Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dr Raoul Comninos" <capechurch AT gmail.com>]

I am having difficulty accepting this theory of shewa. How do you
account for the fact that ancient Greek and Latin transliterations of
Hebrew names often render the shewa as a full vowel?

On 8/31/07, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
>
> Raoul,
>
> 1. I know that a second Schwa coming before a "guttural" is difficult to
> pronounce without an added E, for example, YI$[ ]L[ ]XU, 'they will send' or
> YI$[ ]M[ ](U, 'they will hear', which are routinely pronounced [even by me]
> YI$[ ]L[E]XU and YI$[ ]M[E](U, but this has nothing to do with the issue of
> the "Schwa NA" and "Schwa NAX" but rather with the articulation of the
> following  letters. Yet YIR[ ]K[ ]BU, 'they will ride', is very fine, in my
> opinion. Send me please another example of a Hebrew word with a Schwa that
> must be "moved".
> 2. The, misguided, concept of "Schwa NA" is a license to turn Hebrew into an
> EEE language. See how crisp, measured and beautiful is V[ ]RIN[ ]NU of
> Jeremiah 13:11, as compared to the slushy V[E]RIN[E]NU, which is with four
> vowels [Hebrew speakers have no use for "half" vowels].
> 3. Hebrew speakers tend nowadays to deconstruct the prepositioned Schwaic V,
> B, K, L, M, intuitively recognizing that they are but the curtailed words
> VEH, BEH, KEH, LEH, MEH. And I like it. Thus, they clearly pronounce B[
> ]TOK, 'inside', as BE-TOK. Yet they pronounce B[ ]KOR, 'first-born', in
> which the opening B is radical, as BKOR, without even a hint of "movement".
> No my book does not deal with this issue as it is irrelevant to its main
> theme.
> E-mail me, please, the paper by William Chomsky: "THE PRONUNCIATION OF THE
> SHEWA", even though I have no use also for "long vowels" and "short vowels".
> I am glad you are willing to review my book for amazon.com. I will send you
> a gift copy but meanwhile you can find its entire content in
> www.hebrewetymology.com.
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University
>
> On Aug 31, 2007, at 12:20 PM, Dr Raoul Comninos wrote:
>
> Am I understanding your correctly that you are arguing shewa is never
> vocal? I would love to hear you read a text of the Hebrew Bible to see
> what you do with shewa, to see what you do with shewa in practice. Is
> it too much to ask that you record a few lines in a wmv file and email
> them to me? Do you deal with any of these issues in your book?
>
> On 8/31/07, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:
> James,
>
> The whole business of Schwa NA and Schwa NAX is in my opinion
> baloney. It is a historical misunderstanding and is one of the many
> ghosts cozily and imperturbably inhabiting the dim corners of Hebrew
> grammar. It got now to the point of becoming a religious question of
> how to properly recite the prayers, with some Hebrew prayer books
> marking what they think needs to be "moved".
> There is only one Schwa and it is but an indication to put a tiny
> hiatus or pause after the marked consonant. Since this requires
> phonetic discipline some find it easier to sloppily insert a thin,
> and ugly, E into this gap, phonetically disfiguring thereby the
> Hebrew language.
> Thus: XAL[ ]LEI not XAL[E]LEI, CIL[ ]LEI not CIL[E]LEI, UMAD[ ]DU,
> not UMAD[E]DU, Y[ ]$AD[ ]DEM, not Y[E]$AD[E]DEM, AP[ ]PU, not AP[E]PU.
> There is a natural tendency to place such a redundant (repugnant) E
> after an initial schwaic L, M, N, R, Y. To wit: L[E]BENAH, 'brick', L
> [E]BIBAH, 'cake', N[E]BIAH, 'prophetess', R[E]BABAH, 'ten thosand', Y
> [E]SOD, 'foundation', Y[E]LADYIM, 'children', in place of L[ ]BENAH, L
> [ ]BIBAH, N[ ]BIAH, R[ ]BABAH, Y[ ]SOD, Y[ ]LADYIM. Also if the
> second letter is Alef, He or Ayin as in the mispronounced G[E])ULAH, $
> [E](ARYIM, T[E])O, M[E](ARAH, S[E](ARAH, B[E]HEMAH, D[E]HYIRAH (from
> the root DHR, 'gallop, canter'). But $)AL, 'ask', SAD(, 'eat', $)AB
> 'draw water', appear to be easily pronounceable as $[ ])AL, S[ ](AD
> and $[ ])AB.
> Cleavage of a consonant cluster may also be a myth. Even (new) words
> such as BAR[ ]RAN, 'fastidious, choosy', from the root BRR, or XA$[ ]
> $AN, 'apprehensive', from the root X$$, should not be pronounced BAR
> [E]RAN, and XA$[E]$AN.
> As far as I can recall, no Hebrew noun starts with a schwaic Alef,
> He, Xet or Ayin , but an initial schwaic Resh is common, for
> instance, R[ ]BABAH. There are few Hebrew nouns containing a schwaic
> Alef such as B)[ ]$AH, 'cockle' of Job 31:40. In Isaiah 42:21 we find
> the verbal V[ ]YA)[ ]DYIR. A schwaic He is also rare.
> The 1 Kings 6:8 UB[ ]LULYIM, 'with winding stairs' is commonly
> pronounced U-BE-LULIM. But Leviticus 2:5 B[ ]LULAH, 'mingled' is
> pronounce BLULAH to indicate that this B is radical. Also M[ ]MALE)
> is being voiced nowadays as ME-MALE( in recognition of the
> prepositioned M being short for MI, 'he, who'.
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University[cut]
>
> --
> Dr Raoul Comninos
> 93 Wagenaar Street
> Monte Vista
> 7460
> South Africa
> capechurch AT gmail.com
> Fax: (086) 6544615
>
>
>