronunciation is

pronounced as //maʕˈboʁet// and pronounced as //maʕbaˈʁot//, are commonly pronounced pronounced as //ma.aˈboʁet// and pronounced as //ma.abaˈʁot//, replacing the consonant (pronounced as /link/) with a vowel (pronounced as /link/), but still preferring the stop variant pronounced as /link/ to its fricative counterpoint pronounced as /link/.

• Similarly, the words (Aliyah Bet, called the Ha'apala which designates the covert Jewish immigration to British Palestine, 1934–1948) and (the immigrants of this immigration), whose respective prescribed pronunciation is pronounced as //haʕpaˈla// and pronounced as //maʕpiˈlim//, are commonly pronounced pronounced as //ha.apaˈla// and pronounced as //ma.apiˈlim//, again replacing the consonant (pronounced as /link/) with the vowel (pronounced as /link/), but still preferring the stop pronounced as /link/ to the fricative pronounced as /link/.
• Conversely, words like (to deny) or (paintbrush), whose respective prescribed pronunciation is pronounced as //lehaχˈħiʃ// and pronounced as //miχˈħol//, are commonly pronounced pronounced as //lehakˈχiʃ// and pronounced as //mikˈχol//, preferring the stop pronounced as /link/ to the fricative pronounced as /link/, although following vowels (respectively pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/), due to the shifting of the original semitic pronunciation of the letter (heth) from pronounced as /link/ to pronounced as /link/, rendering it identical to common Israeli pronunciation of the fricative variant of the letter .

References

1. See for instance: Werner Vycichl, "Begadkefat im Berberischen", in: James and Theodora Bynon (eds.), Hamito-Semitica, London 1975, pp. 315-317.
2. Or perhaps Hurrian, but this is unlikely, c.f. Dolgoposky 1999, pp. 72-73.
3. Dolgopolsky 1999, p. 72.
4. In modern Hebrew, the letter gimel modified by the diacritic geresh – – is pronounced as the affricate pronounced as /link/; this, however, denotes a separate phoneme, not connected to the phenomenon of spirantization: compare e.g. pronounced as //ɡez// ("fleece") ←→ pronounced as //dʒez// ("jazz"); pronounced as //χaɡ// ("holiday") ←→ pronounced as //χadʒ// ("the Hajj"). Conversely, dalet and tav with a geresh – and – respectively do denote the fricatives pronounced as /link/ and pronounced as /link/, however never as sounds in Hebrew words or even loanwords, but are rather used exclusively for the hebraization of foreign language texts or the transliteration of foreign names. Also these modern Hebrew variants have nothing to do with the phenomenon of spirantization.
5. In modern Hebrew ktiv menuqad, the dagesh qal is marked also in the three begedkefet letters which can no longer denote a fricative variant – (pronounced as /link/), (pronounced as /link/) and (pronounced as /link/) – conserving the masoretic niqqud tradition.

External links

• , 1., 1.