Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Trevor Peterson <06PETERSON AT cua.edu>]

>===== Original Message From "Ken Penner" <pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca> =====
>While we're on the topic of the reliability of Massoretic vocalization, what
>is the consensus on when monosyllabic nouns began being pronounced with the
>second (anaptyctic) vowel?

Huehnergard says with regard to Aramaic that it's hard to tell. The vowel 
would have been added after case vowels were dropped, but who knows how long 
after? The case vowels were already gone in Old Aramaic, since the t had 
dropped from the feminine absolute.

Z. Harris, p. 80, simply calls it a late development and cites the Masoretic 
tradition as the only evidence in Hebrew. (He also mentions that it occurs in 
a more limited form in Phoenician, which is evidenced in transcriptions.) He 
refers to Speiser, Secondary developments in Semitic phonology, American 
Journal of Semitic Languages and Literature 42 (1925-6) 145-69; 
Bergstrasser's 
grammar I:23 f-i; Bauer-Leander 212; and his own Phoenician grammar 33-34. Of 
course, Harris's work is a bit old now, and there are probably more recent 
treatments. It still might be worth pursuing some of these references if you 
have access to them.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics