Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Fred P Miller <fmoeller AT ao.net>]

REPLY INSERTED BELOW

peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG wrote:

> Greg wrote:
>
> "BTW  Matres Lectionis are letters waw, he and yodh placed into the
> Hebrew text to act as "semi-vowels" or at least as markers to help in
> the reading of the consonatal text.  It's latin for Mothers of
> Reading."
>
> Well, it makes a big difference whether these are "semi-vowels" or
> simply markers. As I understand it these Matres Lectionis are not to
> be pronounced as any sort of consonant, semi-vowel, diphthong,
> off-glide or whatever one might call it; they merely help to indicate
> the presence of a vowel.
>
> Thus tsere-yod is pronounced exactly like tsere, full holem exactly
> like holem, and word final qamets-he exactly like qamets. None of the
> forms with matres lectionis is pronounced as a diphthong. Qamets-waw
> and qamets-yod might be considered diphthongs, for the waw and yod are
> pronounced as semi-vowels, but these are not then matres lectionis.
>
> With I and U sounds the presence of the mater is also tied up with the
> length issue. As I understand it, in the Masoretic Text hireq-yod is
> always long, but hireq alone is more commonly short, also waw-tsureq
> is almost always long, but qibbuts is usually short. (Compare Arabic
> which uses a vowel letter analogous to a mater lectionis for long
> vowels but not for short vowels). However, unpointed texts regularly
> use yod and waw for short I and U vowels respectively.
>
> Is there any disagreement with what I have written?

Peter KirkNo disagreement but aditional info on the use of waw as  semi-vowel 
in 1Qa.
copied from my web site

A. Waw Stands for Any Vowel
     There are vowel additions in Q that are meant to help pronunciation and
identification of
     forms that are peculiar to the Q scribes. Just as the Masoretes invented
pointings to
     indicate vowel sounds so the Q scribes have added some semi-vowels to 
the text.
The
     use of yod, waw, and "he" are frequent. Insertion of aleph as a 
semi-vowel is
less
     frequent but not unknown. Waw is used in a very general way and a 
Biblical Hebrew

     reader is used to the "o" and "u" sound being attributed to waw. But the 
Q
scribes are
     more general with the use of waw and they employ it with great frequency 
to stand
for
     any vowel sound from scheva to qamets etc.. It will be found to stand 
for any
vowel
     sound. For a discussion of where this concept is important in 
identifying a word
see the
     notes on "Siniym" on Scroll page 41 in notes under line 12. Follow the 
link there
to the
     variations of Hezekiah's name.

     B. Waw and Yod are interchanged:
     The waw and yod are interchangeable. Where you would expect to find yod 
a waw
     will often be written and a yod where a waw is expected. This is also 
frequent in
Q.

More discussions of insertion of yod, waw and he to distinguish person and 
number in
noun suffixes and verbs can be found at the following address:

http://www.ao.net/~fmoeller/qum-intr.htm#waw stands

Fred



>
>
>
>
> -Fred P Miller

For Bible Study Majoring in Isaiah
Http://www.ao.net/~fmoeller