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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Is the Masoretic vowel pointing system artificial?

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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: Joseph Roberts <josephroberts3 AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Is the Masoretic vowel pointing system artificial?
  • Date: Tue, 3 May 2011 23:54:30 -0400

I am not convinced that the different NQUDOT were all made for indicating different sounds. I suspect that certain things said about the NIQUD are possibly but hilarious farces due to misguided literal interpretations of the terminology. Take, for example, the xatap- patax. In my humble opinion, the xatap means only schwa, namely, the sign is but the combination schwa+patax. Yet, it is an opinion entrenched in the Hebrew "grammar" books that the name implies that it should to be read B-XATAP, in haste. Not that they actually do that, (I have never heard a xatap-patax being read "in haste" or as a "half" vowel, not in casual speech and not by a professional reader of the Torah), but, they say, it used to be so.
Is it not possible that the xatap-patax is but a notational compromise for a schwa or a patax?

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On May 2, 2011, at 7:06 PM, Joseph Roberts wrote:

After looking at the vowel system of Hebrew, I was curious if its uses
of so many vowels was artificial and rise from a liturgical use or is
that how it was originally spoken. I have seen similarities between
Hebrew and Arabic. Arabic of course has a Dhama which makes the "u"
sound, a Kasra which makes a "i" sound and a Fatah which makes an "a"
sound. These are considered short vowels and they have corresponding
long vowels which seem to just lengthen the time that one makes the
vowel sound. Did Hebrew originally function like this? is the Cholem a
later invention? It just seems like there are a lot of sounds that are
not present in other semitic languages that i am familiar with.

Joseph Roberts
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