Begadkefat (also begadkephat, begedkefet) is the name given to a phenomenon of spirantization affecting most plosive consonants of Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic when they are preceded by a vowel and not geminated. The name is also given to similar cases of spirantization of post-vocalic plosives in other languages, for instance, in the Berber language of Djerba[1].
The phenomenon is attributed to the following consonants:
| letter | plosive | fricative | fricative pronunciation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| beth | ("ב") | [b] | becomes | [v] or [β] |
English v or Spanish "soft b" |
| gimel | ("ג") | [ɡ] | becomes | [ɣ] | Greek "gamma" |
| daleth | ("ד") | [d] | becomes | [ð] | English "th" as in "this" |
| kaph | ("כ") | [k] | becomes | [x] ~ [χ] | German "hard ch" as in "Bach" |
| pe | ("פ") | [p] | becomes | [f] or [ɸ] |
English f or Spanish "v" after "h" |
| taw | ("ת") | [t] | becomes | [θ] | English "th" as in "think" |
The name of the phenomenon is made up with these 6 consonants, mixed with haphazard vowels for the sake of pronunciation: BeGaDKePaT. The Hebrew term בֶּגֶ״ד כֶּפֶ״ת (Modern Heb. pronun. /ˌbeɡedˈkefet/) denotes the letters themselves (rather than the phenomenon of spirantization).
Begedkefet spirantization developed sometime during the lifetime of Biblical Hebrew under the influence of Aramaic.[2] Its time of emergence can be found by noting that the Old Aramaic phonemes /θ/, /ð/ disappeared in the 7th century BC.[3] It persisted in Hebrew until the 2nd century CE.[4] During this period all six plosive / fricative pairs were allophonic.
In Modern Hebrew three of the six letters, ב (bet), כ (kaf) and פ (pe), each still denote a plosive – fricative variant pair; these variants are, however, no longer purely allophonic (see below). Although orthographic variants of ג (gimel), ד (dalet) and ת (tav) still exist, these letters' pronunciation always remains acoustically and phonologically indistinguishable[note 1]. In Yiddish, also ת (tav) can denote a fricative variant, which is [s].
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In Hebrew writing with niqqud, a dot in the center of one of these letters, called dagesh ( ּ ), marks the plosive articulation:
A line (similar to a macron) placed above it, called "rafe" ( ֿ ), marks in Yiddish (and rarely in Hebrew) the fricative articulation.
As mentioned above, the fricative variants of [ɡ], [d] and [t] no longer exist in modern Hebrew. (However, Hebrew does have the guttural R consonant /ʁ/ which is the voiced counterpart of /χ/ and often coincides with Mizrahi Hebrew's fricative variant of [ɡ] ḡímel as well as Arabic's غ ġayn, both of which are /ɣ/~/ʁ/. Modern Hebrew ר resh can still sporadically be found standing in for this phoneme, for example in the Hebrew rendering of Raleb (Ghaleb) Majadele's name.) The three remaining pairs /b/~/v/, /k/~/χ/, and /p/~/f/ sometimes still behave allophonically, as demonstrated in inflections of many roots in which the roots' meaning is retained despite variation of begedkefet letters' manner of articulation, e.g.,
| in verbs: | ||
| • בוא ← תבוא | /bo/ → /taˈvo/ | ("come" (imperative) → "you will come"), |
| • שבר ← נשבר | /ʃaˈvaʁ/ → /niʃˈbaʁ/ | ("broke" (transitive) → "broke" (intransitive), |
| • כתב ← יכתוב | /kaˈtav/ → /jiχˈtov/ | ("he wrote" → "he will write"), |
| • זכר ← יזכור | /zaˈχaʁ/ → /jizˈkoʁ/ | ("he remembered" → "he will remember"), |
| • פנית ← לפנות | /paˈnit/ → /lifˈnot/ | ("you (f.) turned" → "to turn"), |
| • שפטת ← לשפוט | /ʃaˈfatet/ → /liʃˈpot/ | ("you (f.) judged" → "to judge "), |
| or in nouns: | ||
| • ערב ← ערביים | /ˈeʁev/ → /aʁˈbajim/ | ("evening" → "twilight"), |
| • מלך ← מלכה | /ˈmeleχ/ → /malˈka/ | ("king" → "queen"), |
| • אלף ← אלפית | /ˈelef/ → /alˈpit/ | ("a thousand" → "a thousandth"), |
however in Israeli Hebrew plosive and fricative variants of ב, כ and פ are sometimes distinct phonemes, compare e.g.:
| • אִפֵּר – אִפֵר | /iˈpeʁ/ – /iˈfeʁ/ | ("applied make up" – "tipped ash"), |
| • פִּסְפֵּס – פִסְפֵס | /pisˈpes/ – /fisˈfes/ | ("striped" – "missed"), |
| • הִתְחַבֵּר – הִתְחַבֵר | /hitχaˈbeʁ/ – /hitχaˈveʁ/ | ("connected" – "made friends (with)"), |
| • הִשְׁתַּבֵּץ – הִשְׁתַּבֵץ | /hiʃtaˈbets/ – /hiʃtaˈvets/ | ("got integrated" – "was shocked"), |
and consider, e.g.:
| • | לככב "to star", whose common pronunciation /lekaˈχev/ preserves the manner of articulation of each kaf in the word it is derived from: כּוֹכָב /koˈχav/ "a star" (first plosive, then fricative), as opposed to the prescribed pronunciation /leχaˈkev/, which regards the variation in pronunciation of kaf /χ/ ←→ /k/ as allophonic and determines its manner of articulation according to historical phonological principles; or: |
| • | similarly, לרכל "to gossip", whose prescribed pronunciation /leʁaˈkel/ is rejected, commonly pronunced /leʁaˈχel/, preserving the fricative manner of articulation in related nouns (e.g. רכילות /ʁeχiˈlut/ "gossip", רכלן /ʁaχˈlan/ "gossiper"). |
This phonemic divergence might be due to a number of factors, amongst others:
| • קפץ ← קיפץ | /kaˈfats/ → /kiˈpets/, historically /kipˈpets/ | ("jumped" → "hopped"), |
| • שבר ← שיבר | /ʃaˈvar/ → /ʃiˈber/, historically /ʃibˈber/ | ("broke" → "shattered"), |
| • שכן ← שיכן | /ʃaˈχan/ → /ʃiˈken/, historically /ʃikˈken/ | ("resided" → "housed"), |