Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 1/6/07, Peter Kirk wrote:
> On 06/01/2007 19:57, Yitzhak Sapir wrote:
> > ...
> > Compare Ibn Ezra's Tsaxut which states:
> > And the noted scholar (Hayyuj) said that the Tiberians would read the
> > mobile schewa if a yod follows, with the vowel of hiriq as in יֶחְזְיָהוּ
> > (yɛxziyɔhu) יִרְמְיָהוּ  (yirmiyɔhu) ...
>
> I think you mean that they would read yɛxiziyɔhu, yirimiyɔhu. Well, the
> Greek and Latin version of the latter name, and the English "Jeremiah",
> tend to confirm that there should be a vowel between the resh and the mem.

I quoted the source I had.  I think it's a misreading of zayin for dalet,
referring to the name יֶחְדְּיָהוּ which has the following in the
parallel Hebrew/
Septuagint at CCAT:
YXDYHW  IADIA
YXDYHW  IADIAS

The segol cannot be as easily explained given the name Hezekiah.  Note
that all Massoretic sources seem to agree that two schewas in the middle of
a word would have the second one "vocal".  So the presence of a vowel is
nothing special.

> > ... and the schewa which is followed by a big
> > qamats (ie, qamats) as in בְּרָכָה שְׁמָרִים as a hataf patax
> > (=barɔkɔ, $amɔrim)
> > that is, a schewa with a patax, and if after the mobile schewa there is one
> > of the letters alef,het,het,ayin which are the guttural letters, the schewa 
> is
> > always as the vowel which follows such as (2 Kings 10:10) דְעוּ אפוא the
> > dalet is to be read as a shuruq ("du(u") and in the word דְּעִי as if
> > it is with
> > a hiriq ("di(i") and in דְּעֶה as if it is with a small patax (ie, segol).
> >
> >
> Doesn't the last part of this imply that the qamats gadol in words like
> בְּרָכָה שְׁמָרִים (your barɔkɔ, $amɔrim) is closer to a hataf patax than to a
> hataf qamats, therefore that it is more of an "a" than an "o" and
> different in quality from qamats qatan?

I don't follow.  In any case, Ibn Ezra's names of the vowels include
qamats gadol = our qamats
qamats katan = our tsere
patah gadol = our patah
patah katan = our segol

Yitzhak Sapir