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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew transliteration

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • Cc: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew transliteration
  • Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2004 03:35:36 -0800

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/






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