Are you makpid on ע ?

Since the sound of the “Ayin” is absent from all Indo-European (a.k.a. Aryan) languages, virtually all Ashkenazim and many Sefardim will find it very difficult to pronounce it. The same goes (for English speakers) with the sounds associated with Aleph, Hes, Chaf and Heh.

Given the Hebrew has always been a living language (contrary to zionist propaganda that Hebrew died out millenia ago and was re-invented by Ben Yehudah & friends), the prononciation and grammar are constantly changing.

Akuperma is right, except that literary Hebrew never died, but spoken Hebrew did. (a trivial point, it is pronunciation).
I’ll add to Akuperma’s list the letters that Ashkenazim pronounce differently than North Africans and Middle Easterners.
The Gimel, Vav, Tet, Samech, Tzadi (k), Kuf, Resh, Sin, and Tav.
So the OP’s question is misleading, it’s not only the Ayin.

Only with the name Yaakov. No idea why so many of us have that minhag.

Its not a matter of “differences”. It is actually mentioned in Shu”A and based on the Gemara in Megila 24b, it was simply forgotten…lost within the years.

As the following in OC siman 128 :
מי שאינו יודע לחתוך האותיות כגון שאומר לאלפי”ן עייני”ן ולעייני”ן אלפי”ן וכיוצא בזה לא ישא את כפיו:
Mishna Brurah:

לאלפין עיינין – וה”ה מי שקורא לחיתי”ן ההי”ן או שקורא לשבולת סבולת ואם כל בני עירו קוראין כך מותר לישא כפים שם באותו מקום. ומטעם זה כתבו האחרונים דבזמנינו שרוב בני עמנו אין יודעים להבחין בין הברת העי”ן לאל”ף ממילא מותר לישא כפיו

Yabia

Do you pronounce ת thav or tav?

The teimanim don’t have a strong mesorah

Nev,
“Only with the name Yaakov. No idea why so many of us have that minhag.”

That proves my above point that the Ayin as in “Yankev” is actually the true pronunciation, (as in the Gemara megilah,) with the years it got lost, but it still stuck to the name “Yankev”.

BTW – The Brisker Rav ZTL said Krias Shma with the Ayin.

The Teimanim have pronunciations closest to Har Sinai. Much better than Ashkenazim or Sephardim.

And you know this how? I can assure you, Hebrew has no J sound. Temanim picked it up from Arabic.

Anyone who is not makpid on the ע in keriat shema says apikorsut. He says השם נשבה לאבותינו, which means that He was captured c”v. Similarly, those who pronounce the chaf like the kaf say that Hashem destroys the world out of chesed c”v. On the other hand. those who overcompensate say that געל ישראל instead of גאל ישראל, which is also very bad.

As for the צ, it is clear that at one time it was similar to the “s” sound as the word for stadium in אצטדיון (the א was due to the fact that they could not pronounce a sheva nach at the beginning of a word (Arabs also often do this). Apparently Ashkenazim did not change their pronunciation until later as one of the Baalei Tosafot is
רבי אליעזר ממץ. In French the name of the city is pronounced with a long “s” (you can hear it by going into the Wikipedia article on the city).

Regarding picking up sounds from other languages, it is clear that pronouncing the cholem “oy” or a long “o” (e.g. kosher) comes from Slavic influences. Pronouncing it like an “i” comes from the German ü.

Are you makpid on differentiating between ג and גּ? What about תּ and ט?

I’m certainly not encouraging people not to with the shema.

It’s worth mentioning, however, that people from NYC don’t seem to be able to pronounce the guttural sound involved in the sounds, “ing,” “ang,” and “ong.” If they tried out this chashash and ended up saying “shemon-guh yisroel…” they would probably be doing more harm than good.

YO,

Besod,
Sephardic Middle Eastern Jews Pronounce five different vowel sounds which is Babylonian Origin
ashkenazic non Hasidic Jews make 7 different vowel sounds which was of Galilean origin
Yemenite make six different vowel sounds which seems to have been of Judean origin

As They were by and large contemporaneous there’s no proof one is better than the other Though there is sourced basis that the Sephardic pronunciation has more flaws

Neville’s remark about “ong” reminded me that the Dutch Jews use “ong” for ע, saying “shmong Yisrael” and so on. As for New Yorkers and others who have a hard time with this or that letter, usually it isn’t that big a deal to add a new sound to the repertoire. Arabs who go to the trouble pick up “p” perfectly. As for me, I make it my business to learn and say ע and ח in leining and in talking because the letters are there and, since I casually refer to Hebrew as לשון הקודש, I may as well talk the talk, too. If as an Ashkenazi I need an excuse for doing to (although no one has asked me for one), it’s enough to mention the great ba’al qore at Lederman’s shul, who is maqpid loud enough for hundreds of people to hear.

Neville: I agree with your statement as a whole but is there really a “sfaradi” havara? Iraqis and Syrians are close to one another but not the same; Moroccans and Tunisians are very different from Iraqis and Syrians, Iranian, Bukharian and Afghani pronunciations are similar to one another but are very different from the rest, etc.

Having studied the subject for a bit, it seems to me (for the little that its worth) that Iraqi/Baghdadi is the most authentic and almost everyone else stands equal-distanced, in one form or another, from the Iraqi pronunciation (except the chassishe pronunciation which stands very distant from Iraqi).

Besalel, it is most likely that every tribe had its own pronunciation as with other languages (e.g. Boston and NY accents). We know for a fact that Ephraimites pronounced the shin like a samech. It seems that during the time of the Tannaim there was a difference between Judea and the Galil as Beruria knew immediately that Rabbi Yossi haGlili was from there (Eruvin 53b). In later periods there were places where people did not differentiate between ח and ה or א and ע (Megilla 24b).