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  • From: David Steinberg <david.l.steinberg AT rogers.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Stress periods in Biblical Hebrew
  • Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:08:36 -0400

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>






  • [b-hebrew] Stress periods in Biblical Hebrew, David Steinberg, 09/22/2008

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