I worked in Haifa.

[I see you]

Hi,

I heard someone say "avadti beHayfa" but later on he said "avatti beHayfa". Is the former formal and the latter colloquial? Toda raba!

 

[slus]

The formal pronunciation is avdadeti beHeyfah.
Avadti beHayfa is the common colloquial pronunciation. I've never heard anyone day avatti, but it is possible that someone would pronounce it this way.

 

[shalom00]

It comes from speaking fast and slurring the syllables together.

 

[I see you]

I think you meant that the formal pronunciation is avadeti, not avdadeti. Wiktionary says עָבַדְתִּי‎, you see.
By the way, I thought that the two vertical dots indicated the ABSENCE of a vowel, not the vowel "e". That's why I thought the formal pronunciation would be avadti rather than avadeti.

 

[shalom00]

Well, yes, but that is very difficult to say.
Practically, you say a very short e.

 

[Ali Smith]

Well, yes, but that is very difficult to say.
Practically, you say a very short e.

I would have expected the combination dt in avadti (I worked) to become tt, resulting in avatti, at least in formal Hebrew. That's what I hear in another Semitic language, namely Arabic. For example, the formal word أردت (I wanted) is pronounced arattu, never aradtu.

 

[Drink]

Hebrew is not Arabic. And formal Arabic is not colloquial Arabic.

In Levantine Arabic, for example, the word بردت (I became cold) would be pronounced barádet, and سكتت (I was silent) would be pronounced sakátet (source: examples for these words at Lughatuna).

In traditional pronunciation, עבדתי is pronounced 3avádhti anyway.