The hard and soft Dalet (ד, דּ)
The letter Dalet is among the seven letters that have a double, hard and soft, pronunciation: בּגד כּפת. The hard Dalet is known to be just like the letter D, and there are no disagreements about it. There are some places where it’s sometimes pronounced like a Taw (T), primarily at the end of a word. For example, the word Tameed (תמיד), Wa’ed (ועד), it sounds like “Tameet” and “Wa’et.” People should be careful to pronounce it correctly consistently.
The pronunciation of the soft Dalet has been forgotten in all Jewish congregations, Ashkenazim, Sephardim and Mizrahim, with the exception of the Yemenites. To a certain extent, the inhabitants of Babylon were also familiar with it. Since we have forgotten it, we are obliged to learn its pronunciation from the Yemenites and Babylon, to return its crown to its former glory.
The pronunciation of the soft Dalet is like the letter Dhal (ذ) or the digraph “th,” as in the word “the” in English. It’s similar to the letter Zayn (ז) except that the tongue protrudes a little between the teeth. This is why we find the soft Dalet sometimes being exchanged with the letter Zayn. For example: Zahav-Dhahab, ZevaH-DhabaH, Zaroa’-Adhra’ and others (comparing Hebrew and Arabic words). It’s especially important to be careful with the pronunciation of the soft Dalet when reciting the Shema’ when saying the word EHadh (אחד) because it’s required to lengthen it and this is only possible when pronounced correctly…
I’ll point out that there’s something special about the double letters בּגד כּפת that sets them apart from the other letters. Namely, that each one of these letters has, in practice, three forms of pronunciation. Hard with a Dagesh Hazaq, hard with a Dagesh Qal and soft. For example, the letter Beth (בּ), when it’s hard with a Dagesh Hazaq, it’s pronunciation is double. Rabbah (רבּה) is said as if it were רבּבּה. Hard with a Dagesh Qal as in Bara (בּרא) or Harbe (הרבּה). The Beth is hard with a Dagesh Qal and its pronunciation is just like the letter B, but without any doubling. When it has no Dagesh at all, then its pronunciation is soft like the letter V. The Dagesh Qal should absolutely never be pronounced double…
