Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 19/01/2004 22:42, Yigal Levin wrote:

> Actually, Jason, the "rafe" (where does that name come from) is a recent
> innovation, maybe imported from the Yiddish printers, certainly not a
> masoretic mark. ...
Yigal, I hate to correct you, but this is not true. Rafe was used 
regularly in Codex Leningradensis, dated 1007 CE so long before Yiddish 
or printing, above BGDKPT without dagesh. See for example the extract at 
_http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/educational_site/biblical_manuscripts/LeningradCodex2_e.jpg_. 
The word appears to mean "weak, slack" and is used in Numbers 13:18 and 
three other places in the Tanakh.

Jason seemed to suggest that rafe is used to indicate whether there is a 
vocal sheva, in the context of the non-BGDKPT consonants which lose 
dagesh before sheva. This one is something new to me. Jason, are you 
suggesting that rafe is used on non-BGDKPT consonants? And that it is 
used distinctively, i.e. that C (any consonant) with rafe is different 
from C without rafe, in the absence of any dageshes? If so, where?

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/