Biblical Hebrew Forum

[<pporta AT oham.net>]

> On 10/17/07, Pere Porta wrote:
> > In my study on Hebrew patterns I have remarked that as regards the Qal
> > imperfect 3rd person singular masculine or most transitive regular verbs
> > the
> > Bible uses, in a general way, the short form (look at
> > www.oham.net/out/P-t/P-t189.html)  more often, by far,  than the long one
> > (look at www.oham.net/out/PI-t2/PI-t2-034.html).
> >
> > But this seems not to apply to the book of Job, where the long form seems
> > to
> > be much more usual than the short one.
> >
> > I'm wondering whether there are any reasons (perhaps historic? others?)
> > for
> > this.
>
> Your "long" and "short" forms appear to be not what Hebraists normally use
> in
> reference to verbs.  They appear to be comments on the absence or presence
> of a waw for the vowel [o:].  However, in Tiberian Hebrew vocalization,
> the
> vowel [o:] is always long irrespective of whether there is a waw or not.
> In
> general, and this applies to all [o:] vowels, a vowel is long in Tiberian
> Hebrew
> if it is in an open or stressed syllable.  So [yixto:v] and [yi$po:+] are
> pronounced with the same vowel in the second syllable.

> The only way to get a short [o] vowel is in a short open syllable before a
> guttural.  A short
> open syllable is designated by a schewa or hataf patax.

________

PP- A qamats qaton is not too itself a short 'o' vowel?
________


> Thus, the word
> thwm is pronounced toho:m with a short [o] after the t.
___________

PP - Are you sure that "thwm" (Gn 1:2) is pronounced with a short [o] after 
the t?

Pere Porta
Barcelona (Spain)