Topic summary
Ashkenazi pronunciation
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Ashkenazi Hebrew.
History
Several pre-modern scholars among European Jewry, including Judah Loew ben Bezalel, Jacob Emden, and several others, argued that Ashkenazi Hebrew is the most accurate pronunciation of Hebrew preserved. The reason given is that it preserves distinctions, such as between pataḥ and qamaṣ, which are not reflected in the Sephardic and other dialects. Only in the Ashkenazi pronunciation are all seven "nequdot" (the Hebrew vowels of the ancient Tiberian tradition) distinguished: Yemenite, which comes close, does not distinguish pataḥ from segol.