Postby Brzeczyszczykiewicz » 2020-04-25, 21:33
Shalom!
Indeed, the word "אור" is pronounced "or", and that's because the "א" in it is actually silent and only serves as a support for the "o" sound of the "ו".
This is a rule of written Hebrew and, simply put, it states that no Hebrew syllable may begin with a vowel, and so, if a word begins with a vowel sound, then that word will be written either with an "א" or an "ע" at the start.
Some more examples of this are:
אי ("i") - island
אבן ("even") - stone
אני ("ani") - I (the personal pronoun)
אולי ("ulai") - perhaps
עיר ("ir") - city
עור ("or") - skin
עוגה ("uga") - cake
עזרה ("ezra") - help
For the word "אור" to be pronounced "alvar" or "avar" you would have to change its spelling:
אלוור / אלבר - "alvar"
אוור / אבר - "avar"