Editing Modern Hebrew phonology (section)

==Stress==
Stress is phonemic in Modern Hebrew. There are two frequent patterns of [[Stress (linguistics)|lexical stress]], on the last syllable (''{{Transliteration|he|milrá}}'' {{lang|he|rtl=yes|מִלְּרַע}}) and on the penultimate syllable (''{{Transliteration|he|mil‘él}}'' {{lang|he|rtl=yes|מִלְּעֵיל}}). Final stress has traditionally been more frequent, but in the colloquial language many words are shifting to penultimate stress. Contrary to the [[Linguistic prescription|prescribed standard]], some words exhibit stress on the antepenultimate syllable or even farther back. This often occurs in [[loanword]]s, e.g. {{lang|he|rtl=yes|פּוֹלִיטִיקָה}} {{IPA|/poˈlitika/}} ('politics'), and sometimes in native colloquial compounds, e.g. {{lang|he|rtl=yes|אֵיכְשֶׁהוּ}} {{IPA|/ˈeχʃehu/}} ('somehow').<ref>Yaakov Choueka, ''Rav-Milim: A comprehensive dictionary of Modern Hebrew'' 1997, CET</ref> Colloquial stress has often shifted from the last syllable to the penultimate, e.g. {{lang|he|rtl=yes|כּוֹבַע}} 'hat', normative {{IPA|/koˈvaʕ/}} (Ezekiel 38 5) or {{IPA|/ˈkovaʕ/}} (Isaiah 59 17), colloquial (always) {{IPA|/ˈkovaʕ/}}; {{lang|he|rtl=yes|שׁוֹבָךְ}} ('[[dovecote]]'), normative {{IPA|/ʃoˈvaχ/}}, colloquial {{IPA|/ˈʃovaχ/}}. This shift is common in the colloquial pronunciation of many personal names, for example {{lang|he|rtl=yes|דָּוִד}} ('David'), normative {{IPA|/daˈvid/}}, colloquial {{IPA|/ˈdavid/}}.<ref>Netser, Nisan, ''Niqqud halakha le-maase'', 1976, p. 11.</ref>

Historically, stress was phonemic, but bore low [[functional load]]. While minimal pairs existed (e.g. {{lang|he|rtl=yes|בָּֽנוּ}} {{IPA|/ˈbaːnuː/}}, 'in/with us' and {{lang|he|rtl=yes|בָּנֽוּ}} {{IPA|/baːˈnuː/}}, 'they built'), stress was mostly predictable, depending on [[syllable weight]] (that is, [[vowel length]] and whether a syllable ended in a consonant). Because spoken Israeli Hebrew has lost gemination (a common source of syllable-final consonants) as well as the original distinction between long and short vowels, but the position of the stress often remained where it had been, stress has become phonemic, as the following table illustrates. Phonetically, the following word pairs differ only in the location of the stress; orthographically they differ also in the written representation of vowel length of the vowels (assuming the vowels are even written):

{|class=wikitable style="text-align:center"
|-
!rowspan=2|<small>Usual spelling<br />([[ktiv hasar niqqud]])</small>
|rowspan=5 style="width:1px;overflow:hidden"|
!colspan=3|<small>Penultimate stress</small>
|rowspan=5 style="width:1px;overflow:hidden"|
!colspan=3|<small>Final stress</small>
|-
!<small>spelling with<br>[[niqqud|vowel diacritics]]</small>
!<small>pronunciation</small>
!<small>translation</small>
!<small>spelling with<br>[[niqqud|vowel diacritics]]</small>
!<small>pronunciation</small>
!<small>translation</small>
|-
|{{lang|he|rtl=yes|ילד}}||{{lang|he|rtl=yes|יֶלֶד}}||{{IPA|/ˈjeled/}}||boy||{{lang|he|rtl=yes|יֵלֵד}}||{{IPA|/jeˈled/}}||will give birth (m.sg. 3rd person)
|-
|{{lang|he|rtl=yes|אכל, אוכל}}||{{lang|he|rtl=yes|אֹכֶל}}||{{IPA|/ˈoχel/}}||food||{{lang|he|rtl=yes|אוֹכֵל}}||{{IPA|/oˈχel/}}||eating (m.sg.)
|-
|{{lang|he|rtl=yes|בקר, בוקר}}||{{lang|he|rtl=yes|בֹּקֶר}}||{{IPA|/ˈbokeʁ/}}||morning||{{lang|he|rtl=yes|בּוֹקֵר}}||{{IPA|/boˈkeʁ/}}||cowboy
|}