[Avodah] History of Havarah

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, December 19, 2006 4:49 pm, RDBannett replied to my post:
:> [W]e know that true Ashkenaz havarah had a distinct
:> ayin. (Ask any boy nicknamed "Yankl".) It dropped out
:> because the local languages had no such sound. Is this
:> change "real", or is the mesorah with an /ng/ ayin? And once we say
:> we should revert this shift, how many are similar but simply too old
:> to know?

: This has been discussed on Mesorah and a number of times I
: have questioned the idea that we revert for the simple
: reason that changes in pronunciation have been going on
: continuosly. To which era do we revert? The same goes for
: nusach hatefilla. At what point in history do we set the end
: of "correct" nusach.

I recall asking it on Mesorah. However, there I got answers about the history
of havarah evolution, and few (your reply excepted) from the direction of the
halakhos of Shema and leining. (And, as RMF points out in his teshuvah,
chalitzah, where the difference could be an issur eishes ish and mamzeirim!)

There have been three kinds of havarah changes:

1- Sounds dropped because they do not exist in the local language, or mutated
to the nearest equivalent in the local language. The American qamatz, cholam
and reish leap to mind.

2- Drift over time simply because things drift. (Particularly before recording
instruments.)

And here, this is natural language change, part of being a living culture, not
assimilationist. Even if not purposive.

3- Sounds introduced by hypercorrecting nitpickers finding a "true right
sound" that was never before in the mesorah.

At least here people have sevaros for why it ought to be "right". It's
arguably parallel to the poseiq who unknowingly reaches a different conclusion
than his predecessors.

4- Sounds that changed because of migrations bringing Jews of different
qehillos together; the impact of merging mesoros.

For example, if Ashkenazim really do comprise a different EY - Bavel mix than
do Sepharadim, then of course their havaros are different. And in fact, the
difference could even be attributable to the initial differences between
shevatim, as that determined who ended up in Bavel when, and who stayed there.
I'm not asserting they are the same havaros as the shevatim, but the direct
consequence of mixing and remixing sounds.

I listed these in increasing order of personal preference. So that would be
how I lean in terms of what to try to roll back. If you know that the
particular shift was due to assimilation of language sounds, then should you
revert it?

:                ....  For example, the evidence  is quite strong that
: Rashi's "Ashkenazi" pronunciation was very close to what is
: now known as the Sefaradic pronunciation.

I recently saw an image of a medieval manuscript. The notzri who made this
manuscript obviously lived in a venue where the Jews used the same sound for
tzeirei and segol, and for patach and qamatz, as he only used tzeirei and
patach. Did the new sounds arise from some hypercorrection, or does it reflect
a population shift away from a mix that more closely matched Sepharad's?

As to what to roll back and what not to...

I am particularly concerned about ayin and ches, as the Rambam singles them
out as letters that could pasl one's qeri'as Shema.

I also asked about mil'eil vs milera, sheva na and nach, the lengths of
tenu'os chatufos and osios degushos. Are these all considered errors, or a
valid havarah not to care? And if the latter, how many Jews have to not know
about hei also having a patach genuvah before the sheim officially shifts from
E-loah to E-loha?

As I pointed out in my previous post, RAK hadn't given up on enforcing proper
diqduq, and did not consider pronouncing sheva na and sheva nach identically
(as either) to be halachically valid.

Thanks for the book reference,
:-)..ii|iiii and sheTir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
http://www.aishdas.org   and it flies away.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter