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  • From: Peter Bekins <pbekins AT fuse.net>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Masoretic Pointing and CV-syllables
  • Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 08:59:21 -0400


First, I would just like to mention that no writing system attempts to encode all the phonetic information necessary for correct pronunciation. This would obviously be inefficient, not to mention that the way any given language is pronounced changes over time and varies over geography, between country and city, etc. Therefore, it is not specific to Biblical Hebrew that reconstruction of the "original" pronunciation requires some educated guesswork. However, reading a language aloud has classically been an important part of language learning which is why scholars have traditionally standardized "pronunciations" for Greek, Latin, etc. Tiberian Hebrew is a convenient standard for Biblical Hebrew.

Second, as James Barr argued in his Comparative Philology and the Text of the Old Testament, and Morag wrote in "On the Historical Validity of the Vocalization of the Hebrew Bible", JAOS 94:3 (1974), the Tiberian pointing, while not representing the "original pronunciation" is not arbitrary either. It contains some valuable historical information. For example, we learn from Dr Comninos example that X"+:) "sin" is a qitl type with an i-theme vowel, which distinguishes it from other words built from the root X+). The interesting question is why wasn't there an epenthetic vowel thrown in? There are other lamed-aleph qitl segholates such as DE$E) "grass".

There is a basic three-way alternation in Semitic languages between the vowels a-i-u. Tiberian Hebrew also distinguishes e and o classes. This is the information we need for analyzing the lexemes and morphemes of the language, how exactly they were pronounced is secondary but sometimes relevant.

Next, analyzing syllable formation is actually quite complicated for something that seems so obvious. Linguists have indeed posited CV- only systems, but they allow the vowel to be [null]. Hence, if there was originally a final case vowel, Dr Comninos example could be analyzed as [X"]-[+:]-[)U], where the silent shwa marks null vowel.

This seems contrary to common sense, but it allows for a simpler model in some ways. Why it is interesting for Hebrew is that this seems to be the way the canaanite linear scripts work (hence silent shwa). Each consonant in the orthography is a potential CV syllable with an implied vowel. Syllables cannot begin with a vowel so loan words get an ), and if two vowels are next to each other the glide (Y, W, ), or H ) between them is analyzed as a consonant. Over time, of course, "vowel letters" were introduced based on the glides, but that is a whole new topic.

Pete Bekins
Grad Student, Bible and Comparative Semitics
Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, OH






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