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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Verbal Aspect

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peter AT qaya.org>
  • To: Vadim Cherny <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Verbal Aspect
  • Date: Mon, 19 Mar 2007 13:02:55 +0000

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/





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