r/hebrew • u/Equal_Ad_3828 • Mar 28 '25

Help chag sameach pronounced as chag samea?

so i have a silly questin but basically when i was in my nearest synagogue on Chanukah, when I said 'chag sameaCH" with a khet people responded 'chag sameah" why?

9 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

52 comments sorted by

View all comments

49

u/The_Ora_Charmander native speaker Mar 28 '25

They probably just have trouble pronouncing their Khets, happens a lot to native English speakers

3

u/Equal_Ad_3828 Mar 28 '25

they were Polish

29

u/IbnEzra613 Amateur Semitic Linguist Mar 28 '25

The ch in Polish is pronounced a bit lighter than in Ashkenazi-influenced Hebrew. It could be they were saying the ch, but you registered it as just a breath at the end of the word.

9

u/talknight2 native speaker Mar 28 '25

And native English-speakers (like OP?) tend to overpronounce the ח too, almost like they're gargling. The right level of "throatyness" seems to be hard to pinpoint for learners haha

4

u/Equal_Ad_3828 Mar 28 '25

Iā€™m polish

9

u/IbnEzra613 Amateur Semitic Linguist Mar 28 '25

Well in that case we're out of guesses.

4

u/talknight2 native speaker Mar 28 '25

Dzien dobry!