Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 11:41 PM, Yakov Hadash wrote:

> But I do think that Hebrew pronunciation probably evolved according to
> what was "easy" for people to say, obvious example -- hith-sader
> becoming his-tader. Or like English, in which "nice to see you"
> becoming "ni-sea." Think about it, when was the last time you heard
> anyone say any of the "o"s in that phrase?
>
> (I'm a cantorial student at JTS, I studied Latin American and African
> ethnomusicology at the U of Pitt, and I sing Jewish, classical and
> blues music.)

One more thing I forgot to comment -- it is clear from comparative
Semitic studies, that the "original" form was with a t after the first
root consonant.  Thus, you have hltxm "fought" in Tel Dan and
Mesha.  It is only later that in most cases the t was displaced to
before the first root consonant.

Yitzhak Sapir