[b-hebrew] Stress periods in Biblical Hebrew

David Steinberg david.l.steinberg at rogers.com
Mon Sep 22 15:08:36 EDT 2008


As many of you will know, one of the best Hebraist cum Arabists of the 
second half of the 20th century was Joshua Blau.
In Torat Hahege Vehatzurot  (1972) and A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew , 
Porta Linguarum Orientalium 1976 (and presumably the upcoming 
/Biblical// Hebrew Phonology and Morphology/, Eisenbrauns, ISBN 
1575061295) Dr. Blau outlined a series of pre-Tiberian stress periods.  
However, he did not state how these stress periods related to the 
historical-cultural periods of ancient Judah. I would be grateful if any 
scholar could respond to the following

-   Would I be correct in understanding that the third Proto-Hebrew (= 
pre-Tiberian) stress period corresponds to the situation of formal 
literary Jerusalem Hebrew of say 750-600 B.C.E. while the changes of the 
fourth Proto-Hebrew stress period might have commenced in the spoken 
Hebrew of that period?*

*  -  In A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (1st. ed.) sect. 9.1.3 Blau wrote 
" At that period, there were still the contrasting forms of the 
indicative yo:'_k_al (ultimate stress) < yo-:'_k_alu, and the jussive 
'yo-_k_al (penultimate stress)." Would I be correct in understanding 
that Blau's view is that this distinction was maintained in the strong 
verb of the third stress period? i.e.

Qal - Indicative - yiq'tol; Jussive - 'yiqtol; Preterite - way'yiqtol

Piel - Indicative - yaqat'til or y?qat'tel; Jussive - ya'qattil or 
y?'qattel; Preterite - wayya'qattil or wayy?'qattel

Niphal - Indicative - yiqqa'til or yiqqa'tel; Jussive - yiq'qatil or 
yiq'qatel; Preterite - wayyiq'qatil or wayyiq'qatel

Hiphil - Indicative - yaq'ti:l; Jussive - 'yaqtil or 'yaqtel; Preterite 
- way'yaqtil or way'yaqtel

Hithpiel - Indicative - yitqat'til or yitqat'tel; Jussive - yit'qattil 
or yit'qattel; Preterite - wayyit'qattil or wayyit'qattel

 

David Steinberg

Ottawa, Canada

http://www.houseofdavid.ca/

David.Steinberg at houseofdavid.ca <mailto:David.Steinberg at houseofdavid.ca>

 



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