Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 09/03/2004 16:00, Karl Randolph wrote:

> ...
> Another evidence of fossil use of the language 
> is the fossilization of spelling during a time 
> of pronunciation shift. The pronunciations 
> preserved by the Masorites were not the same 
> as those spoken even at the end of the Galut 
> Babel. (Frozen spellings are fairly rare in 
> living languages, ...

And there are no frozen spellings in Hebrew in the period in question. 
Note for example the rise of the use of alef as a vowel letter, almost 
unknown in the Hebrew Bible (apart from the Aramaic sections) but common 
in the DSS I understand. Note also the increasing use of vav and yod as 
vowel letters (already partly seen in Chronicles, relative to parallel 
passages in Samuel and Kings) - the result being that long vowels were 
almost always marked (as in Arabic, but not a sign of Arabic influence 
of course). Good evidence that there was a living language.


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