Describe the phonetic inventory of your target language. Are there sounds in your language that don’t exist in American English? If so, provide several words and their phonetic transcriptions of words as examples to support your argument. What do you need to know about the sound system of your target language? How will you acquire the ability to discriminate differentiated segments in your listening, and to produce these sounds in your speech?
Since I am not currently taking the language course, I am not 100% sure the specifics of the phonetic inventory of Hebrew. However, I know that Modern Hebrew is phonetically simpler than Biblical Hebrew and has fewer phonemes. It has 25 to 27 consonants and 5 to 10 vowels, depending on the speaker and the analysis. Furthermore, there are two varieties of Modern Hebrew pronunciations: the Common Israeli and Mizrahi Israeli pronunciations. Because Hebrew uses an abjad, it can render English words in multiple ways. For example, Khet/khes and Khaf/khof are pronounced like a German "ch" or in the Scot "Loch." Furthermore, the pronunciation of R in Hebrew is not the same as in English. Uvular 'r' is the most difficult consonant for English speaking people to pronounce. In order to know about the sound system of Hebrew, I would need to learn the abjad, which is a type of writing system in which each symbol (glyph) stands for a constant. Also, I would have to be familiar with the vowel structure and diphthongs. Hebrew has only 5 vowel sounds, with lack of discrimination in Hebrew between long and short vowels. Vowels will sometimes be put into Hebrew by their letters, and noy by their sounds, even though it is less accurate phonetically. This difference is important to notice because it will not only affect my ability to listen, but I will also have a hard time pronouncing the words correctly. In order to acquire the ability to discriminate differentiated segments in my listening and to produce these sounds in my speech, I will have to practice and listen to native speakers. I will also have to be sure to learn the Common Israeli pronunciation. I will practice with my language partner, watch videos on YouTube, and familiarize myself with the different pronunciations and the writing system as well.
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