Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

>Well, the masoretic accentual system, when properly interpreted,
>reveals a normal pattern of phrase-final prosodic prominence in the
>masoretic recitation pronunciation, at a number of hierarchical levels
>(see chapter 3 of my dissertation, or Wickes 1887 for that matter) --
>but this may or may not be particularly relevant for Qumran.  

Still, it's interesting. How does such a phrase final prominence work with
the natural stresses in the individual words?

>Your asterisks and plusses against a bare consonantal text 

Sadly, the DSS don't use vowels much, although they do show a vowel use of
waw and yod.

I would take the stress indications as implying the syllable commencing
with the consonant indicated by the plusses and asterisks.

>are still rather
>unhelpful as device for provoking detailed and constructive
>discussion, since the linguistic validity of plusses and asterisks as
>locations for phrasal prominence can only be evaluated against a full
>concrete linguistic intepretation of the passage (and not against an
>abstract uninterpreted consonantal text hanging in the void).  I could
>compare the masoretic accentual parse of the _masoretic linguistic
>interpretation_ of this passage with the locations of your plusses and
>asterisks, but I have no idea if you would find that at all useful.

I don't know. The writer notes at one point referring to a line in another
Exodus frag (6:5): "This particular stress notation accords with the same
type of stress on ANI that is chanted in the Sefer Haggadah."

At this stage, I'd guess you'd be more in a position to judge on the worth
of going any further with such analysis, so I'll leave it in your hands.
I'd be interested in the results, but I don't think you should go to any
extended lengths.

Thanks for you help so far.


Cheers,


Ian