Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

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/

-- 
___________________________________________________
Play 100s of games for FREE! http://games.mail.com/