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  • From: "jeremy N" <jnorthct AT hotmail.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: RE: Matres Lectionis and Ordinals
  • Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 19:56:32 +0800


From: "Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>
Subject: RE: Matres Lectionis and Ordinals
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 12:46:50 +0100

I have noticed in passing that the plural ending -IM, generally >written with a yod mater, is found without that yod mostly in the >plurals of words which end in a yod mater and a final consonant, and (from memory) especially if that final consonant is guttural. There >seems to be a similar pattern with the waw mater in -OT plurals after >a waw mater in the final syllable. Perhaps there was some reason, >whether phonological or purely orthographic, for a reluctance to write >two identical maters in adjacent syllables.

Yes, this is what James Barr (1989, pp25ff) refers to as the "affix effect," but he notes that there is little consistency in its occurrence, with many plurals containing only one yod in some instances and two yods in others. Also, in those cases where a mater is dropped, it may be dropped from the root or it may be dropped from the plural suffix. The feminine ordinals display the same characteristics, sometimes dropping the yod from the root, sometimes from the suffix, sometimes not all. I don't know about anyone else, but Barr's explanation for such variations as "scribal artistry" (that is, the aesthetic tastes of scribes for different orthographic patterns) does not seem very convincing to me, although he makes a good case against historical and phonological explanations.

Jeremy

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