The state of stop-fricative alternation in Modern Hebrew

The stops [p, b, k] often alternate with respective fricatives [f, v, chi] in Modern Hebrew (MH). This general pattern was designed to follow the spirantization process of Biblical Hebrew as it was depicted in the Masoretic orthography. While this orthography is retained in MH, its phonological infrastructure is very different from that of Biblical Hebrew, and it cannot support a phonological process of spirantization. This problematic state of affairs has been a source of confusion for many language users, as well as a source of interest for many language researchers. This paper overviews the current state of affairs with respect to the stop-fricative alternation in MH, emphasizing cases of systematic stability and instability. The apparent patterns seem to reflect speakers' limited yet impressive ability to recruit their native knowledge of morphology and orthography to generalize a pseudo-phonological rule.