Hebrew is one of the oldest languages on this site, besides Sanskrit and Tamil, and the languages that preceded it. And Hebrew, like Arabic, makes heavy use of the harsh h5h5 sound, as well as just the general hh and the silent but sound-modifying glottal stop, '', like in English when you do "uh-oh", right in the middle there. We use modern Israeli hebrew here, which is different in a few ways from Biblical Hebrew, and the several other dialects of Hebrew.
The meteg is added to elongate vowels
Here are the 19 fundamental consonants used when speaking Hebrew.
For a complete list of possible consonants a human voice might make while speaking a natural language, check out the consonants page.
| bilabial | labiodental | dental | alveolar | postalveolar | retroflex | velar | uvular | pharyngeal | glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| voiced nasal | |||||||||||
| quiet plosive | |||||||||||
| voiced plosive | |||||||||||
| quiet sibilant fricative | |||||||||||
| voiced sibilant fricative | |||||||||||
| quiet non-sibilant fricative | |||||||||||
| voiced non-sibilant fricative | |||||||||||
| voiced lateral approximant |
These are the 5 base vowels used when speaking Hebrew.
Also, a complete list of possible vowels a human voice might make while speaking can be found here.
| manner | front unrounded | front rounded | front central unrounded | front central rounded | central unrounded | central rounded | back central unrounded | back central rounded | back unrounded | back rounded | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| close | |||||||||||
| close-mid | |||||||||||
| open |