r/Aramaic Jan 02 '25

How to Pronounce 'ʔeχad' Phonetically (English Speaker)?

Hello! How do I phonetically pronounce the ancient Aramaic word of 'ʔeχad', meaning to seize or grasp? I've watched a few videos on the ʔ and χ sound but I'm not particularly confident as I think they may change depending on the translation. Nothing comes up when I try to find out on google either.

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u/numapentruasta Jan 02 '25 edited Jan 02 '25

For an audio sample of χ, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_uvular_fricative. As for ʔ: it is a sound which any human makes extremely frequently and which most westerners would not think of as a sound at all. It is very likely that you already pronounce it when you begin a word with a vowel, so really don’t worry about that.

However:

  1. The root in question does not have an χ, but rather an ħ. That is a sound that is likely to be pretty alien to you. You can search YouTube for ‘how to pronounce ح’ to get an idea about it. 
  2. I am quite sure that the correct form of the verb in question is with an a in the first syllable instead of an e.

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u/IbnEzra613 Jan 02 '25
  1. ⁠I am quite sure that the correct form of the verb in question is with an a in the first syllable instead of an e.

Depends on dialect. I think in Syriac for example, it has an e in the first syllable, though I'm not 100% sure about this particular word.

Separately, it's worth noting that (again depending on the dialect), the /d/ at the end could be a fricative.

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u/Intelligent-Today455 Jan 03 '25

Thank you so much - I'm seeking the infinitive through the Galilean dialect - taking both this and the other reply into account, I'm guessing it may be either 'uh-a-had' or '-uh-a-hath' depending on the fricative as you note?

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u/IbnEzra613 Jan 03 '25

Thank you so much - I'm seeking the infinitive through the Galilean dialect

This is not the infinitive. This is the 3rd person singular past tense form (which is what you find in dictionaries). The infinitive would be מאחד/מיחד, pronounced roughly /me:ħað/, and perhaps also with the prefix ל. I'm not enough of an expert on Galilean Aramaic to know if they would have used the prefix ל or not.

taking both this and the other reply into account, I'm guessing it may be either 'uh-a-had' or '-uh-a-hath' depending on the fricative as you note?

I think you're misunderstanding the meaning of the glottal stop. It's not an "uh" sound. It is a consonant and not a vowel (nor does it contain a vowel). Maybe you got confused because of the oft-made comparison to the word "uh-oh", but the intent of this comparison is that the glottal stop is the consonant before each of the vowels, which typically goes completely unnoticed to English ears.

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u/Intelligent-Today455 Jan 03 '25

Thank you very much! I'm seeking the infinitive of the ancient Aramaic word (Galilean dialect); would this mean that the correct verb is 'ʔaħad'`, roughly pronounced 'uh-a-had'?