Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 02/11/2005 06:16, Karl Randolph wrote:

> ... Yitzhak, who made the 
> claim as I understood him, that one can not claim to read 
> Biblical Hebrew unless he uses points. Of course I found 
> his claim untenable, and told him so.
>  

I don't think Yitzhak made this claim, which is clearly untenable in 
this strong form. Those who read the scriptures in synagogues read from 
unpointed text, but they still read biblical Hebrew because they still 
read it more or less according to the Masoretic pronunciation, although 
they do this from memory rather than from written points. And the same 
is at least in part true of you: because you have read the text several 
times with points, you know many of the points and so at most places 
subconsciously read the text according to the Masoretic pronunciation 
even when you don't have the points in front of you.

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