Biblical Hebrew Forum

[David Kummerow <farmerjoeblo AT hotmail.com>]

Gday Bob,

I would argue that the Masoretes are recording exactly what they heard, 
ie a-vowel + gemination of the first root consonant. Rolf will argue 
differently based upon his assumptions.

But it depends, also, on what you mean by "original". Original at the 
time of the Masoretes, original to 1000-400BC, or original to 
proto-Hebrew? Some (eg Andersen 2000: 20, 51; Müller 1991; Revell 1984: 
443) explain the gemination as having arisen so as to preserve the vowel 
quality in order to be distinct from a reduced /we/. Others argue that 
the a-vowel and gemination are the remnants of a clitic; see McFall 
1982: 217-219 and Hatav 2004 for proposals.

Andersen, T. David. 2000. “The Evolution of the Hebrew Verbal System.” 
Zeitschrift für Althebraistik 13: 1-66.
Hatav, Galia. 2004. “Anchoring World and Time in Biblical Hebrew.” 
Journal of Linguistics 40: 491-526.
McFall, Leslie. 1982. The Enigma of the Hebrew Verbal System: Solutions 
from Ewald to the Present Day. Historic Texts and Interpreters in 
Biblical Scholarship 2. Sheffield: Almond.
Müller, Hans-Peter. 1991. “wa-, ha- und das Imperfectum consecutivum.” 
Zeitschrift für Althebraistik 4: 144-160.

Regards,
David Kummerow.

> Thanks for all the contributions on this subject. In spite of the rather
> confusing terminology - all those kill and be killed verbs - it has been
> informative of linguistic issues and the disagreements.
>
> I found a useful paper at
> http://www.basicsofbiblicalhebrew.com/images/wayyiqtol1.pdf
>
> I find it curious, that the form of the waw conversive, or not, is 
> contained
> in the vowel markings and a dagesh forte.
>
> Does the dagesh occur in the original or is it also a Masoretic 
> invention?
>
> Bob
>
> Bob MacDonald
> Victoria BC
> http://gx.ca
> http://bmd.gx.ca