As an ashkenazi Israeli, I can tell you that we do not use the “os” or “th” pronunciations at all (unless we’re making fun of those that do). For us, the letter “tav” is pronounced like a “t”.
I believe the pronunciation you are referring to is derived from yiddish (i.e. “os”), which is derived from various languages including german, polish, hebrew, etc. The “s” sound probably comes directly from german, as in “waser” (water) or “was” (what).
As for “th”, I’m not sure if it falls under the same category or not. I can tell you that in Israel you will see many signs with the english spelling of a hebrew word that when pronounced sounds completely different than the hebrew pronunciation. For example, there is a town about 20 miles northeast of Tel Aviv called “Kfar Saba”. But when you look at the road signs, it will be spelled “Kefar Sava”.
Another phenomenon is the overuse of the letter “Q” when spelling hebrew names/locations in English. And get this…they don’t even honor it with a “U” after the “Q”. The nerve! Or should I say chutzpah. For example, the location where the dead sea scrolls were discovered is pronounced “kumran” in hebrew, yet the road signs have it spelled “Qumran” in English. Another one is the largest city in the upper Galilee which is pronounced “Kiryat Shmona” in hebrew but is spelled as “Qiryat Shmona” on the road signs.
I once read that the reason for these alternate spellings has to do with the origin of the alphabet. Meaning, that although English and Hebrew are distinct languages, their alphabetic roots are tied, so that certain hebrew letters correlate directly to certain english letters and are therefore used as such (i.e. the letter “kuf” = the letter “q”).
Another factor is how Israelis so easily absorb slang and acronyms into their daily modern hebrew lexicon, and therefore certain words and pronunciations get distorted from their original form.
Also, the fact that hebrew was not originally a spoken language (in biblical times), but was transformed into modern hebrew by Eliezer Ben Yehuda probably explains certain inconsistencies between the original hebrew, modern hebrew and its correlation to other languages.
talito - have you ever even heard of anyone pronouncing a tav as a “th”? It’s sometimes transliterated that way, but I’ve never actually anyone speaking Hebrew with any accent pronounce it that way.
You’re right, I have not heard it pronounced that way.
Don’t get me started on the whole “bet” v. “vet” thing. My gosh, let’s create two letters that look the same except for one little dot. With the dot (IIRC), you pronounce it “b-” but without the dot, you pronounce in “v-”. AND when we write it out on signs etc., don’t use the dot (or any other vowel) EVER.
What a language…but you got to love it, the only language that can be written by us left-handed people without smearing the words.
- Not, I can’t remember if the “bet” or the “vet” has the dot so apologies if I got it bas-ackwards.
There are actually a lot of cool things about the language. Like the fact that you can combine words so that a sentence that would require 5 words in English would only take a single word in Hebrew.
For example, the word “ahavtich” in Hebrew means “I used to love you” (to a woman) in English.
Sigh You think you’ve got it bad…
I tend to use a modern Hebrew Ashkenazic pronounciation. I pronounce a cholom with a long “o” sound. I differentiate between letters with a dagesh (dot) and those without.
My sons go to a yeshivish yeshiva (if you don’t understand, don’t worry, it’s not too important). They use an Ashkenazic pronounciation with a yeshivish bent. They pronounce a cholom with an “oy” sound (as in Toy-rah – which grates on my nerves).
My daughter goes to a school where they are teaching with a Sephardic pronounciation.
So, in our family, we would pronounce the same word avos three different ways. I say uh-vohs, my sons say uh-voys, and my daughter says ah-voht.
And then there are kids that I teach bar mitzvah lessons to who speak with the chassidic vowelization…
Zev Steinhardt
Um, other languages are written right to left, too. Arabic, for instance.
My four letter name in English is FIVE letters in Hebrew (in the best way of spelling it I’ve found so far). Which is totally silly.
You need to make them STOP THIS NOW, before it gets out of hand! That accent is horrible horrible horrible!
Tell me about it. I try to correct them, but their teachers speak this way too.
It’s a habit I broke myself of years ago. I’m sure that my kids will overcome it one day too.
Zev Steinhardt
Getting back to the OP for a minute…
The suffix -im, as has been pointed out, is a plural. Specifically, it is used for masculine plurals. This can also be applied to nationalities. Thus:
Nation English One person Plural
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Mitzrayim Egypt Mitzri Mitzri'y**im**
C'na'an Canaan C'Na'ani C'Na'an**im**
Yisrael Israel Yisraeli Yisrael**im**
Moav Moab Moavi Moav**im**
Zev Steinhardt
Come on guys! Use more ;js. He gets an outing so rarely 
FTR I know a little Hebrew - about one letter.
Ha. Well, I don’t have sidecurls. Maybe if there was a chick smilie with a tallis, I’d use it.
Actually, I don’t have a tallis either. But I want one. I am very very very interested in them. (Yes, I am awaer that this is a strange obsession.) I can’t really justify getting one, though, considering how rarely I go to Saturday services. I’m moving in a few months, though, maybe I’ll live within walking distance of a shul.
How about tfilin? Any interest there?
Zev, I sympathize about the "oy"s. It’s the reason I stopped listening to Hebrew music. Thank G-d my sons’ teachers don’t suffer from this affliction.
As for the “th” used for “tav”, I think it was used in early (e.g., prior to 1950) English transliteration to distinguish the “tav” from the “samech” or “sin”. Not in keeping with actual pronounciation, but I guess those transliterators felt a distinction needed to be made.
No, for some reason the tfillin don’t inspire the same interest in me that the tallis does.
Is tfillin an Aramaic word?
First, to {b]Kyla** and anybody else I possibly offended, I spoke a little quickly when I said “but you got to love it, the only language that can be written by us left-handed people without smearing the words.” I should have said “the only other language I know (i.e. I know a bit of not I know about)”.
But on to the tallis. Sunday is my daughter’s naming. At her naming, I’m going to be giving her the tallis my father gave me at my bar mitzvah. So, wanting/having a tallis by a woman isn’t strange at all.
No, it’s Hebrew. It’s a pair of t’fillin. The singular is t’filah (just like the word for prayer).
Zev Steinhardt
Hey, Fin_man, congrats on your daughter. I don’t think it’s weird for women to wear tallises (tallitot?). My strong interest in them is a litte off-the-wall though.
zev, why the “-in” plural, then?
I actually do think it may be aramaic. Otherwise a pair of “tfilah” would be “tfilot” , not “tfilin.”
The “in” ending is typical of aramaic (i.e. mesubin, tipin).
Thanks (re Hannah - aka my daughter). As for the tallisim, if you think your interest is a little off-the-wall, ok I’ll agree. However, go for it. Get one. Come on, all the cool kids have one.