Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>]

Dave Washburn wrote,

>Friends,
>I'm working on developing a more formal analysis of the weqatal
>form along the lines of what I've already done with wayyiqtol, and
>I'm wondering about something.  For some time I had doubts that
>there was such a thing as a separate weqatal conjugation, mostly
>because there's nothing really phonetic to distinguish it from the
>simple qatal with a simple conjunction (I have doubts about the
>validity of the occasional accent shift, and even if it's accurate it's
>only an occasional phenomenon).  So here's what I'm wondering,
>and I'm hoping some of you comparative semiticists can help me:
>is it possible at all that this form, in BH times, was pronounced
>differently than the Masoretes pointed it?  Specifically, I'm
>wondering if there's any possibility that it used an A-class vowel
>and gemination along the lines of the wayyiqtol?  So e.g. in Gen
>40:13 we would have, rather than W:NFTAT.F, perhaps something
>like WAN.FTAT.F with the geminating prefix.  Is this completely off
>the wall, or could such a thing be possible?
>

Dear Dave,

I do not think your questions are hopeless or unscientific. Many more
questions should have been asked regarding Hebrew grammar than really has
been the case. No questions are silly! But I do not think there is any
evidence for another accentuation of WEQATAL than we find in the MT. There
is, however, much inconsistency in the MT.

All the summer I have been working with mapping the 20,000 QATALS/WEGATALS
in the Bible, to find the combination of accent, temporal meaning (past,
present, and future) and syntactical role. The purpose is to find out to
which degree the penultimate accentuation of  WEQATAL is connected with
particular groups of verbs (for example lamed he verbs) and how many are
pausal forms. I am also collecting all QATALS with future meaning, and they
are not few! Already at this point (about one third of the collecting work
is done), it is quite clear to me that WEQATAL does not represent ONE
particular mood or that it represents ONE tense (future). Examples of
indicative, imperative, "subjunctive", and "optative" can be found, as well
as past, present, and future time. If we look for a common denominator of
the WEQATALS with ultimate stress, it would be "direct speech" rather than
future meaning or modality. But even this does not fit completely, because
there are narrative examples with past meaning and ultimate stress as well.

I agree with those who believe that the Masoretes pointed the text on the
basis of what they heard recited in the synagogue. However,all the examples
of penultimate stress where we, on the basis of the general pattern, would
have expected  WEQATALs with ultimate stress, is a problem for this view.
It also militates against the view that the WEQATALs have a uniform meaning
( either representing future tense or modality) and that the ultimate
accentuation is a token of this. I will later report some of my findings.



Regards
Rolf


Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo