Regional Accents in Israel

iammom

Thu, Jun 27 2024, 11:55 pm

I had a random thought - are there regional accents in Israel like there are, for example, in England and USA?
Can you tell which area of Israel someone is from based on their speech?
Is there “omg he has SUCH a Tzefat accent” type of thing?

jerusalem90

Fri, Jun 28 2024, 12:11 am

No. I once read a list of like 5 - 10 words that people in Jerusalem say differently than people in the rest of the country. The only one I remember is the word for two-hundred. Jerusalenites often say ma-a-tayim while everyone else says ma-tayim. But basically it all boils down to 5 - 10 words.

But you have Morrocan accents, Yemenite accents, Russian accents, Anglo accents, etc, so the country is lacking for accents

iammom

Fri, Jun 28 2024, 12:23 am

Interesting! I wonder why that is. Or rather how do regional accents develop - perhaps the settlement of Israel followed a different path or maybe modern Ivrit was taught differently?

iammom

Fri, Jun 28 2024, 12:25 am

jerusalem90 wrote:

I hear that but that’s normal and expected in a country of immigrants. It tells more that the speaker is not a native rather than where in Israel they are from.

Elfrida

Fri, Jun 28 2024, 12:33 am

First of all, Israel is a small country, with limited room for regional diversity.

Second, the countries you mention have a much longer history. During most of that history, travel was limited and expensive, so most people stayed in their own region, giving time for accents to develop and become reinforced.

Hebrew as a spoken language only became reinvented in the past hundred years or so, not giving much time for the development of regional accents. The main influence has been absorbing olim from so many countries, each of whom has added something to the vocabulary and pronunciation of the language as a whole.

tryinghard

Fri, Jun 28 2024, 1:03 am

There are a few things - in Yerushalayim there’s a tendency to drop or add a hey sound at the beginning of a word:
So עטלף gets pronounced הטלף
And הוא sounds like אוה

shabbatiscoming

Fri, Jun 28 2024, 2:04 am

tryinghard wrote:

There are a few things - in Yerushalayim there’s a tendency to drop or add a hey sound at the beginning of a word:
So עטלף gets pronounced הטלף
And הוא sounds like אוה

No on in jerusalem. The younger generation is also doing this. We dont live in jerusalem, but my daughter and so many of her friends are taking this way. Its very interesting, to me at least.

Elfrida

Fri, Jun 28 2024, 2:07 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

No on in jerusalem. The younger generation is also doing this. We dont live in jerusalem, but my daughter and so many of her friends are taking this way. Its very interesting, to me at least.

I wonder how much Gush Etzion is influenced by Yerushalayim.

thesoundofmusic

Fri, Jun 28 2024, 3:04 am

people from tzfor tel aviv- north tel aviv have a certain accent and speak in a certain way.
yerushalmim say certain words differently than others-
gogos are ajuim
a sukaria al makel is a mitzitzah
and a few others.
people from teveria say teasha (nine) instead of taisha.....

Success10

Fri, Jun 28 2024, 3:47 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

No on in jerusalem. The younger generation is also doing this. We dont live in jerusalem, but my daughter and so many of her friends are taking this way. Its very interesting, to me at least.

My Israeli kids literally ask me how to spell words because they don't know if it starts with an alef, ayin or hey.

TR91

Fri, Jun 28 2024, 4:55 am

tryinghard wrote:

There are a few things - in Yerushalayim there’s a tendency to drop or add a hey sound at the beginning of a word:
So עטלף gets pronounced הטלף
And הוא sounds like אוה

Yessssssss and I haaaaaaate it.
So glad I'm not the only one who noticed.
Also, phrases like אני אלך turn into אני ילך. Drives me nuts.

ETA don't think it's a Jerusalem only thing though.

rzab

Fri, Jun 28 2024, 6:39 am

There def is. As an oleh I don't hear it. But my cousins who grew up in the south can identify someone as growing up in yerushalim or the north in a second.
I've also been told that beit shemesh has a unique accent bc there are so many olim. Which makes sense. My kids have kids in their class that have immigrated from Ethiopia, Russia, France, Morocco in addition to the high number of English speaking olim, it makes sense that everyone would borrow from each other

Rappel

Fri, Jun 28 2024, 7:22 am

iammom wrote:

Yes.

A Petah Tikva accent, a North accent, and a Shomron accent sound completely different