Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Deborah Millier <deborahmillier AT yahoo.com>]

Thanks for the many suggestions about the combined
form (i.e. ligature--thanks Peter), but here are two
reasons why some of the theories aren't quite lining
up with the data:

1) It can't be an issue of printing limitations
(suggested in a private post) because--I believe I
mentioned--my friend and I also saw this practice in a
photo of a chiseled *stone* memorial inscription from
the 1700s.

2) It's probably not an attempt to avoid EL (one of
God's names) since YHWH and EL are most often fully
spelled throughout my "cheapy" book of Psalms.

To answer Peter K.'s question, the ALEF-LAMED ligature
is not uniform, but I've only noted the phenomena in
EL, with the pointing of course limited to the ALEF. 
However, I am now motivated to survey my Psalms book
and try to note patterns.

Shalom,
-- Michael Millier

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