Biblical Hebrew Forum

["K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Dear Garth:

On 8/20/07, Garth Grenache <garthgrenache AT hotmail.com> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> What Peter Bekins is saying mirrors the conclusions I've been reaching 
> recently: i.e. that Semitic (and pre-exilic Hebrew) was made up of CV- 
> segments, pronounced on a beat.
> ...
>
> Love from Garth.

Hold on to that for a second. Do you mean all of Biblical Hebrew, or
only the poetic sections?

I noticed that the poetic sections, for example Isaiah is mostly
written in poetic beat, reading the text pronouncing all (or almost
all) syllables as CV usually gives a definite beat.

But then I look at examples like Genesis 1–2:4, and that is prose;
other than a few verses, there's no beat at all. You can try using the
Tiberian tradition, and again no beat. If you say that some consonants
may close a syllable, while others not, maybe you could tease a beat
out of that chapter, but which consonants may close a syllable (have a
null vowel) and which require an expressed following vowel?

I am not arguing against your proposal, merely asking for more clarification.

Karl W. Randolph.