Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Read, James C" <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>]

At uni. I was told that b-hebrew words are formed by strict patterns of 
vowels/consonants. That is to say that 
syallable can only be formed of the following patterns
 
cv (consonant vowel)
cvc (consonant vowel consonant)
 
but not of 
 
ccvc (consonsant consonant vowel consonant)
 
The reconstruction Yahweh would seem to break this rule. Ya (cv) hweh 
(ccv(c)). As does also )ehyeh:
 )e (cv) hyeh (ccvc).
 
My hebrew professor tried to explain this by claiming that the first 'he' of 
YaHWeH was in fact the closing consonant
of the first syllable and not the opening consonant of the second.
 
i.e. YaH (cvc) WeH (cv(c))
 
However, try as I might I just cannot humanly pronounce this word with such 
syllabic separations without 
inserting a vocal schwa between the two syllables:
 
Ya (cv) H: (cv) WeH (cv(c))
 
Maybe this is just a limitation of my personal pronuniciation capabilities 
but the form Yahweh as a bisyllabic word 
would seem to break the rules of the consonant/vowel structure of b-hebrew 
words.

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Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 20:50:41 -0400
From: "B. M. Rocine" <brocine AT twcny.rr.com>
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Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] asher as a realtive
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Hi Dr. Lehmann,

Short answer:  Maybe 'asher really is a relative pronoun.  Longer answer
below.

Depending on our theoretical approach we may not be able to label 'asher
as only one thing.  It is certainly, commonly a relative pronoun as in
Gen 3:3 umippri ha`ec 'asher betokh haggan.

But when a resumptive pronoun is present, the philologist may prefer to
think of 'asher as a relative conjunction, as in Gen 7:2 umin habbehemah
'asher lo' tehorah *hi'*.  The language had to allow relative clauses
both with or without a resumptive pronoun, at least for a while, and one
would guess the fuller, less efficient <relative conjunction +
resumptive pronoun> would have come first and been overcome by a true
relative pronoun.  The resumptive pronoun eventually stopped surfacing.
  Here is the diagram of Gen 7:2 with 'asher as a relative conjunction:

habbehemah
    |
   'asher
    |
   hi' lo' tehorah

If we claim the 'asher clause is notionally related to the resumptive
pronoun rather than something in another clause, 'asher retains its
identity as a relative pronoun.  Here is Gen 7:2 diagramed with 'asher
as a relative pronoun:

habbehemah
    |
   hi'
    |
'asher lo' tehorah

Take your pick.   ;-)

To complicate matters there are some cases where 'asher seems to be a
subordinating conjunction like Deu 11:27 'asher ti$me`u 'el micvot yhwh.
  "When you listen to the commandments of  YHWH..." I think such cases,
in their deep structure, have the particle mi-, ka-, or be- prefixed to
'asher in which case 'asher is *still a relative pronoun*.

Shalom,
Bryan

R.Lehmann wrote:
> What does the community think - is it really correct to take Hebrew
> asher as a relative pronoun?
>
> Dr. Reinhard G. Lehmann, AkOR
> Forschungsstelle für Althebräische Sprache und Epigraphik
> Fachbereich 01: Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät
> Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
> D-55099 Mainz

--
B. M. Rocine
Living Word Chruch
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13026
(W): 315.437.6744