page_title: Yemenite Hebrew
section_title: Strict application of Mobile Shewā
hierarchical_section_title: Yemenite Hebrew / Distinguishing features / Vowels / Strict application of Mobile Shewā
caption_attribution_description: an example of shwa-ga'ja
context_page_description: Yemenite Hebrew, also referred to as Temani Hebrew, is the pronunciation system for Hebrew traditionally used by Yemenite Jews. Yemenite Jews brought their language to Israel through immigration. Their first organized immigration to the region began in 1882.
  Yemenite Hebrew has been studied by language scholars, many of whom believe it to retain older phonetic and grammatical features lost elsewhere. Yemenite speakers of Hebrew have garnered considerable praise from language purists because of their use of grammatical features from classical Hebrew. Tunisian rabbi and scholar, Rabbi Meir Mazuz, once said of Yemenites that they are good grammarians. It is believed by some scholars that its phonology was heavily influenced by spoken Yemeni Arabic. Other scholars and rabbis, including Rabbi Yosef Qafih and Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, hold the view that Yemenite Hebrew was not influenced by Yemenite Arabic, as this type of Arabic was also spoken by Yemenite Jews and is distinct from the liturgical Hebrew and the conversational Hebrew of the communities.
context_section_description: Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and Rabbi Jacob Saphir have praised the Yemenites in their correct pronunciation of Hebrew. They still read the biblical lections and liturgies according to what is prescribed for Hebrew grammar and are meticulous to pronounce the mobile šĕwā שוא נע‎ in each of its changing forms. While most other communities also adhere to the rule of mobile šĕwā whenever two šĕwās are written one after the other, as in יִכְתְּבוּ‎, most have forgotten its other usages.
  Aharon Ben-Asher, in his treatise on the proper usage of Hebrew vowels and trope symbols, writes on the šĕwā: "[It is] the servant of all the letters in the entire Scriptures, whether at the beginning of the word, or in the middle of the word, or at the end of the word; whether what is pronounced by the tongue or not pronounced, for it has many ways… However, if it is joined with one of four [guttural] letters, א ח ה ע, its manner [of pronunciation] will be like the manner of the vowel of the second letter in that word, such as: בְּֽהֹנוֹת ידיהם ורגליהם (Jud. 1:7) = böhonoth; מתי פתים תְּֽאֵהֲבוּ פתי (Prov. 1:22) = tᵉ’ehavu; עיניו לְֽחֵלְכָה יצפנו (Ps. 10:8) = lᵉḥeləkhah; שריה רְֽעֵלָיָה מרדכי (Ezra 2:2) = rᵉʻeloyoh." 
  On the mobile šĕwā and its usage amongst Yemenite Jews, Israeli grammarian Shelomo Morag wrote: "The pronunciation of the šĕwā mobile preceding א, ה, ח, ע, or ר in the Yemenite tradition is realized in accordance with the vowel following the guttural; quantitatively, however, this is an ultra-short vowel. For example, a word such as וְחוּט‎ is pronounced wᵘḥuṭ. A šĕwā preceding a yōḏ is pronounced as an ultra-short ḥīreq: the word בְּיוֹם‎ is pronounced bⁱyōm. This is the way the šĕwā is known to have been pronounced in the Tiberian tradition."
  Other examples of words of the mobile šĕwā in the same word taking the phonetic sound of the vowel assigned to the adjacent guttural letter or of a mobile šĕwā before the letter yod (י) taking the phonetic sound of the yod, can be seen in the following: 
  (Gen. 48:21) וְהֵשִׁיב‎ = wᵉheshiv
  (Gen. 49:30) בַּמְּעָרָה ‎ = bamᵒʻoroh
  (Gen. 50:10) בְּעֵבֶר‎ = bᵉʻevar
  (Exo. 7:27) וְאִם‎ = wⁱ’im
  (Exo. 20:23) מִזְבְּחִי‎ = mizbⁱḥī
  (Deut. 11:13) וְהָיָה‎ = wᵒhoyoh
  (Psalm 92:1-3)
  מִזְמוֹר שִׁיר לְיוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת. טוֹב לְהֹדוֹת לַה' וּלְזַמֵּר לְשִׁמְךָ עֶלְיון. לְהַגִּיד בַּבֹּקֶר חַסְדֶּךָ וֶאֱמוּנָתְךָ בַּלֵּילוֹת
  (vs. 1) lⁱyöm -- (vs. 2) lᵒhödöth -- (vs. 3) lᵃhağīd
  The above rule applies only to when one of the four guttural letters (אחהע), or a yod (י) or a resh (ר) follows the mobile šĕwā, but it does not apply to the other letters; then, the mobile šĕwā is always read as a short-sounding pataḥ.
caption: Mobile shewa (shĕwā-jiʻya)
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