[b-hebrew] Shva merahephet
Peter Kirk
peterkirk at qaya.org
Thu Jun 24 12:26:47 EDT 2004
On 24/06/2004 08:25, Harold R. Holmyard III wrote:
> ... the previous shewa, which you call a shva merahephet.
>
> HH: I believe that some grammars call this a shewa medium (see
> Waltke-O'Connor 36.1.1c). Gesenius-Kautzsch-Cowley 10d states that
> originally the shewa was thought to be part of a "loosely closed" or
> "wavering" syllable. ...
Vadim's "merahephet" is of course the same word which we were recently
discussing concerning Genesis 1:2, meaning "hovering", "gliding" or
perhaps "nesting". "Wavering" might well be another good translation,
though not suitable in Genesis.
> But this distinction has now been abandoned. The syllables are really
> closed, and the original vowel is not merely shortened but entirely
> elided. The fact that a following BeGadKePHaTH letter remains spirant
> (soft) instead of taking the dagesh lene is understood on the
> "supposition that the change from hard to spirant is older than the
> elision of the vowel, and that a prehistoric malakai (e.g.) became
> malakhai before being shortened to malkhey.
>
> HH: I don't know what the most current thinking about this is. There
> is a newer grammar by Muroaka that I don't have. Waltke-O'Connor
> 1.6.3d states that the MT may reflect post-biblical developments in
> the double pronunciation of the "begadkephat" letters and that the
> external (i.e., non-biblical) evidence is confused.
>
> HH: Waltke-O'Connor also suggest that the two sounds of the begakephat
> letters are allophones, variant sounds that arise due to the
> linguistic environment. That is, the variation is due to the sounds
> that precede and follow the letter. The variations are aspects of the
> same letter in different environments and do not lead to a contrast in
> meaning.
>
> HH: So any information that you have on this topic would be helpful.
>
> Yours,
> Harold Holmyard
>
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--
Peter Kirk
peter at qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk at qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/
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