Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Trevor Peterson" <06peterson AT cua.edu>]

Karl wrote:

> For me, the strongest evidence for Biblical Hebrew is 
> precisely the surviving, unpointed, written documents. I 
> think the points, particularly in bgdkpt and sin/shin, 
> represent a later development of the language from a period 
> after when Hebrew was no longer spoken in the home and on the 
> street, but was the language of religion and high literature.

Then where do you suppose the rules of pronunciation for bgdkft
consonants came from? If they were from such a late stage of the
language, they did an awfully good job of constructing them as if they
had originated before various vowel reduction rules.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics