Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Vincent DeCaen <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>]

not to keep you guys in suspense, but by normal rules of phonological
analysis, there are at least *four* low vowels:

front:          CEDEQ   CEDEQ   CID:Q-
low:            MELEK:  MELEK:  MAL:K.-
back:           )FBEN   )EBEN   )AB:N-
unmarked:       P.FSEL  P.ESEL  P.IS:L-

if once you start looking, you'll find these reflexes elsewhere, and
the grammar is thereby simplified. since there are these phonemic
distinctions, we have an explanation for the fine gradations in the
tiberian notation: they could hear the differences.

have a happy weekend: i'm shacked up with the inlaws <sigh>.
V
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Dr Vincent DeCaen     <decaen AT chass.utoronto.ca>
c/o Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, 4 Bancroft Ave., 2d floor
University of Toronto, Toronto ON, CANADA, M5S 1A1

Hebrew Syntax Encoding Initiative, www.chass.utoronto.ca/~decaen/hsei/
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The mind takes to a new idea the way the body takes to microbe:
It rejects it.  --P.D. Medawar