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  • From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] YHWH pronunciation
  • Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 12:52:39 -0500

Peter:

That is, if it continued to be pronounced. But could the
present use of He as a mater lectionis been the result of
pronunciation changes that occured over centuries when the
Hebrew language was mainly a read language, and the rules
for reading were derived from Greek and contemporary
Aramaic pronunciations?

I think it is pretty certain that pronunciation shifts
occured in Hebrew between the time of Nebuchadnezzar and the
Masoretes, and no where do I claim that the Masoretes made up
the pronunciations that they preserved. Some pronunciation
shifting may have started as early as the Persion period, the
New Testament, at least in the Byzantine tradition, preserves
faint indications of pronunciation shifting, so it is pretty
certain that the Masoretic points do not reflect pre-Exilic
Hebrew pronunciation.

>From the clues that I see, I theorize that pre-Exilic Hebrew
was pronounced in the pattern of consonant-vowel, in the same
pattern as modern Japanese (That's the only place where I think
the two languages resembled each other). But that later
unstressed vowels were dropped, as well as some of the
consonants shifted in their pronunciations. One group of
unstressed vowels would have been the final vowels of most
words. Another set were unstressed internal vowels that were
replaced with shewas.

The evidence is slight, and if it convinces even one person,
I would be surprised. I am not totally convinced myself of
my own theory, but I can't rule it out either.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
>
> On 01/08/2005 17:12, Karl Randolph wrote:
>
> > Peter:
> >
> > Given the nature of Greek transliteration (or rather
> > non-transliteration) of heh, the final could have been a -he as
> > well as a -e(h).
> >
> >
> >
> The Greek doesn't rule out a -he ending, but the Hebrew does, for
> this would have been written (at least in post-exilic times) with
> two he's at the end of the word - the first a root consonant, the
> second a mater lectionis.
>
> -- Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/

--
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