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  • From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ayin and Ghayin
  • Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2005 15:26:58 -0500

Peter:

You're right!

I originally started reading without points as an
experiment: could I do it? It was not a philosophical
rejection of the points. Even though the points are absent
from the page, I "hear" the Masoretic points as I read the
text. Anyone else who tries the same experiment would
probably report the same results.

However, reading without points also has its challenges.
Many times the binyan of a verb cannot be told strictly
from its consonantal form, sometimes even the root would
be in question, where contextual clues are necessary to
sort it all out. For the most part, the Masoretes did a pretty
good job. It is almost impossible to remember each point,
so it is pretty obvious that the Masoretes, too, relied on
context to help remind them. That was behind my question
some months back, of what contextual clues to look for in
order to recognize a piel from a qal, or possibly even an
imperfective hiphil with a missing yod? Similarly, is that
suffixed mem on a noun a plural masculine possessive or
the sign of a masculine plural without a yod? Only in a few
places is it any cause of confusion.

Like you said, for the most part, I still follow the Masoretic
points, even when they are not displayed on the page.

Karl W. Randolph.

Ps. I read somewhere, I don't remember where (or I would
give the credit) that the Masoretes had no silent shewas,
rather they were to be unstressed vocalizations that are
misunderstood by moderns. While that fits with my theory
that all Biblical Hebrew syllables were CV and none CVC,
I can't take credit even for this. If true, this would be an
example of how the pronunciation tradition continued to
mutate, even after the Masoretes tried to nail everything
down with their points.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Kirk" <peter AT qaya.org>
>
>
>... 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/

--
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