Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 12/03/2004 04:40, George Athas wrote:

> Hi Peter (and others)!
>
> I am arguing for two distinct verb forms -- that is, a differentiation
> between the verbal element of WAYYIQTOL forms (wayYIQTOL), and the pure
> Imperfect YIQTOL. I believe there to be a distinct aspectual difference
> between the two. ...

Thank you, George. I partly misunderstood you before, but I can agree 
with almost all of what you write here. But it would still surprise me 
if the Masoretes reinvented a lost pronunciation distinction (basing 
their choice on grammatical rather than phonetic criteria), although you 
consider this plausible. There are many other places where they could 
have done similarly but did not, leaving semantically very different 
forms graphically identical. I would think it much more likely that the 
Masoretes recorded a subtle pronunciation distinction which they heard.


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