[b-hebrew] Was Schewa really silent?
Uri Hurwitz
uhurwitz at yahoo.com
Tue Sep 4 11:49:19 EDT 2007
George Athas:
.."If the shewa is silent within a word, why the need to mark some gutturals
with a composite shewa, but not others? What is the governing factor
there?"
The Masoretes (Naqdanim) simply were not always consistent, and no
regularity can be discerned in their inconsistency, for if there had been
one it would have been noted by biblical grammarians a long time ago.
It had to do with the sharpness of hearing: they detected a slight movement
in even a silent guttoral and marked this with a "furtive vowel", that is with
a Ha(.)Ta(.)F.
Whether this was ever pronounced as a full vowel as in modern Heb.
is another question.
Let's keep in mind that Arabic, in contrast, accepts a full silent guttoral
( with a 'Skun'),but established the 'Hamza' for Alephs with a glottal stop;
the masoretes, on the other had found no need for such a marker.
Uri Hurwitz
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