The Letter Teth (ט)
We’ve already mentioned, in several places, that the Holy Tongue does not have two letters of identical pronunciation. Therefore, the letter Teth (ט) is not the same as the hard Taw (תּ), As the Radaq (R. Yosef Qimhi lived in 12th century Spain) wrote in his book Mikhlol (page 73) that one must be careful to distinguish between the Teth (ט) and the hard Taw (תּ), For its correct pronunciation is the same as Arabic Ta (ط). It’s similar to the hard Taw (תּ) but stronger. It comes from deep in the throat* and it’s well-known among Jews of Arabic lands.
Even though it’s possible to strengthen the pronunciation of each letter and make it different from the soft and intermediate forms, nevertheless, in the Hebrew alphabet there are only two letters that are unique in this regard. They are the Teth (ט) and the Sade (צ), which parallel the hard Taw (תּ) and the Semakh (ס). Therefore, we must be careful to pronounce them only in their soft and intermediate forms, because if we strengthen them, the Taw (תּ) will turn into a Teth (ט) and the Semakh (ס) will turn into a Sade (צ). The opposite is also true if we soften the pronunciation of the Teth (ט) and the Sade (צ), the Teth (ט) will turn into a Taw (תּ) (just as we see with most of the public today) and the Sade (צ) will turn into a Semakh (ס), as has happened with some of the Sephardic and Ashkenazic populations in the past. Only recently have the Ashkenazim added a T sound to the Sade (צ) and made it sound as if it’s TS sound (תּס or טס). We shall delve into this at length later on.
Therefore, it’s important to avoid pronouncing the words שׁופט and שׁוטר as if they’re שׁופת and שׁותר or the words מטה and חטה as if they’re מיתה and חיתה. Similarly with the word ישׂראל, one should be careful to pronounce the Sin (שׂ) softly for it it’s strengthened, it sounds like יצראל, and the same applies in all similar situations.
*I’m not sure why the author put it this way, since this letter is definitely not a guttural letter. The tip of the tongue is placed on the pallet just behind the upper teeth. The actual difference between the Teth (ט) and the Taw (תּ) is that the former is voiced and the latter is not.
