Pronunciation Question

[Bill Cornette <wmc...>]

        This may not be most appropriate place to post this, but in
light of some recent traffic on Sephardic/Ashkenazic, I thought I
would give it a try.

        As a Jew by choice, I don't have the cultural background (but
then neither does the Jew by birth who prompted this question) to
understand the difference in pronuciation between Sephardic (and Israeli)
pronunciation and Ashkenazic pronunciation.  A Jewish friend (non
practicing, but according to him decended from several rabbis in
Poland) questioned my use of the word Shabbat, stating that the
correct pronunciation is Shabbis.  I tried to explain that the
Sov (last letter in Shabbis) in Ashkenazi Hebrew was a Tov in
Sephardic Hebrew and the Sephardic Hebrew was the Hebrew used in
Israel and was becoming/had become (?) the world standard.
        He claimed that he had never heard of Shabbat except from
me and with grandfathers, etc. as important Polish rabbis, he felt
that he knew much more than I did on the matter and I must be in error.
        Can anyone provide any background or history on how the
Sephardic Sov and the Ashkenazi Tov became pronuounced differently
(and yes, I realize that there is a Sephardic Tov -- same as the
Sov, but with a dot in the middle --ASCII characters don't include
Hebrew).

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William M. Cornette         Photon Research Associates, Inc.
(619) 455-9741              10350 N. Torrey Pines Road, Suite 300
FAX (619) 455-0658          La Jolla, California  92037
wmc (at) photon(dot)com
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T.A.N.S.T.A.A.F.L.

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