Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Vadim Cherny" <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>]

> >>No Hebrew word, that is ZERO!, starts with a mater lectionis.
> >
> >That is an assumption, not  a fact.
> >Definite article, aleph in Aramaic, may be a contrary example.
> >
> It is not a counter example, because the he in the definite article is
> clearly pronounced. If you don't accept this, then provide me with a
> proper counter example.
>

This issue is irrelevant to the discussion at hand, since I already stated
several times that YHW, IMO, is not a word but a construct, something like
acronym.

But the example I offered is very much proper. He in the definite article is
lost in the Modern Hebrew. There is no evidence of its pronunciation in the
ancient language. The fact that Aramaic has only a for the definite article
suggests that Hebrew also had only a, and thus he was a mater lectionis.

> The point is simply that Hebrew words NEVER begin with vowels.
>
Only if one assumes that 1s and 3ms FT prefixes are consonants, for which no
evidence or conclusive theoretical proof exists. Personally, I can't see
what's wrong in assuming 1s FT prefix a vowel, if 1s possessive suffix is a
vowel.

Vadim Cherny