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  • From: Peter Bekins <pbekins AT fuse.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Matres Lectionis and critical analysis
  • Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 16:33:38 -0400

>>JCR: Hi,
>>What do you think about the idea that matres
>>lectiones were considered to be consonants?
>>Maybe some people genuinely heard a 'Y' at
>>the end of a long 'I' and a 'W' at the end of
>>long 'U' or 'O'. I know I certainly do.

James, you didn't read all those books I gave you yet. This is basically LA Bange's theory: /y/ and /w/ are "glides". A diphthong is a vowel that shifts to a glide position mid-syllable. /y/ and /w/ are also called "approximants" because when you make the sound you move your tongue quickly toward the appropriate point of articulation but don't actually touch it. The point of articulation for /y/ (usually written /j/) is very close to the vowel /i/ while /w/ is very close to /u/ (as in "who"). Thus in actual speech it is very common for / uw/ --> /u/ and /iy/-->/i/ and vice-versa. If you hear /y/ and /w/ at the end of your vowels within regular speech then your dialect tends to "diphthongize" simple vowels (its not quite fair to check by saying /i/ by itself since we have a tendency to move our tongue away from the point of articulation before we stop the airflow, which will naturally cause a glide).

Bange argues that Northwest Semitic orthography moved through three stages. First was the fully consonantal stage in which /yod/ and / waw/ were only written when they had full consonantal value (defined as being followed by a vowel, ie they form a proper CV syllable). The second stage is semi-consonantal orthography (10th – 7th centuries). In this stage the spoken dialects "diphthongized" a certain number of vowels so /aleph/, /he/, /yod/, and /waw/ became semi-consonants, used often to indicate diphthongs after accented vowels in open syllables. The /aleph/ functions as a glottal stop while the /he/ is a glottal off-glide, the /waw/ is a labial off-glide, and the /yod/ is a palatal off-glide. Bange argues that true vowel-letters do not appear until 6th century as the results of historical spellings when the function of these letters as off-glides was lost and by analogy they were used to mark simple vowels.

Now, go read that bibliography.

Peter Bekins






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