Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Blau's explanation for how ultimate stress became inHebrew

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Barry" <nebarry AT verizon.net>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Blau's explanation for how ultimate stress became inHebrew
  • Date: Sat, 07 Aug 2010 10:52:01 -0400


----- Original Message ----- From: "Arnaud Fournet" <fournet.arnaud AT wanadoo.fr>
To: "Barry" <nebarry AT verizon.net>; <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 07, 2010 10:30 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Blau's explanation for how ultimate stress became inHebrew


***
Happens all the time in ancient Greek and Latin.

N.E. Barry Hofstetter
***

Barry,


Could you please provide examples of this "happening all the time" process?


Many Thanks.

C'est pas d'probleme, mon amis (like my pseudo-French?), I love talking about Latin and Greek on a list devoted to Hebrew.

In Latin, the stress accent is alway remains on the first syllable of the word. This rule is further qualified, however:

1) in word of three syllables or more, if all the vowels are short, the accent always remains on the antepenult.

2) if the penult is long in a word of three syllables or more, it gets the stress.

So, a`mo, but ama`mus (because the second a is long).

Now, lets take a good example that has more than one long syllable, *mobilitas* (both the o and a are long). The stress accent falls on the antepenult (since the i of the penult is short), but the o and the a remain long. Or take the genitive singular of the word:

mobilitatis

The stress accent now shifts to the penult (because that a is long) but the o does not shorten.

I can prove it from Greek, too, if you like.

Now, anecdote. It is very difficult in English to have an unaccented long vowel. When I was first teaching Greek, my Korean students got after me for pronouncing certain short syllables in Greek as though they were long vowels because of the stress accent. I quickly sharpened up my pronounciation to have less of an "American" accent... :)

N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Classics and Bible Instructor, TAA
http://www.theamericanacademy.net
(2010 Savatori Excellence in Education Winner)
Mentor, TNARS
http://www.tnars.net

http://my.opera.com/barryhofstetter/blog
http://mysite.verizon.net/nebarry










Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page