I am honestly not sure what you mean. I try to pronounce things a) according to halakhah and b) as Haza"l did in their time period. B) is explorable, as is pronunciation of languages generally in ancient time periods, through transliterations people did at the time and sometimes through a good description or two. We have some good descriptions and comparisons with Arabic from Rav Saadiah Gaon. More cautiously we can also be somewhat informed by knowledge we might have of other languages at the time/place.
I don't think "aleph" has ever been transliterated in a way that would indicate something other than the gutteral breath stop which I mentioned above. Rasa"g doesn't seem to find anything unusual in the letter. I also find it tough to imagine what noise a person could make with their throats that wouldn't be covered by the other gutterals, khaf, and ghimmel.
If you want to say that in "Biblical times" aleph was different from the way Haza"l pronounced it, that's fine, I just would want at least some evidence why.
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Date: 2012-01-24 08:08 pm (UTC)I don't think "aleph" has ever been transliterated in a way that would indicate something other than the gutteral breath stop which I mentioned above. Rasa"g doesn't seem to find anything unusual in the letter. I also find it tough to imagine what noise a person could make with their throats that wouldn't be covered by the other gutterals, khaf, and ghimmel.
If you want to say that in "Biblical times" aleph was different from the way Haza"l pronounced it, that's fine, I just would want at least some evidence why.