Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

Rolf, 
> 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.

Do you mean "pronunciation" where you said "accentuation"?  
That's what I had in mind.  A lot regarding other verb forms has 
been pulled from Akkadian, Amarna, etc. and I'm wondering if 
there's anything in any of those related to this question.  

> 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. 

Better you than I!

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. 

This sounds a lot like Galia's conclusion that it's a modal form...

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.

Can you toss out a few examples?  (And let me know where I can 
buy the finished product when it's complete!)

> 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.

How so?  Could the stress patterns be related to the way they 
were chanted/recited?  I don't follow you here, sorry.

> 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.

WRT future tense, I agree.  WRT modality, I'm not so sure.  It 
looks to me as though Galia has made a strong case for weqatal 
as a modal.  After I read her book I went through the examples in 
Waltke-O'Connor and found that her modality idea deals with pretty 
much all of them.  Can you show a counter-example or two of the 
type you're describing?

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
A Bible that's falling apart means a life that isn't.