Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Maurice A. O'Sullivan" <mauros AT iol.ie>]

At 21:44 25/02/2005, Karl Randolph wrote:

> I personally ascribe to the third theory. As a result, I prefer to read 
> Tanakh in unpointed Hebrew,

By coincidence, the Feb 25 edition of "Ha'aretz" carries the news that Aron 
Dotan has been awarded this year's Israel Prize.
The story notes that " One of Dotan's prominent achievements was the 
publication of the Leningrad Bible Codex
more than 30 years ago.", and in an interview with him reports -- under the 
heading "Don't touch the markings" --

>> Aron Dotan is a strong opponent of the revolutionary proposal raised 
several months ago by
some scholars to do away with all of the diacritical markings and to only 
leave one mark for
the "A" sound (instead of the kamatz and patach) and one for the "E" sound 
(instead of tzere
and segol). "I think that if we give up two of these marks we are liable to 
undermine the entire
Hebrew grammar system," he stresses, "and this would have serious 
consequences for the
language."

Dotan recognizes that there is a problem with the multitude of vocalization 
marks and that
most Hebrew speakers do not know how to use them correctly. In his view, 
the methods of
teaching must be improved. However, he adds, revolutions should not be 
fomented due to
difficulties or to make things easier. As he puts it: "This can be said 
about clothing that is not
comfortable or about things pertaining to our behavior, but not about 
language that is part of
the nation, of the cultural heritage - this is not something that one 
changes out of
convenience. Nothing good would come from this type of change. On the 
contrary, in another
few generations, school children would have difficulty reading a Bible." <<





Maurice A. O'Sullivan  [ Bray, Ireland ]
mauros AT iol.ie