Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] prosthetic aleph in Ps 22:17?

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Moshe Shulman <mshulman AT ix.netcom.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] prosthetic aleph in Ps 22:17?
  • Date: Sun, 06 Dec 2009 07:14:46 -0500

The problem with this theory is that the manuscripts are Biblical texts. The addition of letters for pronunciation purposes does not apply there. In fact we do not find it anywhere else in this text while in the sectarian texts it is found all the time.

I am not sure that you have looked at the original of these texts, but if you did you would see that the writer (I hate to use the word scribe because that seems to imply some 'skill' at writing) has very poor handwriting. IF you have ever needed to correct papers in Hebrew, you know that telling the difference between a vov and a yud is sometimes quite difficult.

At 10:45 PM 12/5/2009, you wrote:
On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 4:28 AM, Steve Miller <smille10 AT sbcglobal.net> wrote: > In Ps 22:17, if the correct reading is karu according to the 2 DSS witnesses > + LXX, then is it possible to explain the extra aleph in the MT as a > "prosthetic aleph"? > > > > The Pocket Dictionary for the Study of Biblical Hebrew by Todd J. Murphy > defines a prosthesis as > > "The addition of a phoneme (usually a vowel) in BH and the Semitic languages > to a word-initial consonant cluster in order to smooth pronunciation, which > by itself tends to run contrary to the regular rules of Semitic > pronunciation (e.g., BH zroa, "arm", becomes ezroa or zeroa). Prosthetic > vowels compensate for a consonant cluster at the beginning of a word, and > anaptyctic vowels compensate for consonant clusters at the end of a word. > See also prosthetic aleph." > > Would the words surrounding kari in Ps 22:17 in MT qualify as a "consonant > cluster"? > No, Steve. There's no need for the aleph to break anything here. Notice that the vowel sound "a" already exists in the verb form כרו KRW "they dug out." The aleph in this case isn't a phoneme at all, since it adds nothing that wasn't already present in the verb itself. It would serve only as a vowel letter. We do find instances of aleph as a vowel letter in middle-weak verbs. We could find קאמו instead of קמו, for example. But I don't know of any instances of third-heh verbs taking such an aleph as a mater lectionis, as it is suggested here. Regards, Jason Hare Rehovot, Israel _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moshe Shulman outreach AT judaismsanswer.com 718-436-7705
Judaism's Answer: http://www.judaismsanswer.com/





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page