Editing Modern Hebrew phonology (section)

===Shva===
{{Main|shva}}
Modern pronunciation does not follow traditional use of the [[niqqud]] (diacritic) "[[shva]]". In Modern Hebrew, words written with a shva may be pronounced with either {{IPA|/e/}} or without any vowel, and this does not correspond well to how the word was pronounced historically. For example, the first shva in the word {{lang|he|rtl=yes|קִמַּטְתְּ}} 'you (fem.) crumpled' is pronounced {{IPA|/e/}} ({{IPA|/kiˈmatet/}}) though historically it was silent, whereas the shva in {{lang|he|rtl=yes|זְמַן}} ('time'), which was pronounced historically, is usually silent ({{IPA|[zman]}}). Orthographic ''shva'' is generally pronounced {{IPA|/e/}} in prefixes such as ''ve-'' ('and') and ''be-'' ('in'), or when following another shva in grammatical patterns, as in {{IPA|/tilmeˈdi/}} ('you [f. sg.] will learn'). An epenthetic {{IPA|/e/}} appears when necessary to avoid violating a phonological constraint, such as between two consonants that are identical or differ only in voicing (e.g. {{IPA|/la'madeti/}} 'I learned', not {{IPA|*/la'madti/}}) (though this rule is lost in some younger speakers and quick speech) or when an impermissible initial cluster would result (e.g. {{IPA|*/rC-/}} or {{IPA|*/Cʔ-/}}, where ''C'' stands for any consonant). Guttural consonants (א, ה, ח, ע) rarely take a shva. Instead, they can take reduced segol (חֱ), reduced patach (חֲ), or reduced kamatz (חֳ).