Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>]

On 19/03/2007 12:26, Vadim Cherny wrote:
> ...
> > But this does not explain apocopation
> >     
>
> Apocopation is, in my opinion, a purely phonetic issue. When the accent
> shifts onto the first syllable, the unaccented final vowel is lost.
>
>   
Vadim, thank you for putting forward this version of the argument that 
apocopation is a phonological issue, since Rolf has tried to argue that 
this is a phonological issue but has never I think given any details of 
how the phonological changes might work.

If this hypothesis is to be taken seriously, we need to work on three 
things:

1) Is it true that in WAYYIQTOL verb forms the accent is "shifted"? 
Presumably you mean it is shifted on to the penultimate syllable, as in 
Hebrew (at least, Masoretic Hebrew) it can never move further forward. I 
think you mean to suggest that this rule applies to all WAYYIQTOLs and 
not just to those in lamed-he verbs. So, is it true that all, or almost 
all, WAYIQTOLs, have penultimate stress - presumably excluding those 
ones which have completely lost a final unstressed syllable like WAYYEVK 
and I suppose WAYHIY. (I note that the anomalous non-apocopated 
WAYYIQTOL at 1 Kings 18:32 is stressed on the final he, in the Masoretic 
text, but perhaps this is a Masoretic oddity.)

2) What is the explanation for this "shift"? Why does it happen in some 
verb forms and not in others? Is the distinction a semantic one, a 
phonological one, or a matter of free variation?

3) Is it true that all final unstressed vowels have been lost? Clearly 
not, for there are unstressed final vowels in Hebrew. But is this true 
of (WAY)YIQTOL verb forms? Or is it a general phonological rule e.g. for 
E vowels but not I vowels?

We need to examine issues like this in detail before we can conclude 
that apocopation is a phonological issue. Of course we are limited in 
what we can do in that our only good information on stress in Hebrew is 
from the Masoretic text, and so some time later than the first texts in 
which apocopation was written and at a time when WAYYIQTOL was pointed 
as a separate conjugation.

--
Peter Kirk
E-mail:  peter AT qaya.org
Blog:    http://www.qaya.org/blog/
Website: http://www.qaya.org/