Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Shai:

Where is ‘contributed’ pronounced with the emphasis on ‘con’? As a native 
speaker (of American variety, at least) I have always heard the emphasis on 
‘trib’.

However, your theory may be correct, in that I was taught that medieval 
Hebrew, if not earlier, had its emphasis wherever possible on the final 
syllable. Thus the first syllable would tend to atrophy.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Shai Heijmans" <shaih AT post.tau.ac.il>

> Hi Michael,
> 
> Reduction of unstressed vowels is a very normal process in all
> languages; you don't need to have special factors.
> 
> Take for example your sentence:
> 
> > I asked for theories about what
> > linguistic factors might have contributed to the
> > reduction of the first syllables
> 
> Look carefully, and you see that almost all unstressed vowels are
> reduced. Take for instance the word "con-tri-bu-ted". The primary stress
> in in CON and the secondary is in BU. The rest of the vowels are reduced
> to shwa (TRI, TED). And the same with "asked", "about", "factors",
> "reduction", "syllables" - all unstressed vowels have become shwa.
> 
> The real question is not why vowels were reduced in Tiberian Hebrew, but
> rather what made some unstressd vowels maintain their distinct
> character. *THAT* might be the influence of Aramaic.
> 
> Shai
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