Hebrew s’s and t’s: a timeline

A friend asks: what’s the deal with all the different Hebrew s sounds—ס, שׁ, שׂ, ת, צ—historically? How would they have been pronounced by Moses, David, or Ezra?¹

Here’s an overview of how these sibilants, and relatedly the plosives ת and ט, were pronounced at different points in time, with some reconstructed example words. I won’t give a detailed argumentation for every reconstruction, but I’ll note the kind of evidence we have for each period.

Each table of reconstructions links to a voice recording.

Proto-Semitic up to the Late Bronze Age

Ancestors of Hebrew probably preserved the Proto-Semitic values of these sounds, which we can reconstruct based on comparison to other Semitic languages, up to the late 2nd millennium BCE. Evidence also comes from transcriptions in Egyptian hieroglyphs and from the way the Northwest Semitic alphabet was borrowed into Greek.

The שׁ mostly goes back to a plain *s sound. Some words with שׁ originally had a *θ as in think. The שׂ was a voiceless lateral fricative, *ɬ. ס was originally an affricate, *^ts. The צ derives from the ejective counterparts of the last three sounds: *θ’, *ɬ’, and *^ts’. The ת/תּ used to be a plain *t in every position, while the ט was its ejective version, *t’.

Reconstructions ca. 13th century BCE (Moses?):

*yasūḫǝ	‘he sinks’
*yaθūbǝ	‘he goes back’
*yaɬīmǝ	‘he puts’
*yanūtsǝ	‘he flees’
*yarūθ’ǝ	‘he runs’
*yalūɬ’ǝ	‘he mocks’
*yats’ūmǝ	‘he fasts’
*yatūrǝ	‘he travels’
*yayt’ībǝ	‘he does well’

First Temple Period

A bunch of mergers and chain shifts take place before we get to Hebrew proper. The *s and *θ merge and then shift back a bit to become a postalveolar *š. The old *^ts loses its affrication and becomes a new plain sibilant *s. The corresponding ejectives merge but probably could be pronounced with or without a little t preceding: *^(t)s’.

It’s hard to date these changes. I assume they’re reflected in Neo-Assyrian transcriptions but I’m not actually sure about that, would have to check (and it could be hard to see in the cuneiform script). Egyptian might be useful here too, but I don’t recall reading about that kind of evidence either.

Reconstructions ca. 10th century BCE (King David):

*yašūḫ	‘he sinks’
*yašūb	‘he goes back’
*yaɬīm	‘he puts’
*yanūs	‘he flees’
*yarūs’	‘he runs’
*yalūɬ’	‘he mocks’
*yas’ūm	‘he fasts’
*yatūr	‘he travels’
*yēt’īb	‘he does well’

Second Temple Period

At some point, the plosive *t became aspirated: this is consistently reflected in Greek transcriptions of Hebrew, Phoenician, and, well, every Semitic language, really. As argued by Ola Wikander in a paper that I don’t think is available online, the ejectives like *t’ may also have begun to have had a ‘darker’, uvularized pronunciation (as in Arabic) this early already. The lateral fricative and ejective merged with the sibilants at some point during the Second Temple Period, resulting in some variation between שׂ and ס in certain Biblical texts.

Reconstructions ca. 5th-4th century BCE (Ezra the Scribe):

*yāšūḫ	‘he sinks’
*yāšūb	‘he goes back’
*yāsīm	‘he puts’
*yānūs	‘he flees’
*yārūs’	‘he runs’
*yālūs’	‘he mocks’
*yās’ūm	‘he fasts’
*yāthūr	‘he travels’
*yēt’īb	‘he does well’

Roman Period

Another change that is hard to date: when the non-emphatic plosives (*bgdk^hp^ht^h) follow a vowel, they become fricatives (*vʁðχfθ) at a certain point. This brings us close to the last shared ancestor of the surviving Jewish pronunciations of Hebrew, which can be reconstructed based on its descendants as well as Greek and Latin transcriptions.

Reconstructions ca. 2nd century CE (Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi):

*yāšūaḥ	‘he sinks’
*yāšūv	‘he goes back’
*yāsīm	‘he puts’
*yānūs	‘he flees’
*yārūs’	‘he runs’
*yālūs’	‘he mocks’
*yās’ūm	‘he fasts’
*yāθūr	‘he travels’
*yēt’īv	‘he does well’

Tiberian Hebrew

Jews that spoke Arabic in their daily lives, which includes the Tiberian Masoretes, used the Arabic realization for the original ejectives: *s’ and *t’ become *sʶ and *tʶ. For the reconstruction of Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation, see Khan (2020; Open Access).

Reconstructions ca. 10th century CE, Tiberias (Aaron ben Moses ben Asher):

*yɔ̄šūaḥ יָשׁוּחַ	‘he sinks’
*yɔ̄šūv יָשׁוּב	‘he goes back’
*yɔ̄sīm יָשִׂים	‘he puts’
*yɔ̄nūs יָנוּס	‘he flees’
*yɔ̄ʀūsʶ יָרוּץ	‘he runs’
*yɔ̄lūsʶ יָלוּץ	‘he mocks’
*yɔ̄sʶūm יָצוּם	‘he fasts’
*yɔ̄θūrʶ יָתוּר	‘he travels’
*yētʶīv יֵיטִב	‘he does well’

Many pronunciations from the Arab world realize ת as t instead of θ (Yemen is a notable exception), I guess because their dialects of Arabic shift θ to t too.

Ashkenazi Hebrew

Similarly, the Ashkenazi pronunciations were shaped by the sounds of Yiddish. As no θ was available, s was used as the next best thing. The ejectives lost their ejectivity, with the t of the *^(t)s’ becoming mandatory.

Reconstructions ca. 10th century CE, Ashkenaz (Rabbeinu Gershom):

*yɔ̄šūaḫ יָשׁוּחַ	‘he sinks’
*yɔ̄šūv יָשׁוּב	‘he goes back’
*yɔ̄sīm יָשִׂים	‘he puts’
*yɔ̄nūs יָנוּס	‘he flees’
*yɔ̄rūts יָרוּץ	‘he runs’
*yɔ̄lūts יָלוּץ	‘he mocks’
*yɔ̄tsūm יָצוּם	‘he fasts’
*yɔ̄sūr יָתוּר	‘he travels’
*yeitīv יֵיטִב	‘he does well’

And t^ha^ts it’!

1. I’m going to provide Biblical and Jewish celebrities as a reference for each reconstruction given below. Especially for the older ones, this isn’t meant to endorse the way the Bible depicts them as 100% historical. ↩︎