Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Henry Churchyard <churchyh AT ccwf.cc.utexas.edu>]

> Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 15:50:33 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Vincent DeCaen <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>

> we're using privative features, and as you might guess, that allows
> the logical possibility of the completely underspecified vowel, in
> this case, represented as schwa.  so we argue that the tiberian
> system is phonemic after all, as might otherwise be expected.  this
> addresses some of goerwitz's major theoretical beefs, btw.  using
> the standard electronic transcription: I,",E,A,F,O,U,:

>                 front    0      back
>               -----------------------
> hi      ATR  |   I               U
> hi      0    |   "               O
> 0       0    |   E       :       F
> 0       RTR  |           A

> what's interesting here is the descriptive power of having <:>, the
> schwa, as a wildcard. very nice. also gives you very surfacy
> phonology, very OTish.

That's a reasonable featural analysis of the 7-basic-quality or
abstract "Ashkenazi" type vowel system (though you might just as well
call privative [back] as privative [round] instead, and this analysis
doesn't show a tense/lax distinction between s.ere and s@ghol, or
between h.olem and qames., which is where the tenseness, or tongue
root, or whatever-you-want-to-call-it contrast came into play in
traditional analyses of such seven-vowel-quality systems).  However,
this doesn't really answer the question of which vowel system or
pronunciation tradition leads to the most insightful analysis of
Tiberian Hebrew phonology as a whole.  I present my own conclusions in
section 1.4 of my dissertation.  The lack of featural specification of
sh@wa agrees with the idea of Tiberian surface sh@wa being the
realization of relic featureless vowels of earlier stages of the
synchronic phonological derivation which do not happen to have
received a specific features by any subsequent phonological process.
Malone has a slightly different variation of a similar idea.


> wanted to doublecheck: it's doctor henry, now?

I assume so, though they sent the diploma to my mother, and she hasn't
forwarded it to me, so I haven't cast eyes on the actual sheepskin  ;-)

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       % Henry Churchyard         http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/