To aid the reader in pronouncing the transliterated Hebrew words that appear in this text, we have adopted the following rules:
a, e, o, u = the short pronunciation of the vowel
aa=“ah-ah” as in yaar, pronounced “yah-ar”
ai=long “i” as in zain, pronounced “zine”
ea=“ay-ah” as in the word meah, pronounced “may-ah”
ei=long “a” as in beis, pronounced “base”
i=long “e” as in min, pronounced “mean”
ch=a guttural sound made by forcing air through the closure formed by the back of the tongue against the palate, as in the words Chanukah and challah.
Alef-Beis Chart
Pronunciation and Gematria
Rabbi, please tell me what the Hebraic pronunciation of "rabbi" is?
In English the first part is pronounced like "rabbit", and the final i is pronounced as "eye" - that is, rabb-eye.
Is that how it is in Hebrew?
Thanking you in anticipation.
(Disclaimer: I’m not the Rav.)
The Hebrew word for Rabbi is רַב, pronounced “Rav”.¹
“Rabbi” comes from the Hebrew word רַבִּי, pronounced “Rab-bee”.²
¹The A vowel, in Rabbinic Hebrew (where this term originates) and Modern Israeli Hebrew, is the “open central unrounded vowel” (see the Wikipedia article’s recording).
²The “b” was geminated (elongated) in Rabbinic and Biblical Hebrew. However, most traditional Ashkenazic pronunciations of Hebrew have lost gemination. This affected Modern Israeli Hebrew, which also lacks gemination.