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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Biblical Hebrew orthographical practices in light of epigraphy

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  • From: James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>
  • To: Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Biblical Hebrew orthographical practices in light of epigraphy
  • Date: Thu, 27 May 2010 03:10:33 +0300

Hi,

Finally, in answer to the rest of your email I'm glad you observe that the
he versus waw is a different issue. However, what you have observed is a
matter of frequencies not a matter of a complete change of protocol. Again,
I cannot stress enough that your data set (as far as I have seen) is simply
not large enough to make claims based on frequencies. Your frequencies are
weighted by the bias in the small data set. If the data set were to grow the
frequencies could change considerably. And this is precisely why the paper
about training TMs with EM was so relevant. When you train with a smaller
amount of data performance of the system drops for precisely this reason.
That frequencies are not representative of the language as a whole but only
a tiny subset. TMs are learned with incorrect frequencies and the
performance of the system is poor. i.e. the rule that was learned influenced
by these incorrect frequencies.

I am hoping you are starting to appreciate the problems presented by the
size of you tiny data set.

James Christian

But we can make conclusions about the 3ms pronoun which is

> attested. In Lachish 3 (that I quoted before to you and Karl), we find
> the direct object אתה corresponding to אותו in the Bible. The argument
> that it is the laziness of the author does not help much. Writing the
> letter he for waw is not an issue of laziness. Furthermore, such
> examples are rarely attested in the Bible as in 2 Ki 9:25 שלשה vs
> 2 Ki 15:25 שלישו, or Jer 2:3 תבואתה vs Lev 19:25 תבואתו. At times,
> the sentence uses both as in Gen 49:11 עירה אתנו לבשו סותה. But
> whereas the Bible predominantly uses waw, the epigraphic
> inscriptions use predominantly he. Waw is used in epigraphic
> inscriptions very rarely. It may be used in Siloam (although there
> is much debate on the subject, and on the development in this
> particular case), and it is used in the 6th century Ketef Hinnom
> amulets. Whereas in the Bible the -w predominates in thousands
> of cases, the epigraphic evidence shows -h in almost all the
> cases. In the epigraphic orthography, the -w suffix is used for
> the 3ms pronoun when affixed to a plural noun (the examples
> above deal with the singular noun). The corresponding
> orthography in the Bible is -yw. So we see two systems
> being used:
>
> Bible -
> singular noun: -w
> plural noun: -yw
> Epigraphy -
> singular noun: -h
> plural noun: -w
>
> Linguistically, the he is probably the original. First of all, it is found
> in Hebrew itself in verbal suffixes -hu, -ha. Furthermore, it is found
> in cognate languages, such as Aramaic. Also, it would logically
> appear to be a development from the 3s independent pronouns
> which start with h. The waw form can be explained as a
> development: hu > wu > o.
>
> The epigraphic evidence is varied. Multiple geographic locations
> are represented, multiple topics, multiple occupations of the authors,
> and we even have one on papyrus. In addition, we know that
> religious texts always tend to a more archaic form of orthography
> and language. We see this in the DSS where the authors use the
> Paleo-Hebrew script. If the scribes used -h almost exclusively in
> day to day correspondence, it makes no sense for them to use
> the "innovative" forms with -w for official religious texts. Either
> the same spelling will be used, or the more innovative one for day
> to day. But not the other way around.
>
> Yitzhak Sapir
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