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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Proto-Semitic, was WAYYIQTOL

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Karl Randolph <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • Cc: Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Proto-Semitic, was WAYYIQTOL
  • Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2004 02:35:08 -0800

On 16/03/2004 17:07, Karl Randolph wrote:

Peter:

English pronounces Latin loan words according to a certain set of rules. Was Latin at the time of the ceasars spoken according to the same rules as modern English rules for the same words? No one that I know of would make that claim.

By the time of the Masoretes, Hebrew had not been spoken as a native language for near a millennium. How do we know that the Masorete pronunciation, very likely based on Aramaic or other languages, was the same as Hebrew was spoken a thousand years earlier? There is reason to doubt it.


We know quite a lot about how Hebrew was pronounced at various times from transliterations of names in the Septuagint, in the New Testament, in Origen's Hexapla, in the Vulgate, etc etc. If you want to go back to the pre-exilic period, we know some things from cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphic transcriptions of names, although there may be some doubt about their original pronunciation.

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





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