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  • From: "Shai Heijmans" <shaih AT post.tau.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Pronunciation and Genesis 2:7
  • Date: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 17:16:25 -0400


Dear Fernando,

1. The yod of )PYW is historic spelling. It represents the stage when
people used to pronounce that word as [apayu]. Here are the stages:

a. the protosemitic form is *appayhu. It is made from "appay-" (construct
plural of app-) + "-hu" (the suffix for the 3rd person). It then lost the
"h" and became -

b. pre-masoretic *appayu. At this stage the orthography was fixed. Later
the triphtong became diphthong: ayu > au and you get the -

c. masoretic form appaw.

(See Bauer-Leander page 225 l . I disregard the fact that *app- was
actually *anp- in protosemitic. As you can see, the yod is not a mater
lectionis - it is exactly the opposite. Matres lectionis were added to
facilitate pronunciation; this yod should have been dropped were it not
for the conservative spelling of the bible.)

2. The shwa under the yod of WYHY _in Gen 2:7_ is quiescent (=not
pronounced).

Comment A. The nature of the shwa is not defined by whether the syllable
is open or not; it is the other way around: the shwa _determines_ whether
the syllable is closed or not. If the shwa is mobile, the syllable before
the shwa is open and vice versa.

Comment B. The rule in the tiberian pronunciation regarding the shwa in
the middle of a word (i.e. not at the beginning or end) is this:

THE SHWA IS MOBILE IF IT IS PRECEDED BY A CONSONANT WITH A "GREAT" METEG
(=GE'AYA GEDOLA) OR IF IT STANDS BENEATH A CONSONANT WITH A DAGESH.

In all other cases it is quiescent. The problem is of course to know when
the meteg is "great". But here there is no problem, as there is no meteg
at all.

Comment C. Mind you, most of the english literature regarding the tiberian
shwa is obsolete, including Jouon-Muraoka. The main progress in this field
was made only in the last 3 decades, starting with the new edition of the
Diqduqe Hatte'amim by Dotan (1967), and the articles in Leshonenu that
followed. The rules that are taught at schools ("five rules of Eliyahu
Bahur", see also Jouon-Muraoka, para. 8b) are rules for the European
pronunciation, which is a mixture of the old palestinian and babylonian
pronunciation of hebrew. They do not reflect tiberian pronunciation, which
correspond to our current punctuation system. Hence the great paradox of
hebrew pronunciation: we use a punctuation system that reflects the one
and only tradition that isn't in use (for nearly a thousand years...)

Comment D. Be sure to determine the meteg only based upon excellent mss
(aleppo / leningrad), or use the Dotan or Breuer ( = "Horev") printed
editions. Any other text is almost useless for the scholar in determining
the nature of the tiberian shwa.

Regards,

Shai Heijmans
Tel Aviv University




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